Got pulled over, walked away with a warning. The officer was rude though, if you ask me. Apparently, vertical plates are frowned upon here in Ohio, and it's not lit up (which I knew but it hasn't cause me any problems for the past 2, almost 3 months now, going to look into lights tomorrow.)

I wanna know how the guys I ride with can have the same positioning, and even have it tucked way up and under the tail, to the point where you can just barely see it, and not get in trouble, but I do?

Oh, and after doing a bit of research, I'm not finding anything about the positioning of the plates, only that it has to be visible. Leading me to believe that the officer was bored, waiting for the bars to let out and I was an easy target, seeing as I was the only one on the road.

 

At least you got off with a warning!

It's funny you mentioned him being rude. I got pulled over once by an unmarked car. I was going to work and I guess he was too. Obviously I didn't notice him otherwise I would've slowed down but sure enough, I didn't... So he pulls me over, doesn't even get out of the car at first, pulls up beside me and starts yelling at me to take my helmet off. I do, with a sort of confusion. Then he gets out and asks me if I knew how fast I was going to which I politely said yes. I was going really fast (85 in a 55) and he was really pissed about it.

He asked if I was dumb!!! and if I knew what a cop car looked like (no joke). I said yes I knew but it just blended in too well! He thought I was going to take off on him thats why he yelled about the helmet... then asked me where I was going and let me go. No written warning, no ticket. Just insults... which were enough.

 

Well we can't turn this into a cop bashing thread because those instantly get shut down. But yes some cops can be extremely rude. The 1 time I got pulled over on my bike was because I was doing 6 mph over the speed limit and I was mixed in with other cars. The cop gave me a ticket and said I give bikers a bad name. Clearly he was not a rider himself and was bored or just hated bikers. Oh well I paid the ticket and moved on. Just be happy you got a warning. Fix that light ASAP. You don't want to give the cops a reason to pull you over. As far as the plate being vertical, I am sure every state has different laws about that so I can't comment but I think that if it is in any other position other than stock they can pull you over if they really want to.

 

I wasn't bashing the cop, ashedink just mentioned the cop being rude and that came to mind. He was nice enough to let me go without any sort of ticket. I'm grateful!

 

I don't think you were bashing the cop. I just know the mods patrol that stuff pretty hard around here. Its all good man. Wish I would have got off with a warning

 

ha! I understand your frustration. I was waiting on my buddy who is a dispatch in one of our cities to get off work and we were gonna head out to his place afterwards. while I was sitting there I heard somewhere around town, two idiots on sportbikes, sound like they were racing down the streets. as I sat there I just shook my head. well, my buddy finally comes out of the station and we take off about 10 minutes after that happened. we are just about to get on the highway when blue lights hit me up. Apparently my friend didn't see the lights bc later he said all he could see was my HID's and he kept going! he pulled me over bc MY tags were vertical. I have a mount that mounts to the swing arm and positions the tag right beside the rear wheel. anyways, after he questions me about the tag, I told him I just recently bought the bike and I honestly didn't know, he asks if we were racing around town. So then I knew exactly why he was really pulling me over. I told him I was sitting at his station waiting on my buddy, gave him his name and he knew who I was talking about. I told him how I heard the two bikes but it wasn't us. He let me go with a warning as well.

so my guess is I don't think cops really give a **** about the plate position, but they might use it on you to pull you over and run your I.D. to see if you have any warrants or anything. and if your a new rider and they don't recognize your bike they just want to see and find out who you are and try to get a feel of what kind of person you are.

 

I kinda think he was hoping me to really screw up. It was 2am and college just started up. He gave me a real funny look when I told him that I just came from the bar and HADN'T been drinking. Mix in the fact that I have half a brake light out, my one turn signal sticks, and no lights on the plates, I probably looked suspicious. Ah well, I'm just more upset with how rude he was, like he was so much better than me, talking down on me.

 

LOL @ you. Call the LEO rude yet he let you off with a warning? Just shows you can't please all.

 

Yeah, I had a real cool officer pull me over and still got a ticket lol, prefer a rude warning lmao. But in all seriousness cops put up with so much shut and there are so many jackass riders out there you just got to deal. It's part of riding. Unfourtanetly

 

The bike is an inanimate object, it was your actions that got you in the lime light. You placed the plate where it was, or you rode around knowing where it was and without a light. Regardless if the cop was bored or not you wouldn't have been in that position had you not placed yourself there.