I have my plate bolted on with nylock nuts and loctite. The bolts for the bracket also got an application of loctite.
4 years now and it hasn't gone anywhere.
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026
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Nylock nuts are the way. No thread-locker needed on them.
I always keep some zip-up ties in my riding gear. If I pass a parked bike with a missing license plate bolt, I'll zip-tie it back into place.
I feel your pain. On one bike my plate is drilled through and secured with bolts and nyloc nuts. On the other it is pop riveted on. But when I lived in Switzerland they have a rule that you can have one plate and use it on all you bikes. They all have to be insured but insurance is way cheaper for the second bike. Logic is: you can only ride one at a time. Same for cars. So I was riding in Germany and a police car pulls in front of me with the FOLGEN signs on, we come off the motorway and drive for a while to a police station. “Do you know why we stopped you? Please watch our screen. Here we follow you - you are doing 170 this is fine. But here the limit is 100 for the tunnel and you are still going 120 - this is enough that we fine you. And here in the tunnel … your plate falls off”. Well shit. They wouldn’t close the tunnel so I couldn’t recover my plate. They impounded my bike because no plate. I had to walk out of there in full leathers and weekend bag, get a lift from a stranger in a nearby cafe, get a bus, get a train back to Zurich. On monday, report my plates lost at Kenton police. Get new plates at Traffic office. Next day go back to the police, collect my bike, back to work. I am no longer in CH, now my two bikes have two different plates, pop rivets and locking nuts.
Holy shit that is fucking ridiculous. If they literally saw your plate fall off then they should have let you retrieve it. Shit behavior imo.
Aw man that’s the worst sorry to hear it! And yep, my license plate was hanging on by a thread or two with one nut and the other nut was somewhere in space probably. thankfully my buddy noticed and had a zip tie. I got new nuts that are retro reflective for the top holes but ever since that day the bottom two mounting holes are held on by zip ties and they have yet to fail me.
Nice plausible deniability there.
👀👀👀
I have learned to use every trick in the book on any of my bikes that I take off road, otherwise I wind up having to go back searching the trail somewhere to find my damn plate. At the moment my KLR has double nuts on the mounting bolts plus lock washers plus Loctite. If you have lower mounting holes you can tie it on with wire through those in addition.
Last trip I shook the exhaust midpipe bolt loose, but luckily it just fell into the frame and lodged there and I found it when I was giving my bike the daily once-over in camp.
Sadly my bike only has two upper mount holes and no lower mount holes. The holes are very wide and oblong too, so the thumb screws only sit tight when they are positioned just so. Not sure yet how I want to go about securing it tightly. I don't really want to Loctite it on tbh but idk.
All of my bikes are the same way as far as mounting.
I have a license plate backing plate. They’re made in aluminum or thick plastic.
Since the holes on the motorcycle are usually wide as you mentioned I drill holes either to the side or below the license plate holes and attach the backing plate to the bike with locking nuts/washers(basically make this as permanent a connection as possible). If you use flat head bolts and counter sink them then the license plate should sit flush over the top. If drilling them below that means the plate will sit higher overall which may not be possible on all motorcycles. The backing plate stops the license plate from getting mangled as well as it’s much more sturdy. You could also drill a hole in the backing plate and using some wire or whatever to the bike as a backup but I’ve never needed to.
I’ve always just used four of these to attach my license plate to the backing plate. The ones with the spring help keep tension on the wing nut and kind of function similar to a lock washer. I’ve never had one of these even come loose in over 5+ years. I’m assuming this is on your Honda Rebel, off road venturing people might need something more robust. Also if you think plate theft is your concern then wing nuts probably aren’t your best option. My bikes are garage kept so that’s less of a concern.
