Another thing to bear in mind is that drivers tend to cut in quickly once they have passed the widest part of the bike, so if it is on the back, they cut in again closer to your body than if the widest part is nearer the front.
Totally agree with you there - the goulish fiends will take every inch they can get!
Someone needs to find an expert to trawl through the regs...
www.legislation.gov.uk
Which was then amended in 1988 and 2009.
Thank you, I'll have a good squinty read through that - could I be charged with carrying an illegal sidearm? Cops are a law unto themselves... would they throw me and my bike into slammers, to seek clarification from their own expert?
The thing is when you want to filter through traffic, it needs to fold. That's why I added the hinge and put it in front, connected to the steering stem.
The Oxford lollipop will do that - it'll fold fowards (or backwards, or both, depending on where and how it's mounted), which may come in handy at roundabouts, adding side visibility.
After some horrendous close passes, @matthewslack put a foam tube approx 400 mm on the side of his solar trailer. He was stopped by the police as someone complained, but the plod were not bothered by it.
Close passes from behind like that happen all the time, but this only becomes apparent when one uses a rear facing camera, which is one reason why I have avoided doing so until recently. I utilise
@matthewslack 's excellent GuerniCar Deflectors when hauling pumpkins - they work very well indeed:
... I considered using one at the front, but I also wanted to mount a light, (drivers do seem to respond to very bright lights at night, as evidenced by my fsckoff bright red flashing rear light) but in order to do this, a stiffer non-damaging material was required, which would swivel away upon impact with obstacles: The Oxford lollipop side arm seems to fit the bill. The plastic angle changer has arrived:
Which could be used to host one of
@matthewslack 's lightweight GuerniCar Deflectors. Of course, the second mounting point on the alloy dual mount, is for the Planet X light.
There is also the problem of increased leverage on the hinge as the arm gets longer, so there is more of a tendency for the wind to bend it backwards as you ride.
Yes, long lengths of pipe lagging would bend in the wind, and it seems cops would object less vociferously to that, compared to the din if I had a Oxford lollipop sticking out up to 39cm beyond my handlebar end.
The alloy arm with a ball joint should arrive in a couple of days, I'll assemble the (somewhat heavier) all-alloy + Oxford lollipop + bright red constant running light version, and start to decide whether I want to risk cops bludgeoning me with telephone directories in a small room (phonebooks don't leave bruises).