Cool, I hang out some in the Bing area.Bobby's Place in Endwell, Wheels out near Owego,and some other places too. Maybe I'll run into you sometime.

 

It's illegal. I found the law stated somewhere because I wanted to do the same thing and it said that is has to be mounted horizontal. I'll try to find it for you.

 

Well I guess I was wrong. I found a site that lists every law of ny state. Here is an excerpt from that site regarding motorcycle plates.

"The rays of such rear lamp shall shine upon the number plate carried on the rear of such motorcycle in such manner as to render the numerals thereon visible for at least fifty feet in the direction from which the motorcycle is proceeding".

Here's a link to that page. So the law makes no mention of orientation, only that it has to be lighted. So I guess you are good to go. If you still are not sure, you might have better luck asking a motorcycle inspection station. They should know what's legal and what's not.

 

As funny as it may sound, your local Harley dealers may be more aware of your state's laws regarding the mounting of the license plate, than asking a random LEO. The Nightster for example is shipped by default with a vertical mount tag. In states where a vertical tag is illegal, the dealer is responsible for converting it to a horizontal mount. If they don't, they could be held liable if a customer got pinched.

 

I wasn't sure about it here in Ohio so I mounted mine horizontally, I think it looks just fine.



To light the plate... I use two LED license plate bolts and the original tail light circuit, which is ran through an on/off toggel switch mounted above the coil... turned off during day light hours.
http://www.customdynamics.com/illumi...tes.htm#Billet has them for $17.

 

No answer for you either... I see tons of them just like the inspection plates that are supposedly illegal as well. Supposedly the sticker has to be on the front fork but I see lots that aren't. It may be one of those 'fine line' deals i'm guessing as the cops here are D**ks but they ride here too! Corning about an hour east of Binghamton...

 

Been in the Lake George and Ticonderoga area. Lot of nice riding and beautiful country-side.

 

I asked one of he workers at the Harley Dealer near Watertown. He said he dosen't know and that it may be illegal,but he still looked puzzled after I asked him.

 

I ride to work in Elizabethtown, NY, Essex County.
The problem we're having is that they are using it for a training ground for new troopers. Apparently they are told to get experience writing tickets & the courts will fine tune their training. Unfortunately they do not seem to teach NYS laws in trooper school.
I was went to traffic court 4 times last year to have 4 tickets thrown out because no law was broken.

Examples: 1) "Unsafe start" because my tires spun leaving a stop sign on an icy hill when unsafe start means pulling out in front of someone.

2) Stopping on the highway, but that law does not apply to a residential (& 30 mph) zone.

3) No seat belt--officer claimed he didn't see it as he was coming the other way in a 55mph zone. WTF- we passed at 110 mph & he's ticketing me because he didn't see something?

4) The final one was in a 20 mph, congested school zone. I was leaving a stop sign & turning left onto a street with cars parked in both directions blocking a good view of oncoming traffic. Nobody was coming from the left, so I started to pull out & looked right to see a trooper stopped in the far lane about 40 yards away. He'd seen my hood move before my windshield cleared the parked cars. Although I was only nosed into the lane nobody was using, he ticketed me for "unsafe start". I asked the judge if I was supposed to wait at the stop sign until the parked cars moved & he dismissed the ticket.

Moral of the story: They can send you to court for anything that catches their attention even if it is not illegal.

 

I found this link on the NYS Troopers site - the bottom box states the plate can be vertical - I guess print it off and carry it around - when questioned.


http://www.troopers.ny.gov/Publicati..._Equipment.cfm


George