Bikes are on the boot carrier and there’s no visible license plate. I do this a lot but usually only with one bike on the boot. Today it’s two bikes. 5hr journey to the Lake District. Has anyone here ever been pulled over?

And lights obscured too.

I’ve seen folk pulled over for this – I’m guessing they only got a verbal warning. If you were to be involved in an accident then it might count against you.

Those wheels are also awfully close to the road.

Lights aren’t obscured. Possibly the angle of the photo gives you that impression.

Ditto for wheels.

That’s very naughty. If you can afford a Cervelo you can afford to transport your bikes around in a legal and safe way.

Get a lighting board and a reg plate. You’re giving the rest of us a bad name!

I’ve neen pulled when my number plate had fallen off my tow bar mounted rack, and my lights were still visible.

Sorry, but I wouldn’t drive with rear light covered like that. Not just illegal, but dangerous too.

Used to see lots of folk stopped on the m5 by police for this.

Stopped seeing them when we moved out of Devon 😉

Lights aren’t obscured. Possibly the angle of the photo gives you that impression.

Legally speaking. Yes they are.

I’ve never been pulled over, but then I have a lighting board with number plate on it. I’m also struggling to see how those lights aren’t obscured given it looks like normal sight angle would be lower than the photo is taken from. Why not just get a board to put on the back – it’s not legal even if you can vaguely see the plate.

Seen loads of people with their number plates (that’s what I call them being from the UK) obscured not getting stopped. Soon as I do it though, I’d get pulled over, so I always have a spare plate or don’t cover it.

Yes, £60 fine but no points. Obscured both plate and indicators albeit partially.

Was a young lad who just didn’t think about it. I’d not do it again.

Lights aren’t obscured

Cars come in many shapes and sizes, it may well obscure them depending on height of the vehicle/driver.

Ok. Knuckles are wrapped for being naughty. Will investigate the lighting board option for future.

Get a bloody light board!

It’s dangerous *and* illegal.

I don’t care about the number plate particularly but obscuring lights like that is a recipe for trouble – people can’t see when you’re changing lanes, when you’re braking.

Seriously you are putting you, your passengers and other road users at risk. Please get it sorted quickly.

Leave the bikes at home until its legal and safe.

Looks a bit dodge TBH.

But maybe the traffic officers will be so startled at the size of the headtube on that Cervelo, they’ll forget to pull you over.

My concern with that would be if someone totalled the two bikes when rear ending me, they could worm out by claiming the brake lights aren’t visible.

And they’d be right.

It’s all obscured and illegal.

You may as well say “I’m driving to the lakes and will do 120mph all the way, will I get pulled over?”.

If you do drive it like this at the very least take all the wheels off and put them in the car. And any other clutter like the bottle cages.

Looks like you are fully loaded and ready to go though.

It sounds like the hive mind has spoken, but I’ll add another voice – yes, from that angle, it looks thoroughly illegal (and unsafe) – number plate obscured and lights obscured. If you were driving at night in poor weather, I would hazard a guess that your car would be pretty much invisible – it really does make a huge difference.

Obvious solution is either a light-board (needs trailer electrics), a proper towbar carrier or a roof-rack (my own preference). You could also consider a “high boot carrier” that would lift the bikes up away from the lights, which would return you to a legal (and safe) configuration.

I wouldn’t worry too much about whether you will get pulled up, but more that it’s just not safe to be on the road. Sorry 🙁

I got pulled over for it once and I live in Devon 😆

It wasn’t on a motorway but in town. The officer kindly asked me if we had a good ride (two muddy bikes) and then he pointed that the reg plate and lights were obstructed and that I should invest in the light board… Didn’t get a fine though.

Is that a saris something or other? I had one that mounted the bikes very high and the lights and numberplate were visible. Can you do something to get the arms higher?

also, you’ll lose that Maxle if you don’t put it back in the fork when you take the wheel out.

Also been in a car which was pulled for exactly this – get it sorted.

Quick stop at Halfords before you leave your town will have it sorted and not much delay. (Take your V5 and proof of ID if you need a new plate making up)

On my way to Halfords

Is that a saris something or other? I had one that mounted the bikes very high and the lights and numberplate were visible. Can you can do to get the arms higher?

I think legally speaking it still counts as obscured, they have to be un-obscured form quite wide angles. Mounting them high would obscure them from HGV’s.

Just get trailer electrics fitted, it’ll probably be cheaper than the potential fine, and be safer too.

On my way to Halfords

Is there a towbar under all that to plug a board into?

Saris Gran Fondo rack does not obscure plate or lights.

Right. Got a board and wiring kit. Is this something I can do in a hurry?

Is there a towbar under all that to plug a board into?

From all the “just get a board” posts I assumed they all worked wirelessly these days

Is this something I can do in a hurry?

Is this carbon steerer/SFN all over again?

Saris Gran Fondo rack does not obscure plate or lights.

Be very careful with this rack and modern long MTBs… the back wheels end up very low unless on a high car…

Right. Got a board and wiring kit. Is this something I can do in a hurry?

It very much depends on the car, but not usually.

For newer cars, I would always recommend a wiring kit specific to the car – i.e. one that talks canbus – rather than one that splices in with scotchlocks. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the OEM one (although for some cars – Volvo – they are certainly best) but a car-specific one will save you a world of pain in the future.

Depends how much of a hurry.

If it’s like my C-max.

Remove the two side panels in the boot and locate the tail, brake and indicator wire on the left side and the indicator on the right. You’ll also need the 12V from the cigaret lighter on the right. Run some 2core wire under the boot floor from the right to the left, spliced into the indicator and 12V. I put the relay in the little storage locker on the left. You don’t need reverse for 7 pin electrics either.

12V powers the relay, and you need to splice in the tail, brake and indicator lights (I don’t bother doing the tail lights individually, who bothers putting parking lights on since the 1930’s)?

Under the spare wheel is a plastic cover about 50mm diameter, drill a 10mm hole in it to feed the towbar electrics through.

Basicly no, not in a real hurry, takes about an hour (assuming it’s not CANBUS). CANBUS you might be able to do quickly if it’s just a connector, but you’d have to buy that from a Ford dealer parts desk, and it might not be cheap.

I can’t believe that you even needed to ask if it was dodgy !!

And yes I know of people being pulled over for far less than that.

I’d just buy a spare plate and tie-wrap it to the Cervelo.

Yep, was pulled over on the M5 for just that. The cop only mentioned the lights. Just a talking to.

If I’m honest, never done anything about it.

I’ve actually got a lightboard, but the car doesn’t have the connections. I did search once, but came up blank for a connector kit. Anyone point me in the right direction?

I’ve actually got a lightboard, but the car doesn’t have the connections. I did search once, but came up blank for a connector kit. Anyone point me in the right direction?

What’s your car? 🙂

2005 Audi A3

Conversely, hundreds of cars use a boot rack without a lightboard get away with it. I’m not condoning it, but many people do. In fact I did a couple of times when I had a roofbox on (normally used a roof rack)

Now have a tow bar rack so it’s not a problem (as it has a built in lightboard), but the faffage of getting a lighting board sorted is quite high (if you have a relatively newish car that you might not want to be splicing wires on)

Doesn’t seem this is going to get fitted in a hurry. I’m not inclined to mess about with wiring on my precious car (Ford Galaxy).

Taking a slightly pragmatic view on safety, the lights are visible from plenty of angles. There’s a bloody big brake light strip at the top of the boot that’s totally visible.

Will fashion a license plate at lunch and leave it at that for today.

It’s true that like that you’re legally in the wrong, your chances of being pulled over are pretty low though considering some of the stuff you see barrelling down the M5 on a friday night. Doesn’t make it right though.

I got a towbar fitted this week for the sole purpose of a mounted rack with lights etc, took the guy about 90 mins to fit and I’d say half of that was fitting the electrics.

When I put the bikes on the back our van I also hook on a red/white stripe board as well, which works well as additional warning that there’s something poking out the back. As well as a proper light repeaters.