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When were flashing LED bike lights invented?

(12 posts)
  • Started 5 years ago by rbrtwtmn
  • Latest reply from sallyhinch

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  1. rbrtwtmn
    Member

    I'm chasing up some facts. I remember that it took a huge length of time for flashing (red) LED back lights to become legal in the UK... with the law having to catch up after everyone ignored it.

    I know (from here) that the law changed in 2005.

    I can't find information about when the lights first became popular. I'd make wild guesses at "about 1995" (plus or minus 5 years) - but can anyone narrow it down? When would I have started to see these on the streets? (despite the title of this post it's not really the 'invention' date I'm after)

    Posted 5 years ago #

  2. rbrtwtmn
    Member

    Sheldon Brown to the rescue

    Posted 5 years ago #

  3. Arellcat
    Moderator

    The Exide Vista Lite was the first LED rear light that was available in any numbers, and came out in 1991. It had 3 LEDs, but I don't think it had a flashing mode. Most of us were still using good* old Ever Ready Nightriders back then.

    By 1993 Vistalite was making four different LED lights, and all but one (the red Cuelight) had a flashing mode; green LEDs behind a white reflector were used for front lights because we didn't know how to make white LEDs yet.

    I still have my 1994 Vistalite, and it works fine.

    * I mean rubbish

    Posted 5 years ago #

  4. chdot
    Admin

    See P10

    http://mirror.thelifeofkenneth.com/sites/www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Electronics-Today/90s/Electronics-Today-1992-09.pdf

    I can’t remember if I ever knew that Vistalites were Exide

    Exide was the replacement name for Ever Ready.

    They produced all sorts of rubbish lights. Many destroyed on Edinburgh’s setts.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    “because we didn't know how to make white LEDs yet.”

    A scientist friend of mine told me around 2001 that it would impossible to make practical light white LEDs - something to do with chemistry...

    Posted 5 years ago #

  6. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    I remember seeing my first Cateye Opticube and stopping the rider total medieval peasant seeing a mobile phone style. 1973 i THINK BUT i HAVE BEEN DRINKING AGAIN.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  7. rbrtwtmn
    Member

    I'm pleased that my "about 1995" guess seems to be proving reasonably fair for the 'became popular' measure.

    The Sheldon Brown article asserts "LED taillamps were quite common already in 1997."

    Clearly there's a fuzzy date range involved here - but 1992 (mention in chdot's pdf - clearly new) and 1994 (Arellcat, were you a trend leader?) to 1997 (Sheldon Brown "common already") all seems pretty clear.

    It was only 2005 that they were made legal. That's a full 10+ years of already-popular use while they remained illegal, which is what I was angling for really.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  8. wingpig
    Member

    Illegal to use in isolation attached to the bike - prior to that, law-abiding people would attach them to their person.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  9. Arellcat
    Moderator

    @rbrtwtmn, perhaps an early adopter; I was working in bike retail/workshop back then.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  10. neddie
    Member

    I think I bought my Vistalite in 1991 in New Zealand - they are early adopters out there, at least for tech

    Posted 5 years ago #

  11. SRD
    Moderator

    When I moved here in 1994, I remember being told that 'blinking lights weren't legal' which suggests that they existed back then.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  12. sallyhinch
    Member

    I recall some time in around 1992/3 that mountain bikers had taken to mounting car reversing lights to their bikes but that this was illegal because they were too bright. At the time I had one of those Eveready ones that was so dim I had to shut my eyes if a car approached me without dipping its headlights to preserve my night vision (I was cycling along rural Derbyshire roads) and I thought then that in that case the law was an ass (as in a donkey, not contravening Rule 2)

    Posted 5 years ago #

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