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I'm posting this around, offering to help anyone willing to change some minds about the antique motorcycle hobby:
I've been involved in state "Antique" license plate issues since 1974. With the able assistance of the membership of Seaboard Chapter, AMCA, we convinced Trenton DMV that the law already on NJ books as was applied to Historic automobiles also applied to motorcycles over 25 years of age and owned as collectors' items, etc., etc.
Then there was Maryland (over which we founded Chesapeake Chapter in October, 1980), Kentucky (I did it singlehandedly in 1984), New York (I only started something in 1988; Jack Weber and others followed through) and Connecticut, where I got the ball rolling in 1991 and some other enthusiasts followed up what we'd started and got the plates a couple of years later.
Every state is different (Lisa and I once surveyed every state, U.S. Territory and Canadian Province and we printed the chart in 1989 in The Antique Motorcycle, but that was 20 years ago, and much of it has changed.
A good place to start is with your state Dept. of Motor Vehicles, or Public Safety, or whatever they call it in your state. Write them a letter, asking for the rules on special registration for antique motorcycles. If they still don't/ refuse to/ issue motorcycle-sized "antique," or "historic," or "collector vehicle" plates of the right size for motorcycles, that's your cue.
In NJ it took one years' correspondence between us in Seaboard Chapter with an Assistant Dir. of Motor Vehicles that finally did the trick, in 1976. We had to prove that there were enough of us to make it economical to make plates and that we were serious.
Maryland was willing to issue plates to antique motorcycles all along, but they were 6 x 12 inch automobile plates! We told them that was unacceptable. Twenty or thirty of us Maryland AMCA members organized Chesapeake Chapter, in a Army Reserve Center in Baltimore, to unite our voices and eventually they caved in.
In New York State, it required political pull by some very dedicated New Yorkers, particularly tireless Jack Weber, then President of the Long Island Indian Club, to get a special law passed by the NY Legislature before they caved in. Jack was a bulldog; he got his teeth into the issue and wouldn't let it go. He got the first motorcycle historical vehicle plate ssued by the State of New York at a special ceremony at the State Capitol in Albany.
In Kentucky, it required only a couple of strategic phone calls and letters to Frankfort and someone at the Pittsburgh Die Company, which supplied Kentucky's dies, and they bought the dies they needed and started making bike plates. I got the first one that was issued.
How'd I get around like that? I was a Legal Clerk in the U.S. Army at the time, and a New Jersey resident. Then I was stationed at Fort Meade, Md., near Baltimore, and a couple of years later at Fort Knox, Ky. I wrote some ass-kicking legal-lookin' letters as appropriate and made phone calls and got their attentions, state-by-state, successively. I lent my assistance to the folks in New York after the issue came up at the Colonial Chapter National Meet in New Jersey in 1988. There, I met with Jack Weber and some others and the die was cast. Later, I was Editor of American Iron Magazine in Connecticut, 1991, and discovered that they, also, refused to issue antique plates for motorcycles. Shame on them! We fixed that, eventually.
The AAA publishes a book available to members, "Digest of Motor Laws," which lists the common motor vehicle regulations in all states and territories, but more importantly, it lists names, addresses and phone numbers of the powers-that-be in every state motor vehicle department, providing you with a place to start.
The laws of most states say, "for exhibition purposes or for display in an educational role," or something to that effect. Of course, if Davenport is happening in Iowa on the following weekend, you are on your way to it!
Probably more practical would be to carry around a schedule or fliers of antique auto and bike meets all over the country with you, to whip out if an LEO asks you where you're going. But naturally, if he's that curious about where you're going, there's the probability that something else is already up.
I've been all over on my Historic plate since getting it in 1976. Mainly, just don't use your antique-registered bike for daily tranportation to and from work, and no one will likely bother you.
AND, if anyone out there is living in a state or province that doesn't issue antique/historic license plates of an appropriate size for old motorcycles, or register Year-Of-Manufacture ("YOM") plates, AND if you're willing to dedicate the time and effort that will be required to talk your state motor vehicle authorities into getting with the program, drop me a line and I'm willing to advise or do what I can to guide you through the process.
I'm also thinking about starting an ongoing "department" of the online magazine (CAIMag.com), if enough interest is shown, and we get some responses, to help people through the bureaucratic maze that some states can set up. Let me know!
I've been involved in state "Antique" license plate issues since 1974. With the able assistance of the membership of Seaboard Chapter, AMCA, we convinced Trenton DMV that the law already on NJ books as was applied to Historic automobiles also applied to motorcycles over 25 years of age and owned as collectors' items, etc., etc.
Then there was Maryland (over which we founded Chesapeake Chapter in October, 1980), Kentucky (I did it singlehandedly in 1984), New York (I only started something in 1988; Jack Weber and others followed through) and Connecticut, where I got the ball rolling in 1991 and some other enthusiasts followed up what we'd started and got the plates a couple of years later.
Every state is different (Lisa and I once surveyed every state, U.S. Territory and Canadian Province and we printed the chart in 1989 in The Antique Motorcycle, but that was 20 years ago, and much of it has changed.
A good place to start is with your state Dept. of Motor Vehicles, or Public Safety, or whatever they call it in your state. Write them a letter, asking for the rules on special registration for antique motorcycles. If they still don't/ refuse to/ issue motorcycle-sized "antique," or "historic," or "collector vehicle" plates of the right size for motorcycles, that's your cue.
In NJ it took one years' correspondence between us in Seaboard Chapter with an Assistant Dir. of Motor Vehicles that finally did the trick, in 1976. We had to prove that there were enough of us to make it economical to make plates and that we were serious.
Maryland was willing to issue plates to antique motorcycles all along, but they were 6 x 12 inch automobile plates! We told them that was unacceptable. Twenty or thirty of us Maryland AMCA members organized Chesapeake Chapter, in a Army Reserve Center in Baltimore, to unite our voices and eventually they caved in.
In New York State, it required political pull by some very dedicated New Yorkers, particularly tireless Jack Weber, then President of the Long Island Indian Club, to get a special law passed by the NY Legislature before they caved in. Jack was a bulldog; he got his teeth into the issue and wouldn't let it go. He got the first motorcycle historical vehicle plate ssued by the State of New York at a special ceremony at the State Capitol in Albany.
In Kentucky, it required only a couple of strategic phone calls and letters to Frankfort and someone at the Pittsburgh Die Company, which supplied Kentucky's dies, and they bought the dies they needed and started making bike plates. I got the first one that was issued.
How'd I get around like that? I was a Legal Clerk in the U.S. Army at the time, and a New Jersey resident. Then I was stationed at Fort Meade, Md., near Baltimore, and a couple of years later at Fort Knox, Ky. I wrote some ass-kicking legal-lookin' letters as appropriate and made phone calls and got their attentions, state-by-state, successively. I lent my assistance to the folks in New York after the issue came up at the Colonial Chapter National Meet in New Jersey in 1988. There, I met with Jack Weber and some others and the die was cast. Later, I was Editor of American Iron Magazine in Connecticut, 1991, and discovered that they, also, refused to issue antique plates for motorcycles. Shame on them! We fixed that, eventually.
The AAA publishes a book available to members, "Digest of Motor Laws," which lists the common motor vehicle regulations in all states and territories, but more importantly, it lists names, addresses and phone numbers of the powers-that-be in every state motor vehicle department, providing you with a place to start.
The laws of most states say, "for exhibition purposes or for display in an educational role," or something to that effect. Of course, if Davenport is happening in Iowa on the following weekend, you are on your way to it!
Probably more practical would be to carry around a schedule or fliers of antique auto and bike meets all over the country with you, to whip out if an LEO asks you where you're going. But naturally, if he's that curious about where you're going, there's the probability that something else is already up.
I've been all over on my Historic plate since getting it in 1976. Mainly, just don't use your antique-registered bike for daily tranportation to and from work, and no one will likely bother you.
AND, if anyone out there is living in a state or province that doesn't issue antique/historic license plates of an appropriate size for old motorcycles, or register Year-Of-Manufacture ("YOM") plates, AND if you're willing to dedicate the time and effort that will be required to talk your state motor vehicle authorities into getting with the program, drop me a line and I'm willing to advise or do what I can to guide you through the process.
I'm also thinking about starting an ongoing "department" of the online magazine (CAIMag.com), if enough interest is shown, and we get some responses, to help people through the bureaucratic maze that some states can set up. Let me know!
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