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Archive indexRoger Worton has sent this item from "Motor Cycling" for January 11th, 1951:
Another cyclemotor note calls for inclusion this week. It concerns owners who use their machines for business purposes, involving the carriage of goods or tackle. There have been a number of cases already in which such riders have been prosecuted, with varying results acording to the circumstances, for running without carriers’ licences.
Where there is any doubt at all as to the position, the right thing for users to do is to seek guidance from their local licensing authority. Broadly the rule is that a machine constructed for goods-carrying, for instance a tradesman’s cycle with a big basket in front, needs a "C"-licence if a clip-on is fitted to it. But a machine unprovided with special carrying equipment is not a goods vehicle within the meaning of the Act. It could be used, under the ordinary licence for carrying, say, newspapers in a haversack. Those, I repeat, are only the general principles. Anyone whose case is not crystal-clear should make sure about it.
Give your cyclemotor-powered trade bike that extra air of authenticity by fitting a second tax disc holder and replica "C" licence!
First published - January 1994