Bike needs here an streetlegal reflector on the backside ;-)

Hi Rob,
Side reflectors have been mandatory on motorcycles here since 2017—curiously enough, prior to that, they were actually prohibited! In the past, whenever I had to present my bikes for inspection, I had to either tape over or remove the reflectors located on the forks and rear shock absorbers of all my Z1 900s. For the forks, chrome caps were available to serve as replacements for the reflectors... and as for the weak stock shock absorbers, we usually replaced those with Koni shocks anyway!    

see on my old pictures...On the Z1b from `75 (i had in 2004), the rear shocks are replicas with the reflectors, on the forks are chrome caps...like on my racing-customized `73 Z1

BTW: On the last picture you can see, what size of licenceplate we must have before 2011..!!! VERRY, verry big plates, It was a disgrace to any good bike; it completely ruined the bike's entire look.   

 

Well You just answered my long time question Joe about why i'd seen those silver lower fork reflectors instead of amber ones!! Fickle DOT legislation ha. 

Hi Clay,
...yes, there were—and still are—plenty of regulations and bans here that make life difficult for us motorcyclists. You might have noticed that the Z1, Z900, and Z1000 models delivered to Germany were fitted with extremely long rear fenders? That was a requirement because, here in Germany, the lower edge of a "wheel cover" is not allowed to be higher than 150 mm, measured from the center of the wheel! The same went for the grab handle: for the German market, it featured two extra welded-on "ears"—mounting points for the rear turn signals—to ensure that the minimum distance from the vehicle's centerline was no less than 250 mm... Naturally, you "freewheeling brothers" can't possibly understand *that* sort of thing... and neither can I, for that matter. But laws and regulations like these have often driven some of us—myself included—into illegality with our custom modifications...

     

MFP-Joe wrote:

Hi Clay,
...yes, there were—and still are—plenty of regulations and bans here that make life difficult for us motorcyclists. You might have noticed that the Z1, Z900, and Z1000 models delivered to Germany were fitted with extremely long rear fenders? That was a requirement because, here in Germany, the lower edge of a "wheel cover" is not allowed to be higher than 150 mm, measured from the center of the wheel! The same went for the grab handle: for the German market, it featured two extra welded-on "ears"—mounting points for the rear turn signals—to ensure that the minimum distance from the vehicle's centerline was no less than 250 mm... Naturally, you "freewheeling brothers" can't possibly understand *that* sort of thing... and neither can I, for that matter. But laws and regulations like these have often driven some of us—myself included—into illegality with our custom modifications...

 

Feel your pain Joe, the UK isn't as tight as Germany (close behind though). When they were paper-based the UK "vehicle lighting" regs were about the size of a telephone directory (min and max height, min and max distance from vehicle extremities, min and max flash speed for turn signals etc etc etc)  

Yeah, Guy,
the bureaucracy in Germany is legendary—and not in a good way. (( When I think back to what a hassle it used to be for me to get everything "street-legal" again whenever an inspection was due... and above all, back then there were very few speed traps on the roads, and we had a ton of fun. Nowadays, they’re on every corner and everywhere else; you really have to be careful not to speed. Otherwise, a) it gets very expensive, and b) you can lose your driver's license in no time... shitty times right now. But now that I'm "getting on in years," both of my bikes are absolutely road-legal, so there are few issues if I ever get stopped for a check... and I don't ride quite as fast as I used to anymore (or at least I try not to!    


rstnick wrote:"...I like to be seen, so often add reflectors...."

...my problem is rather: I am seen far too often—almost invariably by the wrong people or institutions...