24-Hour Headlight-On Laws

[RWasson]

Members:

I am writing an article informing our members of the laws nationwide which pertain to keeping motorcycle headlights on during daylight hours.

Please send me a reply or an e-mail with any information you may have about such laws in your state or city, and whether their are exemptions for antique bikes. If you have an idea of the statute number, that would be great, but I will gladly take even a reply as general as "Lights-on is the law in my state, with/without exception for bikes [age]" I will include your name in the article as a source, unless you instruct me not to.

Thanks for the input.

Roy, who rides at night, when you need the light.

[AFJ]

Lights-on laws

Back in 1976 the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group lobbied the government of Ontario to exempt old bikes from the "lights-on-in-daytime" law which the province had just passed to conform with new Federal motor vehicle standards that all new motorcycles had to be wired so that the headlight came on when they were running.
After some lobbying and a debate in the legislature, the Highway Traffic Act was amended to permit motorcycles made before Jan. 1, 1970 to operate in daytime without having a headlight illuminated.
Similar "grandfather clause" legislation does not require turn signals on older cars, trucks and motorcycles and exempts motor vehicles, including motorcycles, made before 1980 from biennial exhaust emission testing.

AFJ

[Kojack]

You may want to check a copy of "Easyriders" magazine. They have a chart of all 50 states along with most of the exemptions. They run it every month.