MANY COMPLAINTS

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19941, 30 May 1930, Page 4

MANY COMPLAINTS

MOTOR-CYCLE PLATES. DIFFICULTY OF ATTACHMENT. Motor-cyclists are complaining that the new front number-plates now on issue are unsuitable for attaching to their vehicles. Last year the plates were attached to the machines vertically, and the identification numbers on them were divided into two parts, one half being at the top of the plate and the other beneath, which, of course, made it a difficult matter to see a number if a cycle were travelling at a good rate of speed. This year the plates are constructed similarly to the plates which are attached to the rear of a vehicle, the object of this being to permit of the number being stamped in a single line, as a result of which it will be more easily recognisable.

It is now necessary for the plates to be attached to the vehicle horizontally. Motor-cyclists complain that after having incurred expense in procuring a bracket to hold last year's front plate they will not now be able to use it. Some have found that it is possible to attach the plate to the forks of the machine under the headlight, and others have solved the difficulty by placing it on the front mudguard, on each side of which it protrudes in an ugly manner. "To my way of thinking the new plate is ridiculous," said a motorcyclist yesterday, "and the only way for a policeman to see it would be for him to look down on it from an aeroplane." It is understood that next year there will be another change in the front plate, which will be so made as to fit on a machine in an upright position. The plate will be two-sided, the same number being on both sides. This will enable anyone to identify a vehicle at a glance.