Forum

[Alan R]

Hi guys---------- GRAHAM43, as mentioned elsewhere your MoT examiner will fail your bike because it's a post 1972/3 machine and as such must display the yellow plate, as simple as that.........or is it ??What if you happen to buy an Original, un-registered, NoS Redditch frame complete with manufacturers documents ??...... Well, hard luck !!Because the wording of the rules say "First registered"...not first manufactured...So you would have a 60 year old frame but a modern plate!!........Similarly Ex-MoD bikes .....If the bike was built in 1960 and went direct into MoD or Home Office use for say, 15 years then released into civvy street...The first new owner getting it registered for use "on the Queens Highway" is faced with a 1975 first registration and thus yellow plates..BUT---- if you now register it as an "Historic Vehicle" it not only becomes Tax Exempt but you can have those black and white plates on as well.... Hence my 1971 BUILT WD BSA B40, was civilian registered in 1986, is an Historic Vehicle and is Tax Free............at the moment !!!

[Dave B]

Thanks for the info, Graham. Tell me, why does the Electra X seem to be unpopular with some people? Has there been reliabilty issues with that model, or is it some other reason?

[Dave B]

Interesting stuff, Alan. The plot thickens!

[Rasp]

If you register a bike and can prove its age {usually with the help of a dating officer in an owners club and frame and engine numbers} the DVLA will supply a non transfrerable age related reg number for the bike. If this is pre Jan 1963 then you will be able to use a black and silver plate. This of course does not help owners of more modern bikes trying to pass their bikes off as old and interesting. You have to earn your old plate.

[Rasp]

Sorry ment to say 1972, its L or M reg I think.

[John M]

It is worth noting that although the official change over is January 1973 in practice the yellow and black number plates were introduced in the late 1960's and everyone but everyone wanted the new plates. I doubt that many vehicles registered after 1969 had black and silver plates when new.
For this reason I personally think that black and silver plates look a bit naff on vehicles made after 1970 and I would much rather see some nice pressed aluminium plates in yellow and black.

[John L]

Here's another for the experts :- What's the legal position regarding reflective plates on older machines ? I'd like to put one on my "proper" Enfield, a 1960 Redditch Bullet - for safety's sake, of course..........

[Alan R]

Hello RASP--------- it was changed just recently from JAN 1973 to JAN 1974------- As far as I'm aware you can put "modern" plates on any of the vehicles we have in mind on here----in fact it would probably suit the DVLA if that were the universal law !!........It's the other way around ( old plates on new vehicles) that causes the problems....

[John R]

I ran my '89 350 with a Black/silver plate for many a year with no problems, switching to yellow only for the MOT. I never had any problems, though the insurance angle was one I hadn't considered.
Now I live in Guernsey, and black/silver or reflective plates are both legal It did take a bit of getting used to; do you find that if you notice a black/silver plate you will tend to give the vehicle a second glance as it will often be something interesting? They are the rule not the exception here!
That, along with Fireblades and Electraglides with L plates and 14 year olds on scooters, let you know you aren't in England!

[Graham43]

Dave B
It seems the main problem is the sprag clutch so the advice is always stop the engine using the decompresser so that the engine does not stop on the compression stroke, which I do on my Electra but on the outfit I can't use the decompresser - so take your choice I bought the sidecar outfit a new Electra X engine in a nice wooden crate. It wouldn't run properly until I discovered a rough casting was pushing a push rod out of true, so after chipping off this rogue cast metal all works well. So my view is it is all a bit of a lottery. Ride and enjoy it. I have fitted Hitchcock's exhaust pipe and a slightly larger pilot jet and, best of all, a Hithcock's 'silencer' which lets it make a better NOISE.