South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

So, met up with Layne for a gentle bimble down to Paignton ..... running a bit behind so head down the A380 ..... ove the top of Telegraph doing about 75 and there's a Plod Volvo sat at the Chalets pull-in going with the flow of traffic, a few cars passing us, drop down Ideford dip (speed maybe rising a little, but no more than the flow) and there's a Plod BMW at the top ........ trundle along at 70-75 ish and Bav Money Waster pulls alongside Layne who's leading ....... followed by the blues and two's to pull us in at Eagle Farm layby
opening shot is to invite him into the back of the bimmer and say they timed him at 103 going down the dip but then say it was a "bit far away" so they're not going to make an issue of it
I'm chatting with his mate making conversation ...... "So whats the crack tonite then?" ....."Oh, just doing what we do, doing our job, keeping the public safe......" he then calls to the guy in the car "I'll just get the tape and measure it..." and after measuring his plate give him a spot fine - obviously a major impact on public safety .....

Mean-time, they ignore me and my bike completely .... even though I was following at the same pace all the way, my plate is no more than 1/2" bigger, the tax disc displayed says April 07 .........

Ah well, a little bit more for the statistics, another crime identified/solved ....... At least both we and they were polite .......

Nice night otherwise ...... lots of bikes but can't say I saw anyone I recognised other than a (Harley) riding mate and AT who both ignored me ......

I had one of the biker plod sat in the dip on the oppisite side on the way home, Me and a bmw 1 series both braked, plod stayed where he was sat so i carried onat my original sadate speed . Next thing plod has caught me up on the M5,( saw him coming so slowed down ) he then pulls along side starts pointing at me and his speedo. Completely ignores the 1 series that has just come storming up behind him.

Mind you, I have a small plate as well, but he went off towards middlemoor so it must have been donut time

I have been wondering about this number plate thing for some time now as i have bought a plate for my latest restored 250 and it is only 6 characters, speaking to the guy that made the plate (i had a pressed ally one made cost £25 but looks better on a classic bike) and he said about the letter not the plate size, there is no mention of plate size on the DVLA website just letter size, OK as a rule of thumb they can measure the plate and know that the letters are wrong
but read this from DVLA

Motorcycles and Tricycles
There are separate provisions for motorcycles and tricycles. Basically motorcycles
registered after 1.9.2001 must only display a number plate at the rear of the vehicle.
Motorcycles registered before 1.9.2001 can display a number plate at the front but are
not required to.
Tricycles derived from four wheeled bodies i.e. saloon cars must meet the normal
requirements above whereas tricycles derived from motorcycles must meet the
requirements for motorcycles.
Character height 64 mm
Character width (except the figure 1 or letter I) 44 mm
Character stroke 10 mm
Space between characters 10 mm
Space between groups 30 mm
Top, bottom and side margins (minimum) 11 mm
Space between vertical lines 13 mm

looks to me as long as your letters numbers are spaced correctly and the correct size and you have 11mm around the outside you are ok
http://www.dvla.gov.uk/media/pdf/leaflets/v796.pdf

is it really worth the hassle of a small plate in this day and age, its a £60 fine i thin k for a illegal plate or £30 for failure to display,or nowt for a legal sized plate. onle less thing to attract police attention.

merv i would have said that with yours being that bit older you would be okay with a classic style plate,just a guess though

Deej
Having read the DVLA website the size of plate is not an issue the size of letters is the issue i reckon, read that PDF from the DVLA website nowhere does it mention the size of the number plate, as i read it so long as yuor numbers are the correct size and spaced correctly and you have an 11mm margin arond them you are ok, the police are good at using peoples ignorance of the law to nick them
Merv

TLS-Moose wrote:
Nice night otherwise ...... lots of bikes but can't say I saw anyone I recognised other than a (Harley) riding mate and AT who both ignored me ......

must be that new after shave your using

Deej, I hear what you say but thats the conformist attitude ........ most bike's look sh*te with a full size plate and my view is so long as you don't take the pee, whats the issue - I used to have a 6"x4" plate on my Kat, set nearly horizontal, and a Scamera still picked that up ........

My current one is 190mm wide so it matches the rear tyre width (always looks nicer ) using 60mm characters and as proved last, seems to give no cause for concern

At the end of the day though, compared to some of the typeface scripts and spacing you see on cars which are far worse/less legible than a slighlty small plate and how often do you see cars pulled - a lexus passed us as we pulled away last night and the script looked almost arabic yet the cops didn't go after that one .....

TLS-Moose wrote: ....."Oh, just doing what we do, doing our job, keeping the public safe......" he then calls to the guy in the car "I'll just get the tape and measure it..." and after measuring his plate give him a spot fine - obviously a major impact on public safety .....

its midly annoying, but you have to look on the funnier side of it when a copper gives you a big lecture on all things safety related and tries to justify his existence.... then hits you with the small plate fine....you can take a small bit of satisfaction out of watching them reduce themselves to little more than traffic wardens.

i find its not the £30 fine thats tiresome but the tidal wave of self righteous bollocks you have to listen to before they write the ticket that almost puts me off small plates

jason wrote:

TLS-Moose wrote: ....."Oh, just doing what we do, doing our job, keeping the public safe......" he then calls to the guy in the car "I'll just get the tape and measure it..." and after measuring his plate give him a spot fine - obviously a major impact on public safety .....

its midly annoying, but you have to look on the funnier side of it when a copper gives you a big lecture on all things safety related and tries to justify his existence.... then hits you with the small plate fine....you can take a small bit of satisfaction out of watching them reduce themselves to little more than traffic wardens.

i find its not the £30 fine thats tiresome but the tidal wave of self righteous bollocks you have to listen to before they write the ticket that almost puts me off small plates

Jase did you and aarron get pulled on the way back from that ride out last year did aarron for a small plate and didnt notice his slash cut

jason wrote:...... tries to justify his existence.... then hits you with the small plate fine....you can take a small bit of satisfaction out of watching them reduce themselves to little more than traffic wardens.

jason wrote: i find its not the £30 fine thats tiresome but the tidal wave of self righteous bollocks you have to listen to before they write the ticket that almost puts me off small plates

I was witing for a lecture on proper riding - bearing in mind he looked to be in his mid twenties - to be able to respond along the lines of I've been riding (on the road) continually for 25 years now, was trained by a Class 1 pursuit officer (who happened to be D&C's senior instructor), have done the IAM training course (never bothered with the test though ), was a DAS approved instructor, etc., so what was his competence as a car driver to comment on my ability as a rider ......... but unfortunately it never came - I was just left twiddling my thumbs wandering around the layby waiting for them to deal with Layne ....... almost like they felt the embarrassment they should at what they were doing

Still, I suppose one should view a £30 number plate ticket as better than a trumped up 103 speeding ticket (there were two of them so could easily of corroborated each others stories ........ )

k7 dave wrote:
Jase did you and aarron get pulled on the way back from that ride out last year

yes and dont listen to Arron if he tells you it was me argueing with the copper that got us the fines it was plainly his slash cut that got us pulled in the first place. (we got pulled in going towards him he - hadnt seen our plates
he was sat in a layby stationary.)

same sort of thing that moose says big lecture on speeding through villages (which we werent doing) and some other shite ... but the bottom line was all he could get us for was plates so thats what he got us for.

unsurprisingly it was a police motorcyclist, almost always the worst to get pulled by, give me a copper in a car anyday they tend to be far more agreeable.

I must have had about a dozen small plate fines over the years.

I keep meaning to bill arron the £30 for my fine

jason wrote:I keep meaning to bill arron the £30 for my fine

Been riding close to two years now. Had probably about 5 involvements with the police, but never been pulled. 1 of those times an off duty copper tried to run me off my 125 repeatedly, another one a police officer said he'd feel guilty for two seconds if I got 'wiped out' so wouldn't let me push me broken bike for 100metres, another time I was nearly arrested after I swore at some old twat that smacked into me.

Bunch of front bottoms

However, a biker cop let me off last week. Was on the way up A38 on three lane part coming out of Plymouth fully loaded for couple of weeks away with work. Got up to three lane cruising speed rapid like. Check me mirrors and he's right up me ass . Slow down, pull in and he gives me a wave as he shoots past

TLS-Moose wrote:Deej, I hear what you say but thats the conformist attitude ........ most bike's look sh*te with a full size plate and my view is so long as you don't take the pee, whats the issue - I used to have a 6"x4" plate on my Kat, set nearly horizontal, and a Scamera still picked that up ........

My current one is 190mm wide so it matches the rear tyre width (always looks nicer ) using 60mm characters and as proved last, seems to give no cause for concern

At the end of the day though, compared to some of the typeface scripts and spacing you see on cars which are far worse/less legible than a slighlty small plate and how often do you see cars pulled - a lexus passed us as we pulled away last night and the script looked almost arabic yet the cops didn't go after that one .....

hey i didnt say i agreed with the law, my old r6 looked bloominawful with the big scaffolding no plate hanger and full sized plate but i was able to get away with dark visor,no tax on display,race can and tracked tyres as they dont stand out so much as a small plate