Seized Brake Bleed Nipple

[matthewmosse]

I think this one is always gonna cause arguements someplace. It's basically a matter of oppinion partly. When it comes to standard noise levels, I've never seen a sohc on standard pipes actually run, and I own 6 of these types of machine in varying condition (none near mint obviously). Point is how many testers today have seen machines this old sporting std pipes? I've always been led to belive that the rule of thumb is there want to be visable sighns of baffles, and period pipes are ok if they were legal at the time by virtue of 'grandfather rights' I geuss. It's not unknown for the poweres that be to get their own rules wrong! I got charged with breaking Lighting regs 1985 once on a 1981 ped, Got to court and pointed out age of machine plus MOT from 7 hrs befrore police stopped me plus relayed MOT mans comments when asked to inspect the bike again to stamp the 'Fix it tickett' Charges were dropped. Unless your taking the piss you should be able to get most things thru. Even my old Laser system hasn't attracted attention. My MOT tester is always off to check the MOT rule book these days but so far I've always passed with whichever set of pipes I happen to have bolted on (I've never interfearedwith baffles in any way). Main thing is to find a decent tester. And not push your luck. Bike shops sometimes are intent on trying to sell you bits you don't need or a new bike so I go elsewhere. Had one set of shocks fail so put them on a similar machine at the same place and the same guy passed them More to do with how nice the bike looked!. Testers vary a lot

[Bryanj]

Dont just vary with look of bike and testers burnt breakfast, at least not when i was doin em.

16 yr old om moped----HAMMER IT cos you knew it was only going to see a workshop once a year and had no idea what a service was


71 year old on a Lambretta that did  50 miles a year-----Has it got an even number of wheels!!!!

[matthewmosse]

I'm fairly sure my first bike saw way more tlc than any other I've owned. I used to follow owners manual religiously, pre ride checks every day etc. Remove rear wheel every month or less to check rear brake wear. These days I'm too busy to fix anything that ain't properly knakered and don't feel the need to check things as I know from expirience how long any part lasts Mot center I used to go to hammered my bike every time, diagnosing kappoked rear shocks, cush drives etc. I tested them out by fitting the apparently dead twinshocks off one bike onto another and they were miraculously fixed. I didn't even bother to clean em! Result, I never went back as on their advice/ mot failures I'd forked out

[Bryanj]

Perhaps the tykes round here were different in the late 70,s Had one DT50 or MT50 (cant remember which) on which I ran out of space on the old handwritten failures putting 3 to a line!---ALL LEGIT I hasten to add, Worst was not only were the wheels at least 2" out of line but with the rear vertical, frame looking same, front was at a distinct angle; Front end was fitted totally wrong such that the speedo and brake cables went forwards before loopin back in an incredible arc that would catch double deckers and the only reason the rear brake worked was because the pedal dragged on the ground.

Yes there were "kids" that looked after their bikes but they were in the minority and you could tell within seconds of strting the test which category they were in.

Older people still had their "quirks". Had two tests, one before and one after dinner on identical bikes and when i went for dinner to the shop found them swapping front wheels as they only had one decent tyre between them-----Had to pass both as the test is on the vehicle "AS Pressented" and at the time of test!

Still made a note on the carbon just in case the bald tyre caused an accident on the way home!

The As Pressented one I still use today on my Mitsubishi L200 Diesel pickup as i disconnect the pressure pipe between turbo and fuel pump to cut the smoke---Tester knows i do it and can see it BUT cant actually do anything about it, not even an "Advisory", but he does keep copies of smoke tests for 3 months(not just mine i hasten to add) even though the ministry sez he dont have to.

I have always said that MOT testing needs a fair bit of latitude but the Ministry seems to be disagreeing and trying to tie the testers hands nowadays on all the "In the testers opinion" categories

[matthewmosse]

Just goes to show, you get all sorts. The shop by us having no competion can be a right pain. Issued my friend a dangerous vehicle notice and made him push it home cos the front tyre was low on one mot! on the other hand sounds like the breed of young scamp you had needed a lesson in reading the manual. An awful lot of bad maintenence can be down to a lack of basic know how, but some poeople do I agree take the piss.
I geuss the powers that be tying testers hands is due to places like the one nearest me, according to one former mechanic there it stems from the head mechanic not liking older machines and hence hammering anything that was built more than about 8 years old cos he thinks they should be scrapped. On the other hand at shop down in Hereford I watched one mot while I was waiting where they didn't bother with most of the test, like rolling road ect. I would'nt be happy at that either. Mot shulld be about safety. If it ain't safe it sholdn't be on the road untill it is.. The place I use normally give lots of advice during the mot which is useful.

[Bryanj]

If your not far from Hereford you aint a milion miles away from me, have to try a pint together sometime and chew the fat

[matthewmosse]

A pint sounds good, sometime...... I'm in the middle of extending the workshop skywards, adding a second floor with a chainhoist so I can do engines in a seperate room to my welding and fabrication so far a total of 8 engines mostly with dodgy gearboxes have made thir way skywards to await attention which is creating some room. But some way to go before there is room to fix my proper bike rather than borrowing the better halfs all the time. Then I can go for a few longer rides.