The Honda PCX / Forza / ADV150 / SH Forums

Just curious as to why a lot of people when posting pics of their bike/car blur out the number plate?

To stop plate cloning.

I see, crafty buggers!

funny!
No I.D. online. We roll incognito. In flaming costume too. Big Brother and all....you know

A follow up question. Why do so many in this forum not state the place they are from as in city and in some cases city and country instead of a cryptic description? It's not wrong as such but I promise not to turn up and drink your beer if you at least put a city or town!

Monty1952 wrote:A follow up question. Why do so many in this forum not state the place they are from as in city and in some cases city and country instead of a cryptic description? It's not wrong as such but I promise not to turn up and drink your beer if you at least put a city or town!

To stop location cloning.

you you wrote:

Monty1952 wrote: To stop location cloning.

You can't clone Edinburgh!

What about all those people that can see my plate while I'm riding down the road?

We had a cloning ring broken up here in the US on cars/trucks by the FBI but getting your license plate number isn't enough since that is public information and available in several places besides the back of your bike. They needed the plate number, the VIN, and any other identifying stickers and then they needed to put them on an identical car of value making it worth their while. It may be more of an issue where scooters are numerous and frequently stolen like the UK.

tbln930 wrote:We had a cloning ring broken up here in the US on cars/trucks by the FBI but getting your license plate number isn't enough since that is public information and available in several places besides the back of your bike. They needed the plate number, the VIN, and any other identifying stickers and then they needed to put them on an identical car of value making it worth their while. It may be more of an issue where scooters are numerous and frequently stolen like the UK.

It's not

Its really quite simple.
Trawl the web for pictures of a bike which matches your own and has the registration plate showing.
Put a copy of that plate on your bike.
You can now ride through as many speed cameras as you like, since the bike is registered to someone else, you won't be getting any fixed penalty notices in the post anytime soon.
Works for cars and London congestion charge too.

We have break-apart stickers on the plates that are a red flag if missing to maliciousness. They cant copy those easily. I think you are less likely to be stopped here with no plate at all than with a plate missing a sticker (we don't have to display anything on new motorcycles and I passed many cops and never got stopped but a plate missing a sticker would be stopped for sure). It really indicates something bad happened and the stickers don't fall off in one piece if at all. They are also color coded and have a code number and the year. The code is very small to see unlike the license plate and you can't read it w/o being within a few inches. Without it the plate or plate number is pretty useless.

Same in Canada - dated sticker for sure is a police focus.

Same in Canada - dated sticker for sure is a police focus.

I used to blur out the plate but figured that while my vehicles are on any publicly accessible area, I'm not going to stop someone from taking a photo of my car with the license plate and posting it on the web. So why bother?

gn2 wrote:Its really quite simple.
Trawl the web for pictures of a bike which matches your own and has the registration plate showing.
Put a copy of that plate on your bike.
You can now ride through as many speed cameras as you like, since the bike is registered to someone else, you won't be getting any fixed penalty notices in the post anytime soon.
Works for cars and London congestion charge too.

Yes, I'll get right on it.

No, seems like a faff so I'll not bother. I'll leave it to the crime overlords and their cunning ways to avoid the congestion charge.

On their honda PCXs

Do they use those plate shields like they do here for the speeding cameras? You can see the plate just fine but it blanks out for the camera.

tbln930 wrote:Do they use those plate shields like they do here for the speeding cameras? You can see the plate just fine but it blanks out for the camera.

Almost like the folks up here in Toronto who "age" their plates with I guess some kind of acid/stripper liquid so they don't get caught by the cameras. I have seen drivers and riders with new plates and not so long after they have aged and rusted/corroded 50 years in about as many days. Police don't seem to care for whatever reason.

You can be done for illegal (italic writing, 3d, etc) plates in the UK or having dirty plates or a light out in the number plate area, but police these days don't seem to care due to paper work and donuts waiting for them are the card table (joking). If police are pulling traffic over then you may be done, esp with L plates (UK thing) that are not up to size - I see some scoots with tiny L plates and they are illegal - they are supposed to be quite large.
If your plates are so dirty that they cannot be read properly at a distance, that too is illegal in the UK - which many people do to stop being caught by speed camera's - but once again it depends if police are around and can be bothered. Mostly they do not seem to do much which is why most drivers these days are so bad - not indicating, tail gating, pulling out, driving having not passed a test, etc - your likely to get away with it as there's not much chance of someone catching you.

This is a cloudy (but you can still see right through it) looking shield that they sell and you can mail order that covers the plate. They seem to be effective. A far as I know they are not illegal in my state. They are starting to remove the cameras at intersections anyway because of law suits.

Here is one
https://www.beatthelight.com/Super-Phot ... ApR18P8HAQ