LIGHTS & THE LAW

There has been a lot of chatter online about the legality of using LEDS in old bike headlights. I thought a bit of clarity might help. The MOT regulations were updated in January to read

‘some motorcycles may be fitted with high intensity discharge (HID) or light emitting diode (LED) headlamps. Existing halogen headlamp units should not be converted to be used with HID or LED bulbs. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp.’

The important words are ‘existing halogen headlamp units.’this therefore does not apply to headlights that were originally fitted with the earlier tungsten filament bulbs such as the British pre-focus or bayonet cap types as fitted to all British bikes from the 1920s to the 1970s. These are not halogen headlights, so if you have a recent, good quality LED headlamp bulb in your old British headlamp it should not fail an MOT.

There is no mention of stop/tail or pilot lights so nothing has changed here. Providing they are as bright as a standard bulb, again it should be no problem.

There has been mention that bulbs must have a CE mark. This is correct for modern vehicles but bikes that were made before CE marks were invented are not expected to comply. These are not inspected during an MOT, anyway.

However, if you have fitted a later H4 quartz-halogen headlamp to your bike and an LED then yes, it will now fail an MOT. So change the bulb for the MOT and put your LED back in after. There is no offence in having a LED headlight bulb fitted, you cannot be prosecuted for it and, providing that it isn’t blinding other road users, then there is no problem. It is not correct to call fitting it ‘illegal’. It is just an MOT failure.

Paul Goff, member

The DFT were obviously listening to this topic of debate, because they changed the MOT guidance From 22 March 2021, so that motorcycles will not fail the test if a halogen lamp has been converted to HID / LED. They just have to comply with all other requirements of the test. Common sense triumphs again!

Rowena