Do I need to get a professionally made number plate or can I write on the supplied board in pen? Any suggestions on where to get them are appreciated. ta

A number plate is <£10 from eBay.

“Regulations” demand that a number plate is produced by some sort of approved manufacturer whose name must appear on the plate. I suspect your signature in felt pen will not comply 🙂 You’ll need the registration document before such a supplier will make a plate.

This was introduced to prevent plates being made to suit stolen vehicles.
How effective is it? I’m not aware of a significant fall in car theft since this was introduced. Work out for yourself the likelihood of thieves putting a made up name on a plate.

Though if you are driving a classic then you could get away with a hand made black plate with white letters of course.

What Orange Crush says, black & white issue, they either conform to the regs or don’t. It’s cheaper to get proper one than get a ticket if an over zealous copper stops you.

Proper plate, needs log book as proof of ownership.
I would imagine those who choose to not display one and those who use “illegal” spa ings may be caught out with the road tax cameras(no idea which end they catch btw?)
Gov.law.uk

You can still get proper plates off ebay without producing docs
They sell them as ‘show plates’ to comply with the regs but they’re in every way identical to normal plates.

I’ve just got a new set to replace some peeling ones on my wife’s car

I got a “show plate” off the internet for about £12. No different from a standard plate as far as I can tell, but I didn’t order anything weird.

It would seem odd to spend £150+ on a bike rack that complies with the law and has somewhere to put a plate on then not bother to use it!

I made one last year as I did not have time to get one made beforehand. Police stopped me they were fine about it BUT said next time he seen me if I had not got a proper plate made he would give me a ticket.

I got a proper BS marked plate from ebay without docs. Firm that made it were in Eire.

Your show plate may fail the MOT if it hasn’t got the BS number on it ( happened to my chum).
Whilst the number of stolen vehicles with fake plates may not have reduced the number of plates stolen off legitimate vehicles has increased. Another chum has had three sets stolen!

Best leave the bike rack off for the MOT then.

A diy shop near me (Shrewsbury) sell long yellow rectangles of sticky back plastic right next to the 3in black letters.
costs about £2.50

Halfords will do it.

As above its so easy and cheap to get a proper plate made why bother not getting one

I made one last year as I did not have time to get one made beforehand. Police stopped me they were fine about it BUT said next time he seen me if I had not got a proper plate made he would give me a ticket.

Surely you already had a tow bar?

Your show plate may fail the MOT if it hasn’t got the BS number on it

They tend to be identical to the ones they make for walk in customers
BS numbers, postcode of supplier etc.
They’re not really show plates, just normal plates where they haven’t jumped though the required admin hoops

I have a “show” one on my bike rack. It complies with all the regs apart from the markings to show it complies with the regs. I can’t believe any copper would ever stop me for it when I have a legit one underneath. And I take the bike rack off for the MOT.

Got my plate made up in Halfords for about £15. Took about 5 mins.