So the CTT have just mandated rear lights for all time trials in the UK. No real specific rules on lumens or solid or flashing light.
Are we next?
Strange, I thought they always had mandated that? Every TT I’ve done has mandated it (except Thruxton)
It has often been a recommendation on startsheets but never a requirement, same as helmets not a requirement just a recommendation. It seems quite ‘woolly’ in the wording but it is more than the legal requirement for cyclists which is part of the reason it is met with resistance in the TT world.
Triathlon mandate helmets and for races on open roads I guess a rear light is not far down the track.
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But not helmets FFS
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Don’t get me started. I like TTing but bloody can’t stand being around most TTers, they make the Jurasic era look like a study in progressiveness.
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Yes, it’s not a huge surprise they struggle to get new people into the sport with some of rules and strict adherence to them.
Although, TBF, I have met quite a few decent organisers as well.
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Makes me laugh when they bang on about ‘sportive riders’ and all the kit, or tri-antelopes with loads of money etc, then start moaning about how long they have to wait to get in the wind tunnel.
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Agreed it is a strange world good fun tho. I like time trialling enter online (mostly), turn up sign on, race, sign out and go home. Results might take a day or two but we all have the tech to know what we have done. Unfortunately with the growth of online racing I can batter myself over any course as often as I like so time trialling is gonna struggle.
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Yep, and there are TTs springing-up on Zwift regularly now too. I did the Maximus Shootout one 3x. Never quite snuck under 26 mins! (~11 miles iirc) with a 26:03/06/07.
I did the Forestman in 2011 and it was thick fog until about 10 am. It was scary on the A31 stretch with cars flying past at 60mph. I had never considered a rear light until that day! I got a Cateye one that fits to aero post with those black rubber bands rather than the traditional type. It has been useful at midnightman since as well.
edit :- this one
I’m fairly sure Helvellyn tri mandates a rear light, it can be a bit grey on Kirkstone pass.
There were a few courses where rear lights were mandatory, but for the vast majority of events they are advisory. I’ve always got one on every bike I ride anyway, but I’d never TT without one.
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I’ve always used one, why wouldn’t you, especially on DC courses with streams of fast traffic
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It seems that apart from there being very little evidence that a rear light makes any difference there is a reluctance to mandate anything above the legal requirement for a cyclist. Don’t forget that time trials are just lots of individuals riding their bikes along the same road. To be fair most testers now have a rear light. It is no biggie for most but some people just don’t like change which is forced upon them.
The majority of the posters on TTF are stuck in the past dinosaurs that cannot accept that their sport as it used to be is dying. Their sense of entitlement is staggering to me. There are a few modern thinking types but they soon get shouted down,sadly.
A lot of the more reasonable members have been driven away over the years. I appreciate personal choice but helmets is a bit of a no brainer, especially if lights are mandatory.
Although that’s a governing body issue, albeit decided on by either the members or board I think.
I think they are mandatory in any British Cycling event?
Jeff
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time trialling is a different world to triathlon, and the process for change is also very different. It is a very simple sport run by volunteers mainly and making a ruling which goes above the legal requirement for riding a bicycle is very hard to get through the process. Race organisers can’t make this stuff up.
I’m pretty well aware of what time-trialling is. I started over 28yys ago and my first competitive discipline on a cycle was time trialling, so I’ve got a ‘fairly’ good handle on what is/was/could be and where it’s heading.
Like I said, a dying sport in its current form administered by a bunch of ‘we have always done it that way’ dinosaurs. It has to adapt, or it will simply die.
Apologies didn’t mean to imply you had no history in the sport. My experience is that whilst the Tri and TT ruling bodies are very different the two are complimentary.
No worries. It’s funny, most people used to ask me if I did TTs because I had a tri bike and I’d reply that I only got into tri because I already had a TT bike. 
Yeah very different rules. I really dislike the whole district voting/ motioning quagmire that is CTT. Plus I’d like to know what the hell they do with all the money! I personally feel that at a non club level, the popular (rather than purist) version of TTs will be the closed circuit events. Thruxton is rammed with entries for much the same reason as gravel/cx/mtb is booming with road riders.
It’s not enough to lament the good old days with lower traffic counts and less road furniture. There has to be a way of adapting to the modern traffic we all have to deal. If that means slapping on a helmet and having a light means you get to race, then why fight it?
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