and if so, do you think you could really win?

here's the scenario, my friend was out riding last night, doing speed limit on park blvd in Pinellas Park, which is about 45-50 mph, a cop pulls out behind him. His bike is pretty much naked, he took off the fairings so he can repaint it. The cop lights him up and he pulls over because he knows he hasn't done anything wrong since he was following the speed, registration good, has endorsement, etc. Cop runs his license, comes back and tells him that he pulled him over because of his license plate. His tag is ziptied on, and the cop stated it was a FLIP UP license plate to run from the cops. So the cop issued him an $1100 ticket. Is that really what it's coming down to with bikes? I mean I don't ride myself, but I have before they changed all these laws. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

-RJ