upgrading the front compartments

Not that hard to do...Just takes money and time. You can find all the parts you need on the Honda Dealers web sight.

I've done it -

Have 2 2005 SilverWings that were purchased new with the color matched dash. Following a post that Dan Spevack posted I created a spreadsheet to compare prices from various suppliers and ordered all of the parts (Service Honda was the least expensive at the time) and have swapped out all the 2005 parts with the 2007 parts. Not too hard, just took some time.

I'll look for the spreadsheet and if you e-mail me directly I can send it to you.

Welcome to the asylum Steve,

While I understand the gist of your question; With all due respect, what is a "51 plate" and what is "a7"?

Tim

If Steve's in the UK, the '51 plate' refers to the Registration Number (License plate).

51 shows the year of registration - 1 September, 2001–28 February, 2002 (I think)

Here is the link Dale was takling about.

http://silverwing.org/cgi-bin/topic_show.pl?tid=1118

Steve,

Welcome to the site. I hope all goes well with your project. What you might want to do to save money, is to ask what members here have the same color SWing as you, and then go remove their compartments. lol Just kidding. But welcome and hope you are an active member. We have lots of really good people here.

Thanks for that "51 Plate" explanation Mike.

Tim

A pleasure, Tim!

It's all in Wikipedia but the gist is:

Vehicles in the UK have a Registration Number (License Plate) which is obtained usually when said vehicle is purchased and put on the road.
The plate then belongs to the vehicle, not the owner, although he can keep it if it's a special number when he sells the vehicle. In that case, he has to obtain a new number for the vehicle and reregister his new vehicle with the number that he's kept (Still with me?).

In Belgium, and I think in the States, the driver/rider is issued with a number which he moves from one vehicle to the next.

The advantage of the UK system is that in most cases it's possible to tell roughly the age of the vehicle.

Numbers used usually to be three numbers and three letters.
When they ran out, an additional letter was added on the end; for example, my first car (1959) was RYH 309. My second (1965) was FYM 621C.
When that lot ran out, a letter was put on the front so my last car (1999) was S549 XPU.
Then that lot ran out so the year was denoted by two numbers followed by three letters but preceeded by two letters which denoted the area in which the vehcle was registered.
Thus my X9 (September, 2005) was KE55CJO. If I'd bought it in August that year it would have been KE51CJO. The change was done every six months instead of annually to ease the 'new registration' rush in September.

OK. Got it.

;-)

...I think

Hello, Steve.

Utopia Backrest from here:

http://www.utpr.com/

Cortech Super-Mini Tank Bag (NOT the magnetic one) from here:

http://www.tourmaster.com/xcart/catalog/Super-Mini-Tank-Bag-p-142_31.html

I had to pay rather a lot of Import Duty/Tax on the backrest but none on the bag.......


....and no, I don't mind at all being asked; always pleased to be of assistance.

The stupid thing about UK registration plates is that you can have an 'age related plate' that shows the wrong year. To clarify, registration 'years' i.e 09 (March 1st 2009 to August 31st 2009), 59 (September 1st 2009 to February 28th 2010), 10 (March 1st 2010 to August 31st 2010). In September 2010 the registration number will change to 60, this will last until March 2011. So if the vehicle is registered after Jan 1st 2011 it will show as a 60 plate. Only in March will the 11 plate come into being.
Why didn't they keep it simple and have the year on the plate that lasted for the whole year - British Civil Service for you!

Cheers,

It was to divide the 'new plate' rush in two, to relieve the First-of-September chaos.

Mike,

With current cars sales at a much lower level then the September rush isn't a major factor anymore. If the car manufacturers / DVLA want two six month periods each year why not January 1st and July 1st - or is that too simple for them?

Cheers,

January 1st is a Public Holiday in the UK so there'd be no-one to issue the paper-work, especially as may offices are closed from Christmas until then.

IIRC the suffix letter did come in on 1st January but it was changed, presumably for the reason I stated, to August. That year, 1967, the suffix letter, E, lasted only 8 months.

Mike,

I still say it is stupid that the plate can show an incorrect year.

(Just to be really pedantic in your post you say "Thus my X9 (September, 2005) was KE55CJO. If I'd bought it in August that year it would have been KE51CJO." In actual fact it would have been KE05CJO.

Cheers,