Tire Flys - are there any legal issues?

Hi,

I've been lurking on this forum long enough to know valve stem lights
(Google "tire fly") are the kind of thing that get you laughed off the
forum... so it's unfortunate that's going to be my first question.

First off, I want to say: when I first saw them on a modified car
(complete with fluorescent under-side lighting) I thought to myself
"You tosser!"

I then went out and bought a pair because I thought they'd give my
bike a bit of side-on presence (it still gets dark before I leave
work).

I really should've got white as it is the brightest type (inside your
eye, you see it with all red, green, blue cones, and your light/dark
rods light-sensitive cells) but my mistake I think was buying blue
because they didn't have any white in stock.

Are there any laws in Australia about having a blue light on your
vehicle? I have scoured the ARR web site, but I cannot find any
traffic law about coloured (or flashing) lights. It seems if you have
a white one on the front and a red one on the back you are OK.

I scoured the ARR and there isn't anything there, but I have managed
to find in NSW legislation Road Transport (Vehicle Registration)
Regulation 1998, Part 4 (Vehicle configuration and dimensions),
Division 19 (Other lights, reflectors, rear marking plates or
signals), Section 123 (Other lights and reflectors), 2b, item iv (a
vehicle must not display...a blue light).

Which isn't really helpful, because I live in Victoria.

So here's a straight question, can I get a strait answer please. Will
I get busted for using blue "tire fly"s and if so, what rule will I be
breaking?

Ta,

M

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sun, 02 Sep 2007 22:04:26 -0700

Well... if they want you, they'll get you, so first job is don't
break the Public Stupidity laws.

If you don't make a cop decide you are being Knowingly Stupid in a
Public Place (lack of taste is usually excluded) then you go onto the
next bit which is "will your average driver who has trouble walking
and chewing gum at the same time mistake you for an emergency
vehicle?"

Of course as any ambo or firey will tell you, the Average Australian
Driver can't recognise an emergency vehicle if it's right up his clacker
howling like a banshee, and flashing like a bucks night but they can
see cop cars miles off.

So if the things are on the tyres I think you should be safe enough as
even the AAD won't think you are a copper (to be avoided) or an
emergency vehicle (to be ignored).

Zebee

 

Yes, it is unfortunate .. spokey dokeys have come a long way haven't
they ?

You're probably better off looking in the Vic laws but anyway.. Have you
seen any blue ones on the road ? If so it's presumably OK. Since the
lights are not rear/forward facing nor on top of the vehicle you might
be OK for that reason. They may be a grey area but something every
victorian cop has as a pet peeve .. could be discretionary.

If you can't find anything on it, perhaps there is nothing on it ? Tried
ringing the RTA (or whatever the Vic equivalent is?)

You'd think there'd be a pic of some in use on the ad tho ..

 

Think that through for a second... at what angle from the bike's
centreline does a little hoop of light inside your rims become
visible? For the driver of a car crossing your path to see the bike
sufficiently side-on to see the Tireflies, either both of you are
going to be so far from the point at which your paths will cross that
the extra visibility won't matter, or you'll be so close that it won't
help.

Like dayglo vests, bright-red fairings, translucent crash knobs lit
with integrated LED's and other high-visibility measures, these things
are a rabbit's foot because they perpetuate the idea that bikes are
hard to see. They're not to anyone who looks, and making you and the
bike stand out more can't make you any more preceptible to someone
who's not looking in the first place.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sun, 02 Sep 2007 23:27:47 -0700

Some of the studies referenced in the Vic enquiry into headlights on
showed that there was better gap acceptance and more recognition of
bikes when the bike had a light, solid-coloured fairing.

For some reason, white BMW type fairings were apparently the most
visible.

Zebee
- whose two most visible bikes (judging by motorist reaction) were
the Baby Beemer and the 'Orrible 'Onda Chop. Look cute or look
dangerous and they'll see you.

 

Whether you will get "busted" is less about the legality and more
about your behaviour I would suspect. Anyway, here's the appropriate
parts of the vic legislation at a quick scan

Table of contents
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_reg/rsr1999309/index.html#xx144

Side markers
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_reg/rsr1999309/s96.html

"Other" lights
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_reg/rsr1999309/s118.html

(2) A vehicle may be fitted with any other light or reflector, except
(unless
subclause (3) applies)-

(a) a light that flashes; or

(b) a light or reflector that-

(i) shows a red light to the front; or

(ii) shows a white light to the rear; or

(iii) is shaped or located in a way that reduces the effectiveness
of a
light or reflector that is required to be fitted to the
vehicle under
the Vehicle Standards.

So, while I suggest you obtain your own legal advice it would seem to
me that no, they aren't legal. Particularly not in blue.

If you want to try on the argument, get a yellow set and claim they
are side markers under s.96 - good luck, I doubt you'll win, but have
fun.

JL

 

I'd agree with that, since the reflectors in pushbike wheels are
amber.


BTH

 

and the daggy reflective discs that came attached to the front wheel of my
bike (and which I haven't been game to chuck!) are also amber.....

betty

 

So, while I suggest you obtain your own legal advice it would seem to

JL, you have just made a four-year-old very happy with his new $10
spokey-dokeys.

 

There was talk a while ago when the windsscreen washer lights came out that
the blue ones were illegal

 

You'd think any colour of a swinging light in front of the car'd be
illegal..

 

Exactly where they belong !!

JL

 

So I better stop that bloke running along in front of my car with the
red lantern........ oh, its ok you say, he is not "attached" to the
vehicle........ well we can soon solve that little
dilemma..............lmao.

Harvy

 

Dunno but they came up on the rebel sports website so they seem
acceptable enough for cyclists.. I just googled pages in oz for tyre
fly. Was about 5th on the first page of results. Basically a battery
operated light that's motion sensitive with a screw mount that fits a
pressure valve.. Good question but I'd suspect there's a weight on the
'top' and a contact under it so a little centrifugal force pushes
against it and completes a circuit. Probably nothing you hadn't already
guessed tho.

Personally I hope my almost-1-year-old has already outgrown them

 

No they don't work end-on: these ones are no good for any sort of
bike. They are designed to go on a car tyre valve. They flashed on
and off when I was doing 100kph (probably due to vibration), they
flash just a bit slower on a ten-inch diameter wheel (before you ask,
no, not 90kph). He doesn't care, he is pretenting to be a traffic cop
anyway.

 

That could be because people associate that type and colour of fairing to
police bikes. They notice it because it's Police rather than just a bike.

Theo

 

In WA, as I understand it, lights must be white or amber on the front of a
vehicle, and red or amber (plus white for reversing) on the bacck. No other
colours are allowed on non-emergency vehicles.

You can have indirect lighting, such as underbody blue, which the really
cool wankers seem to have now, but the light must be indirect. If the globe
is visible, the light is not legal.

Theo

 

In aus.motorcycles on Wed, 5 Sep 2007 07:48:36 +0800

Well yes. Did I forget the <subtle joke> tag again?

Zebee