Ignorant police officers, or harrasement?

I was watching Bike Cops UK on Saturday night and some police had pulled a bike over (in daylight hours) for not having any lights on his bike.

As very few police are trained vehicle inspectors, the biker was detained for quite a while (I get the impression it was a couple of hours). The vehicle inspector eventually turned up and gave the "all clear", confirming it was legal, in daylight hours. However, due to the delay in the inspector getting there, it was now nightime, so the biker had to call a mate with a van to collect him and the bike.

I understand not all police are qualified vehicle inspectors, but I thought it was common knowledge that you can ride vehicles without lights, during daylight hours? I also got the impression that the police could of described the situation to the "vehicle inspector" officer over the radio and he could of just said, "sorry lads, you have to let him go, so long as it's daylight there..."

I'm not defending the biker, no lights is a bit dim (no pun intended) on public roads, especially no brake light. However, the whole thing does seem to be a bit of an intentional ploy to inconveniance the biker so he will fit lights in future. Opinions?

This has been on several times and I think it's simply one of those unusual circumstances. Sh*t happens occasionally. I'm not convinced that he was being deliberately harrassed but the time taken for them to get the vehicle inspector there was slightly outrageous.


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I thought you could get a "daylight MOT" whereby lights aren't needed.

But I would have thought you need a brake light.

yep,
you can get a daylight MOT, no lights at all are required.


however, you must use the appropriate hand signals when using the machine on the road.

the main reason people do this is for track days, they get a daylight MOT on their track bike to take it to and from the track.