What, if anything has your bike failed the MOT on?
 

Just booked my bike into the local (Yamaha) bike shop for an MOT next Saturday. So I'm racking my brains trying to think where it could go wrong (this is only its 2nd MOT and louigimoto sorted out the last one).

Shock works OK, forks have just been serviced, chain and sprockets are new-ish lights and horn and indicators all OK. Cans are stock legal and so is number-plate. What else can it be? I carefully replaced the number-plate light (is it just me or do they fail more than all the other bulbs put together?), only for the bloke in the shop to say it wasn't a requirement for a bike, only a car!

They're not going to fail me for a cracked speedo glass, are they?

[Edited on 3-12-2005 by moto748]

He'll probably fail you for having the only Ducati in the country with legal exhausts and full size plate:D:D

Phil

Ive alwasy been lucky. But my mates R1 failed coz he had no rear reflector

Indicators flashing too fast. honest it happened to me

Rear reflector is a liekly one if you've changed the stock rear end. If he's a decent chap he'll just stick a self adhesive one on and pass it ... otherwise, well ... :rodent:

Nope, the reflector's stock too!

Have a butchers HERE

Thanks, Jools!

if its any help Fred, my bruvs striple passed its mot today.
He then popped in to show me his newly anocoated wheels (really lovely!) - and AK found a leaky forkseal on it for him!!:o:o

sods law....:lol:

The number plate light is checked.
Usual failures I see are front wheel bearings, head bearings, loose engine mount bolts (ST's most popular for this for some reason) and the rear brake on 748-996's.
If they're really tight, then headlight beam alignment.

I have never in 15 years or so had a bike fail :cool:


(even with loud cans etc :lol::cool:)

Steering head bearings - hard to check properly without cranking it up onto the side-stand (which is the method most MOT testers seem to prefer :mad:)

I thought mine were ok - but they were indeed notched right in the straight ahead position.

Shock mounts and swingarms could be worth a check as well.

Good luck - Frank

Age996
Ditto!

Well apart from the race cans and small plate mine should go through But would any of us ride if they wernt upto and above Mot standard ?

The Mot is a good thing but Most peeps on bikes love em and slave all day to keep em looking like new, Unlike cage drivers :mad:

Thanks guys. :)

The steering head bearig s are new, and I had a good go at bleeding the back brake last week. Should be OK.

[Edited on 4-12-2005 by moto748]

Faulty rear stop light cured with wd40

over the years I have had bikes fail on most things but the worst was brakes, when I left for the MOT they were fine but most have been on the way out as the guys walked back in and failed it for having brake fluid all over the front discs.

Good luck

Mine failed because when i got the MOT over the phone he posted it to the wrong address:lol::lol:




Only joking.

Checked my old (1952) Gilera Saturno out before it's MOT in September-rear light not working. Bloody bulb thinks I taking the lens off-not the bulb, the whole dam light unit, bulb holder the lot was missing-must have vibrated off. Put a modern LED type inside the old housing-looks standard still but that 'bulb' will never blow.

John

no number plate light on mine, was told by mot bloke that its ok. if it had a light, and it was faulty, then it would fail the mot

The Monster almost failed for not having a rear reflector and also the brake light blub was in upside down! My bike passed easily, he just commented on a worn bottom shock bush. I'd put the standard cans back on just in case, the guy actually called his mate in and they both stood there listening to it!! Wish i'd left the others on!

My 748 failed on the rear brake as it wasn't strong enough. I thought it might just need bleeding but when I looked the mounting plate had cracked so the whole master-cylinder was moving when the pedal was pushed down!

Shows how much I use the bike and the back brake :lol:

I usually do a check of all the bulbs before I go, and it's usually a brake light or that damn number plate bulb that goes! I had the rear brake light switch fail as well - I think this is quite common as they face "into the wind" as it were and get all the crap blasted down into them and gunk them up - worth a squirt of WD40 in there every so often.

At least it'll never fail on the rear wheel being out of alignment...

I had an almost identical fail, where I swear that the gods were messing me about.

Checked all the lights, both brake switches and WD40'd everything before I went, rode to the test centre and the back brake switch didn't want to work the brake light anymore when I got there - it had just stopped working on the 1 mile ride to the test centre, so it failed.

Called round all my mates, and good ol' Fordie came to the rescue. By the next day he'd taken the brake light switch off his 996 to lend me. We met up in Bedford where he was working and he gave me the switch - but that one wasn't working either. So I ordered two from JHP, one for each of us. They were delivered next day, but I was still running out of time for a free retest so I fitted it up quickly - success - checked all the lights and switches again before I left home and took it back in and bugger me if the dipped beam had blown - once again, it had happened between home and the test centre and I didn't notice it until the tester failed it again.

Luckily, I was able to fit a spare bulb there and then so we were cooking with gas.....errr, no....the tester then decided he was going to fail it for having a loose petrol tank. He'd grabbed the front of the tank and was swinging on it like a chimp, so of course the front of the tank was lifting. I told him about the way an ST tank is fitted, but he wasn't having any of it on my say so - mind you I was getting ****ed off by then so I didn't put my case very eloquently (I think a few fcu*'s were thrown around) and he wouldn't undo the two screws that it takes to get the tank pad off to see for himself.

So they pushed it outside again and I had to take the tank pad and the seat off myself to show them that there is a big pin holding the back of the tank on and a big rubber strap folding the front down - so of course if you pull the front of the tank like a gorilla it's going to flex up on it's hinges against the strap :flame:

Got the pass in the end but I couldn't believe the coincidence of having two things go pop between home and the MOT station, or the way the guy was trying to wrench the fuel tank off....never mind, it'll be even tougher this year

My 851 was failed by the tester on headlight dipping wrong way and for having high level termi's fitted.

I went into the shop with tester to collect the fail certificate.

Shop owner said he would have a look and handed me a roll of insulating tape to alter the head light beam. Then came into the m.o.t. bay and asked the tester to fire the bike up. He then stood with his back to the rear of the bike and put his hands over the end of the '' silencers '' said '' sounds fine to me '' and then told the tester to give me a pass certificate.

Nice man....very nice man:D:D

off topic, but I tought I had just witnessed the shortest ever posting by Jools, but normal service has been resumed:lol: Nice one mate

Nobody mentioned tyres yet

As for riding a bike that has no MOT/failed one....er....never done that obviously. I wonder if my CB5 would pass, be a laugh taking it in just to see the look on the testers face:lol::lol::lol:

WeeJohnyB

Bled front brake yesterday, result....







PASS! :lol:

MOT certificates have changed since I last had one.


Now the hard part, I want to buy a car.

Looking around for a cheap (under 3k) Alfa 156.