MOT

[Green1]

Not too long ago my brother had a car come in when he took the wheel off the disks had fractured because the pads had worn down to the steel and then the steel had worn wafer thin until the piston had pushed through onto the disk and even the piston had worn down.
When he questioned the customer he said his brakes made a noise and then it stopped making a noise so he assumed it was OK. 

[Trigger]

Was working on one today with a weight ( max capacity) 28123 Kg.

[Green1]

Its hard to imagine that kind of weight.
There are a few based down the road from me If Im late for work you can guarantee its because I got stuck behind one.
There amazing things when on site I can't help but watch them for awhile.

What were you doing to that then? 

[Trigger]

Its hard to imagine that kind of weight.
There are a few based down the road from me If Im late for work you can guarantee its because I got stuck behind one.
There amazing things when on site I can't help but watch them for awhile.

What were you doing to that then?

Helping a mate put 72 new bushes in the thing it was towing. Totally forgot to ask what the lump of machinery was for. Some round here do 50mph and take up the whole road.

[Green1]

You will have to find out I need to know now.

[royhall]

Now I know you should never buy a vehicle unseen but as it looked a bargain and it was a 650 mile round trip to view it I took a risk. So last spring I bought a Suzuki GS1000 from a dealer in London, it came with a full 12 month MOT (the reason why I took the risk).

On the first test ride after the dealer had dropped it off (and scarpered), it became clear that the bike was in a lethal condition..... Front calipers were seized, brake hose from splitter to left caliper was pneumatic hose and fittings, head bearings loose, rear tyre cracked, rear brake disk was really a front one with different offset so brake was binding, fork seals leaking, drive chain so loose it was hanging down, plus loads more non MOT problems.

I reported the Fake MOT to DVSA who were not interested in the slightest. This whole scenario makes a joke of the entire MOT system that this can happen and DVSA do nothing.

By the way, I still have the bike and 70% of my money back (plus a load of Genuine Suzuki spares) after starting small claims procedure due to the dealer advertising the bike as "Nothing needs doing whatsoever". The dodgy dealer couldn't settle fast enough to stop the court action.

All problems are now repaired, and I now have a superb 1978 GS1000 for next to nothing. I wouldn't take that risk again though.

Just shows, unless you know your MOT tester is honest an MOT certificate is utterly worthless. DVSA were worse than a joke.

So I guess they may as well do away with MOT's.

[Rob62]

For me its a convenience thing, i wont have to travel to and from the mot station five times a year. Wont make any difference to the safety of my bikes as i try to keep them roadworthy and dont just have blind faith in the fact that they are mot'd. As has already been said, you may come into contact with somebody who abuses the system and rides a dangerous vehicle but that can happen anyway, mot is just one check one day a year so no guarantee of year-round safety. Im a bit of a cynic when it comes to the govt, there is always some money-saving motive for their actions somewhere..... and they tend to focus on the big picture too i.e. cars and commercials emmission testing etc.... Are they lining all classic vehicles up for something further down the line when the end of the ic engine is looming?  who knows...... Make the most of it while you can 👍

[Spitfire]

Could it be tractors that you are talking about, recently I was very surprised that my 16 year old grandson is allowed to drive a tractor and trailer on public roads after a very short test, scary.
As to MOT's I think that they are a good thing even though I hate taking my bikes in for one, my 76 F1 passes every year no problem but my 2000 Deauville failed yesterday due to a perished valve on the back tyre, something that I did not spot that could have turned out to be nasty. Not used to these modern tubeless tyres.

Cheers

Dennis

[Orcade-Ian]

I suppose Rob62 is right to be cynical - this will certainly bring some more tax exempt bikes out of the woodwork and that's likely to include a few that are below the present MOT standard.  They are then above the parapet and under big brothers eye for whatever their devious intentions might be.  I wasn't born cynical, it started when I was about eighteen months old!  For me too it's a convenience thing as it's a 40 mile round trip to Dr D's bike surgery in Kirkwall but I like the banter and someone else possibly finding something I've missed - it did happen with a tyre valve on my Wing some years back.
Might still take them up there for perusal though.
Ian

[hairygit]

Another thing that has just sprung to mind... Post 1965 petrol cars/vans and post 1973 diesel cars and vans were subject to emmisions testing, which is why you very rarely see 60's and 70's cars on the roads. They struggled to pass emissions when new, once they started getting tested at MOT they almost completely disappeared over a couple of years, scrapped as cleaning  up emissions was too expensive.

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[MrDavo]

The guy that does my MOTs has done every bike I've owned or built for many years, and knows I won't ride it if it isn't safe - I don't think he has ever failed anything, but I don't think I ever took him a bike that wasn't right. He obviously still tests them, I got an advisory for a loose spoke I didn't know about, for example.

My 1985 911 is another story, as a high performance car it is tested to a high standard, and each year it surprises me by failing its MOT for something unexpected. However without the MOT tester going over it with a fine toothcomb, I don't see how, for example I would ever have known that my brakes were becoming under par because the 30 year old flexible rubber parts of the rear brake pipes were bulging under pressure.

For this reason I would volunteer it for testing even if it wasn't mandatory.
 

[matthewmosse]

Tractors are indeed not mot tested, not are their trailers, my last regular  job involved shot blasting amongst other things and the bosses trailer rated at 28 ton payload, I was asked to avoid blasting anywhere near the brakes so the most rusted bit was being ignored. Wasn't happy with that, seemed a wasted effort and pretty daft to spend days blasting and painting a trailer but do a rubbish job with the wheels still on so nothing that needed it got blasted. End of the blasting I noticed blast media flowing out of the drums as the back plates were so rotten I could put my hands through them. Went straight to the supervisor to advise him of what I had found, and was told, he knows it's had it so we are to paint it up to look smart and then put a bit of wear on it before selling it for the best possible price. Downright cowboy way to do things when doing a tidy job would not have cost a great deal more in a fully equipped workshop like they had. And that thing is still motoring around, another 'fix' applied to it was a rusted through and cracking gusset plate on the A frame. It was trimmed to remove the worst of the crack and rot, that was it, no remedy for the fact it was 25% of it's intended mass and pitted to death. I made a bit of a fuss about that, made sure the whole staff knew I had flagged it up, in case one of them was asked to tow that contraption or it went wrong and they put it at my door, they eventually said they would fix the brake plates but none of the other rust and I was given my p45 soon after, glad to go after seeing that. The company used that thing behind a Job fastrack for a fair bit of haulage over quite a large distance, the poor maintenance was once excused by the supervisor on the basis it never carries a great deal of weight, never mind that I saw it loaded with 10 palletising robots at 2 ton a piece a few times

[Alex jb]

Was the big load a tank? Maybe rear tracked APC?

I also worry about poor maintenance by some people, but it just means buying an old bike, we will need to take more time scrutinising.



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[Trigger]

Could it be tractors that you are talking about, recently I was very surprised that my 16 year old grandson is allowed to drive a tractor and trailer on public roads after a very short test, scary.
As to MOT's I think that they are a good thing even though I hate taking my bikes in for one, my 76 F1 passes every year no problem but my 2000 Deauville failed yesterday due to a perished valve on the back tyre, something that I did not spot that could have turned out to be nasty. Not used to these modern tubeless tyres.

Cheers

Dennis

Yes, it was a tractor that I was on about but, there are many vehicle's on the road that do not need a MOT.

[speedibee]

About time too but.....i personally think its a bad move from the safety aspect. The DfT are assuming we are all experts in maintaining our old bikes to a high standard of safety. Well, I could never admit to having enough knowledge to ensure my bikes are 100% safe, I want an expert to look at it for me and advise me. I have seen bikes recently out on the road and I dare to say on this forum also that are death traps and should fail an MOT. Just my thoughts on it.

doesnt apply to Bikes until 2022 ,