My L reg bike was first registered in May 73, it wears a black and silver reverse engraved Perspex number plate. As the letter L was issued from September 72 to August 73 if ever asked by Mr Plod I’d claim it was a 72 bike. My understanding of the law was that the wording was constructed not registered pre 73, am I wrong?
I thought the law was
registered pre 31/12/72. I had this stuck in my mind after getting a producer slip because of the black and white plate on my 1977 Triumph T140V, back when it was fairly new. I'd fitted a small black and white plate, which I never cleaned, to help get away with occasionally storming through quiet North Wales villages with my mates in the dead of night at weekends. The copper was fine about it, so was I after I realised he'd failed to notice no front disc and twisted forks, as it was pouring down. I was recovering the bike to Lancaster after a crash in Manchester. I'd nearly gone into the back of his range rover with no front brake, and was so relieved when he started to blather on about correct number plates. The fact that my front wheel was shaped like a potato crisp had completely passed him by.
I'm torn with this issue on my 1974 Z1A. It came with a used silver and black 'M' reg plate, which it has clearly used since the bike was brought to the UK in the mid 90's and given an age related number. So it is part of the bikes history, and there are no legal problems. On the other hand, as cool and retro as the plate is, I'm also mindful of the fact that back in 1974,
all Z1A's in the UK had black and yellow plates.