BikeBiz

I disagree that all is well in the area of cycle lighting. True: CEN standards do already contain performance requirements for reflectors and lights - if the latter are fitted on a newly manufactured bike (which they often are not). What those CEN standards require is that reflectors and lights conform to whatever approval applies in the country where the bicycle is sold. Reflectors are pretty much standardised internationally, so no problem there, but each different European country has its own different way of approving bike lights. This makes it almost impossible for a bicycle manufacturer to sell the same bike, with lights on it, throughout Europe. This is bad for cycling safety, since cyclists are much more likely to have functioning lights in countries where it is nevertheless the custom for bicycles to be sold complete with lights. But this only happens in countries with such a huge cycling market that it's worthwhile making bikes specifically for that country, i.e. Germany, and Germany insists on dynamo lights. If smaller countries wish to encourage the sale of bikes with lights already on them, they must either copy the German dynamo regulation (e.g. Austria, Switzerland etc.), or, if they wish to allow also battery lighting, they must set such a low standard (e.g. France and Denmark) that almost any light will pass! In Britain we have the worst of all situations: a high-level lighting standard which prevents us from recognising any other EU countries' approval regimes as giving an "equivalent level of safety" (apart from German StVO in the case of dynamos, but the equivalence of even that is moot) and a cycling market that is too small for it to be worth anyone's while to make lamps that meet all the detailed requirements of UK approval. So not only is it very difficult for a bike manufacturer to find "approved" lights (that he can spec as original equipment), but also for the cyclist, who also needs at least one approved light at the front and also the rear to ride legally at night. Result: it's hard to buy a bike with lights on in Britain and most British cyclists are riding illegally at night, even those with excellent lights front and rear, since their lights will be legal only as additional lights. (But no shop will tell them this, since it detracts from the product.) What is needed is a CEN standard for cycle lighting to go with the CEN standards for bikes - and an EU directive to remove the petty-fogging differences between different countries' approval regimes. Only then will become commercially interesting for manufacturers of high quality battery lights to seek approval for their products.