Historic Tags

Just noticed that in Maryland, the historic tags can now be applied for any vehicles 20 years and older. I think it was previously 25. Not that an inspection is a bad thing, but most Airheads are sane. That leaves just 5 more years for Airheads in MD requiring inspection.

For what its worth, IMO, the MD inspection rules are ridiculous. That said, inspection are valuable but they are only required upon initial purchase not annually. So if I bought a new bike/car/truck in 1980...that was the only inspection ever required...until I sold it to a new owner, who would have to have it inspected. Between 1980 and the day I sold it though, only a single inspection was required.

I just registered my '52 R25/2 here in Texas. I went straight to antique status and it required no inspection. But, I'm still going through everything to make sure she'll accelerate, brake, light up the road, and honk the horn. I just found out that the bike has no brake light......just a running light. I'll have to be extra cautious when putting about...

Inspections? What inspections?

In some states

If you have an Antique License you are limited in miles an have to keep a log of days and miles driven.

MLS2GO said:

If you have an Antique License you are limited in miles an have to keep a log of days and miles driven.

Click to expand...

That is true in Texas, although we don't have to keep a log. Typically, the bike should be used for things like parades, club events, etc. That's fine for the way I ride my two oldest bikes (and my '73 car). I don't go to these kind of events, but the mileage is pretty low each year.

"Uh, yes officer, I'm going to a club event. Well, yes, the event is in Oregon and it'll be 3000 miles before I get back!"

In Virginia, antique plates limit the owner to daylight hours only, as well as only riding on weekends. Plus, the first thing Progressive asked me when I brought the R60/6 up for insurance was whether it had antique plates. Of course, a lot of riders here in VA ignore all that - it's a way to get out of inspections.

In my opinion, I wonder if historic or antique plates are worth having in terms of having to obey the restrictions... I don't like being restricted to certain hours, or anything, but we don't have routine safety inspections here in California, so that's not an issue for us...

Historic plates

In Michigan you can get Antique or Historic plates when the bike is 25 years old.

But the plate data is kept in a separate db that is not online with the cops. How do I know? Because I was pulled over on my R90s and had the cop tell me it was stolen (owned it since 1980) because the plate # was registered to another bike. They even confiscated the bike which made for a nice reunion on my part. I respect law enforcement but was nice to see them eat a little crow this time.

Was pulled over on my /5 last fall for the same thing. Cop was following me, noticed the "funny colored plate" and ran it. Again, I had to educate him on where the data is and as such carry a statement from the Secretary of State stating:
1) Both bikes are legal
2) The plate number data is stored in a different offline db

Clearly the state of MI needs to coordinate this better but for the one time lifetime fee of $35, I'll take getting pulled over once in a while. Plus, neither of the bikes get ridden much and mostly to club events.

RG

In IL, if you have antique plates, you are allowed to keep them in the vehicle and display license plates from the vehicle's original year. When I was 14, I bought a 1964 Thunderbird. I didn't drive it until I was 16, but when I did, I displayed purple and white plates from 1964. The displayed plates were not in any database, so if you were pulled over you were expected to physically hand your license plate to the officer. I never was pulled over, but a friend doing the same thing was pulled over tons.

IL doesn't have inspections, and doesn't even do emissions for vehicles prior to 1996. I now live in Wisconsin, and my county doesn't do inspections or emissions.... period.

From an economic standpoint, give a driver an airbag and he will drive more aggressively. Same thing for state inspections. Generally speaking, non-inspection states have the same amount of accidents as inspection states.

Here is exactly what my tbird looked like as I drove around:

Kirbster919 said:

Here is exactly what my tbird looked like as I drove around:

Click to expand...

Good looking bird. Sure is a good thing it has historic tags on it, because I was confusing it with a modern tbird

I had a '67 (big bird) that I just sold a couple years ago. 42k original miles.

In some states, there is (or used to be) a difference between historic tags and antique tags. Antique being really restricted in use, but rarely enforced. I've had historic tags on at least one vehicle for the past 16 years without any issues.