Look has launched its new Keo Vision clipless pedals with built-in lights that, it says, are visible from up to 1km away, day or night.

“This innovative pedal range, featuring integrated lighting technology, is designed to maximise visibility, confidence, and lightweight functionality, transforming cycling safety and style,” says Look.

Sounds pretty good, huh? But do they comply with UK legal requirements for riding at night?

LOOK Keo Vision Pedals with rider
LOOK Keo Vision Pedals with rider (Image Credit: Look Pedals)

The use of bike lights and reflectors is regulated under the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989 and subsequent amendments. Government guidance says:

Any cycle which is used between sunset and sunrise must be fitted with the following:

– white front light
– red rear light
– red rear reflector
– amber/yellow pedal reflectors – front and rear on each pedal

Here’s what the Highway Code says:

Highway Code Rule 60
Highway Code Rule 60 (Image Credit: Highway Code)

Pedal reflectors front and rear, unless your bike is at least 40 years old? In reality, few of us who use clipless systems have reflectors on our pedals.

Look Geo Trekking Grip pedal
Look Geo Trekking Grip pedal (Image Credit: Look)

Maybe you do. They certainly exist. Look offers its Geo Trekking Grip pedals, for example, which have an SPD-compatible mechanism on one side. Shimano offers a similar proposition with its PD-T8000 – a flat platform on one side, an SPD mechanism on the other. There are other examples out there, along with reflector units that can be added to SPD pedals.

> Everything you need to know about bike pedals

What about road-specific bike pedals, though? Your bike might well have come with some cheapo moulded plastic pedals with amber reflectors on both sides, but you never fitted them, did you? You lobbed them away with the spoke protector or threw them into a dusty corner of the garage, never to be seen again.

Shimano 105 SPD SL road pedal
Shimano 105 SPD SL road pedal (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

If you use single-sided road pedals from any of the major brands, they won’t have come with reflectors fitted. Reflectors aren’t mandatory for daylight riding but, as we saw above, the rules say that you must have them when riding at night. Your bike might be lit up like a Christmas tree, you might be wearing a fully reflective jacket and have 3M Scotchlite panels on your shoes, but if you don’t have pedal reflectors front and rear, you’re not complying with the law. 

People were bickering chatting about it on the road.cc forum way back in 2012.

2025 Look Keo Blade Ceramic Vision pedals - left.jpg
2025 Look Keo Blade Ceramic Vision pedals - left (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

Look’s Keo Vision pedals are built specifically “for day and night visibility”.

“The unique system of lights integrated into the pedal, highlighting the rider’s biomotion, increases visibility by 5.5 times compared with a standard light mounted on a seatpost,” says Look.

“With dual moving red lights, riders benefit from enhanced visibility, and drivers perceive speed and distance more accurately. Offering 180° visibility and four versatile light modes—including both continuous and flashing patterns—these lights are engineered to adapt to any riding condition, guaranteeing optimal safety in all environments.”

Do they come with amber/yellow reflectors front and rear? Nope. Is this a problem? I spoke to a recently retired police officer of 30 years, much of that time in the traffic division.

> Read our review of Redshift’s Arclight Bike Pedals, complete with front and rear lights

He didn’t want to be named but confirmed what you’d probably expect: police aren’t going to pull you over for not having reflectors on your pedals when you’re riding at night; they’ve got more important things to worry about. But what if something bad happens?

“These things are all well and good until something goes wrong. The most obvious example is if a cyclist is killed or seriously injured, and it’s dusk or night, the vehicle examiner examines the bike, and there are no reflectors on the pedals.

“Regardless of whether the lights were on and functioning, a percentage of blame could be attached to the cyclist, potentially. And then it would be between insurance companies or lawyers to work out what the percentage blame was.

“It looks good and it sounds like a great idea, but you have to comply with the law. These things are in place for a reason. Those lights are probably better than an amber reflector, but what if the battery goes? The whole point of reflectors is that they’re a backup safety measure.”

Okay, but isn’t the word “potentially” doing some heavy lifting there? Does that ever happen in reality? Is blame or the size of an insurance payout ever affected by something as seemingly trivial as a cyclist not having reflectors on their pedals when riding at night?

We asked personal injury lawyer Mark Hambleton, a partner at RWK Goodman down the road from us in Bath. 

Mark said, “In my experience of civil claims for compensation on behalf of injured cyclists, I have never seen a motor insurer run an argument to the effect that pedal reflectors should have been present. Thinking about it, my pedals on my commuter bike don’t have reflectors on them.

“I don’t expect insurers take the point because it would be very unlikely that they could argue that an accident would have been avoided had the pedals been fitted with reflective strips. I just don’t think that would ever be a causative factor or make the difference between an accident happening and being avoided.

“I don’t think riding a bike without reflectors on the pedals is evidence of contributory negligence either. That is the sort of argument generally reserved for riding a bike at night without illuminated lights.

“I have never seen the police concern themselves with the presence of pedal reflectors during criminal investigations. I can see it might play a part if a rider was riding at night with no lights, bike reflectors or high vis clothing.”

Isn’t it a bit strange that we have obligations set out in law and written down clearly in the Highway Code, but if you don’t follow them, no one’s going to get too bent out of shape about it? What’s the use of that?

I spoke to Dan Joyce, who’s editor of Cycle, Cycling UK’s magazine. 

“You’re required to have amber pedal reflectors when riding between dusk and dawn in the UK. However, the amber pedal reflector rule is not policed and makes a scofflaw of anyone using most clipless pedals, unless they’ve fitted adaptors with reflectors (which only some pedals will accept).

“The majority of UK cyclists who do have amber pedal reflectors are probably not road legal at night in any case, as their lights won’t meet BS6102/3 or an equivalent EC standard, which is what the regulations require. You can find lights that meet ‘an equivalent EC standard’: Germany’s StVZO, which a minority of bike lights available in the UK do meet. As for finding lights that meet BS6102/3, good luck with that.

Proviz Reflecive Arm-Ankle Bands
Proviz Reflecive Arm-Ankle Bands (Image Credit: Proviz)

“Having said all that, the up-down motion of pedal reflectors is useful for immediately identifying a cyclist as a cyclist. Reflective ankle bands do a similar job, even though (like most lighting and reflectivity used by most UK cyclists) they don’t meet the lighting regulations. Look’s pedal lights will also have an up-down motion that will suggest ‘cyclist’.

“The Look pedals can be set to flash. Red flashing rear lights are associated with cyclists because cyclists are the only non-emergency road users who can legally use flashing lights – either in conjunction with an approved rear light or, if the flashing lights can only flash (no steady mode) and do so at 1-4 times per second, as your only rear light(s).”

Isn’t this all a bit of a mess? Even if you’re trying to do the right thing – making yourself as visible as possible on the road to minimise the chances of anything nasty happening, benefiting both yourself and other road users – you might well find yourself outside of cycle lighting regulations. Is that an issue? Probably not, but where’s the line? Most of us aren’t experts in law and/or insurance, and aren’t qualified to make that judgment; we shouldn’t need to.

The Look Keo Vision pedals are designed to enhance rider visibility beyond what simple reflectors provide, thanks to their integrated LED lighting system. From a safety standpoint, the product exceeds the intent of the regulation, even if it doesn’t match its literal wording.

The law and the products cyclists actually use to stay visible aren’t quite in sync—and until they are, we’re left navigating a gap between safety and legality. In short, it’s time for the law to catch up.