| Back "home" in Derbyshire I used to take my bikes to the nearest MOT garage (shall remain unidentified) who always did a very professional job - so much so that one time I was most grateful for their diligence. They spotted a hairline crack on the gearbox cover on my Silk. Now this also housed the kickstart. This in itself was not an MOT failure, but, had the cover cracked in two I would have been left stranded on a ride miles from home awaiting hours for an AA rescue. I spoke to George Silk about this and he said that the aluminium covers were found to be weak at this point after approx 10k miles of use and did eventually crack under the force of the kickstart.
Now here in Switzerland the MOT for a bike is in the 4th year and is very meticulously carried out and costs nearly £80. However, there are not enough government stations to do it (yes ya local garage cannot do it) and so you have to wait until you get ya call up papers - in the meantime you are legally entitled to ride on. Next year my bike will be nearly 6yrs old so I think I'll get called up in spring sometime.  |