| Author | Message | ||
     Ghalsey |
On another thread, we got talking about where to put the license plate on ur XB12S after the tail chop. A couple people told me about the laws in their states, and it got me curious about the laws in the state I am in right now, New Hampshire. Does anyone have any experience with NH license plate laws? Either from living here or visiting? I just did a tail chop on my bike and now am wondering where I can put my plate, without ruining the entire look of the tail. Thanks. | ||
| Tunes |
Plate must be visable and illuminated for night riding. They don't care if you ride at night or not, it still must be illuminated. You might get away with mounting it on one side, but the laws are, you need to see the plate from both sides of the bike... and if it's too hard to see from the rear, you will get stopped. i.e. you just can't tack it to the underside of the tail. The small tail brackets that mount the plate under the tail light are nice and clean looking... in my opinion. Good luck! Tunes NH | ||
| Cgocifer |
I just completed my cheesegrater eliminator. I cut out the aluminum for the license plate light. The stock tail light already has a clear lense to my surprise. I just had to cut away the aluminum to expose the clear lense. I fabricated two very small brackets that use the existing bolts for the undertail section to hold the plate in place. It looks factory and works perfectly. cgocifer NH | ||
| Delk |
Cgocifer, I'm getting ready to shave my tail (yuck...erase mental picture) and was wondering if you could send a pic of your new plate holder - I too was thinkin' of fabricating my own. Cheers. - Delk | ||
| Ustorque |
riding dual sports in NH for many years i've stuck plates just about everywhere on a motorcycle u could imagine. i've cut them up bent them ands lots of other stuff too. but when the illumination thing just came up i had to check something. right now i have a plate mounted on one of my dual sports on the factory bracket and it is not illuminated...so i don't know about that one....from my perrsonal experience in NH all my life as long as they can see it they're happy. and as a side note, ride with someone with mass plates they'll always get pulled over first! shawn weare NH | ||
| Ridrx |
Hey guys, Don't wanna hi-jack the thread but does anyone know the law in Ga.? I want to mount my plate flat on the undertail, I called the State Troopers and was told pretty much you can't do ANYTHING to the plate mount. I see alot of japanese sportbikes/cruisers with all kinds of crazy mounting methods. ...we now return to your previously scheduled thread already in progress. | ||
| Mortarmanmike120 |
Of course the cops are gonna say that. What do you expect them to say. If you asked them on the phone if it was ok for you to run 80mph on I-75 through Atlanta they'd tell you NO. But we all know they rarely pull anybody over in GA for going that slow. Side note: the day I bought my XB, I was riding it down from Indiana to Lexington. I stop to get gas and a KY State Trooper pulls in behind me. I had no plate at all. We BS'd for about 15 minutes at the pump. It was pouring down rain, I was drenched, miserable, and smiling. Before I left, he asked why I was sans plate, I told him and he said "well make sure you get that taken care of when you get home." My opinion: If a cop WANTS to pull you over, he'll find a reason. If a cop wants to give you a ticket, he can probably find a reason. If he doesn't feel like making a stop, you could ride past him with straight pipes, no lights, no helmet, etc... | ||
| Cgocifer |
Delk, I'll post pics as soon as my digital camera is repaired. I ruined it in Cancun last week. I used to be a metal fabricator/welder, so it was pretty easy for me; though, anyone with a steady hand, patience, and some paint skills can do it. | ||
| Ridrx |
Mortarmanmike120, I didn't really expect much help from the cops, but you gotta start somewhere. I was just looking for the legal requirements, angle, height,illum., etc. Lately the local law enforcement seems to be stopping bikes for all sorts of contrived offenses. I just don't want to give them any more reason than they can find on their own. Any help is appreciated. | ||
| Ghalsey |
Delk, Know you weren't asking me for pics, but thought i'd share em. I just completed this mod on the tail last week. Pretty fun and relatively easy. Best of luck for you when you start!    | ||
| Leftcoastal |
How 'bout pushing that bike outside and posting more shots of that FORD? AL | ||
| Zenfrogmaster |
Try talking to an inspection station (at least in NH, I don't know about GA). They have "the book" on standards for plates, pipes, and so on. I'm sure most places would tell you what they can and can't allow if you hit them during a slow moment. | ||
| Ghalsey |
Sounds good. AL, yeah its a 1947 F100 we've had since well... 1947. My father restored it all about 10 years ago. Pretty nice though. And both the bike and the truck are pumping out around the same horsepower. Cool. | ||
| Cgocifer |
My tail looks almost exactly like Ghalsys except I modded the area around the turn signal holes so that the turn signals weren't angled down. Mine are slightly angled towards the rear and level. It was a bit of a challenge, but it was worth it. | ||
| Ghalsey |
Yeah, I drilled the holes before really measuring whether or not the bolts would fit. It came out a bit different than I wanted but I am very pleased. I figure when I get some smaller indicators I will be able to modify them so that they fit better. There really wasn't too many mounting options after I cut off the tail. | ||
| Delk |
Ghalsey...THANKS BIG TIME for the pics!!!! Can't tell you how much I appreciate this. Anything I should make note of before I start? I was going to use a 4 and 1/2 inch 11,000RPM Dewault grinding wheel to do the major cuts and then trim and shape with a Dremel. Does that sound reasonable? Looks great by the way...EXACTLY what I'm lookin' to do  | ||
| Delk |
For what it's worth...I think the downward slant makes it look...well...more EEEEEEVIL.  | ||
| Ghalsey |
LOL, I was thinking the same thing Delk. Evil. Moohoohahah! Anyway, Tools I used (in order): - After dismantling the tail and removing everything on it (i.e. blinkers, taillights, "zester," etc... I took a sharpie and outlined exactly where I wanted my cuts to go. Even "permanent" sharpies will wipe off the aluminum so don't worry about not getting it right the first time. Just try to get the line right. - Afterwards I put the whole thing in a vice making sure to obviously protect the piece I was keeping, and always putting a towel around the tail piece while it was being held. - First cuts: I started out making a light "groove" over the entire sharpie line. And yes, that grinder seems like the perfect tool. - Then I went for it, lemme tell ya I was a bit nervous, but I figured if all else fails I could buy another one somewhere. But of course I was doing this myself to SAVE money, not spend more of it, but anyway; I digress. - I suggest using your Dewalt to lob off the left and right sides, just to get it all out of the way. Don't worry about doing the whole line in one swoop. - With the rest of it gone you can go in with your grinder and, using a metal cutting blade, start to shave off the excess. - Then use the grinding wheel to smooth it all out. - After, I used one of those "wand" sanders that are long and thing to really smooth it all nice and give the surfaces nice flow. - I think the dremmel would work just as nice. - I then stopped by my old place of employment, Heli Modified and hit the whole thing with the sandblaster and then "snuck" it in on the next rack of black handlebars. - When it came back I was super stoked. And all it cost me was a bit of electricity, and a six pack to give to the guy at Heli. Here is a picture of my bike the day I bought it, On it you can see a couple lines.  The red line is roughly where I tried to have my finished outline be, the blue being my first two cuts and the black circle, again roughly, where I drilled my indicator holes. Fun project though... keep us posted as to how it goes. | ||
| Delk |
Thanks so much for your help...I will post pics when I'm done. You're a top notch fella...thanks for your time. - Delk | ||
| Lonexb |
some food for thought...  brian | ||
| Typeone |
brian, i forgot if i already asked you this but... who makes your tag bolt/lights? are they Targa's? | ||
| Cgocifer |
loneXB, I have the same LEDs, but couldn't get them to blink. They just stayed on with the buzzer alarm. What part or method did you use to make them work? | ||
| Lonexb |
Clinton lit-n-bolt. eastwoods has them for a good price.  Dan get the flasher unit from American Sport Bike. it is well worth the little bit of money Al charges for it. brian | ||
| Typeone |
thanks, brian. my targas should arrive on Wed but they look almost exact.. . except for the price  EDIT: i don't have my manual handy, and i know it will be cake but, which wires did you splice into? it's OK if you don't remember off hand, i'll be doing mine this week. just curious. re: American Sport Bike Grote LED flasher.. . +1. works great! (Message edited by typeone on March 19, 2007) | ||
| Lonexb |
i just tapped into my tail light. brian | ||
| Ghalsey |
Nice idea with the plate bending. I was wondering the legality of doing that but it looks like its readable. So what, did you just drill some new holes to attach it to the seat pan? | ||
| Cgocifer |
Thanks Brian, I'll look for it on the site! As for the legalities of all this, don't worry too much. As long as the plate can be illuminated by a vehicle's headlights, you're probably fine. None of us with aftermarket exhausts that are "Race Only" are following the rules to the T either. The most important thing with customizing is that your signals, lights, and etc. remain visible and that you can be seen, especially while riding at night. Don't jeopardize safety for coolness. A license plate is a license plate. My R6 didn't have any plate light. I mostly rode it at night and never once had any issues. The reflective paint reflects more light than a little license plate light can put out any way. Dano | ||
| Lonexb |
Gardner that is it just 2 holes in the under tray. cheap and easy.  brian | ||
| Typeone |
i just tapped into my tail light. thnx. sorry for the stupid question, i spaced when i was typing that... forgot your tail is a modified stock piece. i had to rewire my tail and didn't have to use all the stock wires to get it to work. | ||
| Ghalsey |
Thanks everyone for the info. I'm off to attach the plate. Maybe I'll post some pics if it gets really creative. Gardner | ||
| Zedtwentyeight |
I just used a right angle bracket and attached to the two holes under the tail  | ||
| Terribletim |
I'm thinkin' the "lay-down" license plate setup is the way to go. Although I still like the mount setup posted in the "knowledge vault". Think I'm gonna have to get on that for mine! As for "the letter of the law", I have a side mount on my Harley that puts the plate around on the left side clear up just behind the clutch cover, and rotated 90 degrees. I have been stopped a couple times for speeding or a headlight out, no ticket yet. Where is some wood to knock?  So now that I said that, I'll let you guys know when I get that ticket!  | ||
| Cgocifer |
Sorry it took so long.   |
