No Lights At Night

[Briggsy]

Something which concerns me about all this is the fact that riders can actually have their lights on but stuff in the basket totally obscures the front light. A couple of times I have had near shaves from walking out in front of bikes in the darkness. No light visible but then seeing, after they had passed that it had actually been on but had been obscured by shopping or a jacket or even a helmet in the basket. But the rider probably thought that as he could see some (reflected) light other road users would also.

I don't know what the answer to that is - the bike design with the basket placed directly in front of the light obviously provides people with a certain amount of misguided justification for failing to take full responsibility for their own safety.

Can anyone say if in the handbook, or whatever, the bike manufacturers make any mention of the fact that people should obviously take care not to place stuff in the basket at night which obscures the front light?

Given attitudes to personal safety it probably wouldn't make much difference to the majority but it might get through to one or two.

Indeed in the owner's manual of my Honda Sonic it clearly deals with this issue. It also talks about the danger of obstructing any controls by hanging things off the handlebars for example.