Black and silver registration plates

This thread has been moved as it was off topic.

Nice looking outfit, I had a Swallow Jet 80 on my Triumph many years ago, great fun in the snow!

Is the black and white numberplate a sliding date thing now? My old Guzzi was registered on an R plate, I thought it was only pre 72 that could have black and white plates?

Sorry off topic
Regards Chris

The date thing is indeed a sliding thing. It’s not ‘blindingly’ obvious but in short, eligibility for registering as historic is after 40 years (technically 40 years and a few months). Once registered, the plate is optional, but not without first gaining ‘historic’ status. Legally.

The Cali rig makes a good looking outfit.

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You are so right about the Cali outfit Barry, they fit together so well it looks like a factory job.. Nice one Godfrey :ok_hand:

Interesting stuff about the plates too, didn’t know that.
Another thread needed please Chris :winking_face_with_tongue:

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Black and white plates are allowed on Historic vehicles, but the DVLA stopped the rolling date thing with vehicles built before 1980.
This is due to a correction made by the DVLA on January 1, 2021, which clarified that vehicles built after January 1, 1980, are not allowed to display traditional black and silver plates.

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Good clarification @Don-Spada, thank you. This has indeed changed since last I slogged my way through the various related DVLA and GOV.UK guidelines. I confess that, in my case, I didn’t look again because, frankly, a black and white plate wasn’t something that I was overly excited about fitting, even though my own bike was (is) eligible by age and has the necessary ‘exemption’.

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Gotta admit, last time I was in Singapore I in picked up a black/silver one for my 2010 V7, just because I thought it kinda suited it.
(They still use those plates widely over there, both on the back and front of bikes).

Occasionally I have popped it on, but mostly I stick with a ‘proper’ one to avoid unnecessary attention from The Plod.


The guidance may have been updated, but I put one on my 1978 Spada because the yellow one cracked. The MOT guidance said it was not allowed but the DVSA website said it was…

Can’t take credit as I bought it ‘as was’ and just tidied, tuned and fixed her up. However, it was the kind of thing that I was looking for.

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Moving into even more arcane aspects of the topic: when did Guzzi dealers start supplying bikes fitted with yellow/black plates?

Most vehicle manufacturers started doing this in advance of the yellow plates becoming compulsory in 1980.

Googles answer to your question is …

“Yellow rear and white front reflective number plates with black characters were introduced in the UK on January 1st 1973. While they were permitted as an option from 1968, they became compulsory for all new vehicles registered from the beginning of 1973, replacing the older white-on-black or silver-on-black style”

My 1972 loop has its original plates, white on the fairing, yellow on the back.
I seem to remember people being very keen to have the “new” plates at the time.
Ian