Honda-SOHC
SOHC.co.uk Forums => CB500/550 => Topic started by: Mozza on March 03, 2011, 11:22:12 AM
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So I'm turning my cb500 into a cafe racer, how much can I remove before it becomes non road legal? I'm planning on removing the centre stand completely and just using the side stand and I would like to remove as much weight as possible for that clean race look. I heard that you have to run a chaingaurd to make a bike road legal is that true? Can I remove the fenders completely or are they a legal requirement? Can I run the bike without a horn? Having never built a bike before it's difficult to know how much to remove before it becomes illegal. Cheers in advance.
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Bryan's an ex-MOT tester so he'll know all this, but...
You must have a horn
You must have a chainguard
Not sure about mudguards
If indicators are fitted they must work
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Apparently you can take a frame, engine and wheels for an MOT if you like. Some say you need a brake light but I dont think thats true. You dont need any lights of any description. Anything fitted has to work as already stated but its very loose after that. You would only get a daytime MOT of course.
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You would only get a daytime MOT of course.
Yes - forgot about those...
That could be the answer for a cafe racer.
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Don't really like the idea of having a curfew for my bike plus I want to be safe. practicality over aesthetics, I want a good looking bike but I'm not going to compromise my visibility on the road ( one of the main reasons why my current road bike is bright orange yet people still don't seem to look out for me)
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Apparently you can take a frame, engine and wheels for an MOT if you like. Some say you need a brake light but I dont think thats true. You dont need any lights of any description. Anything fitted has to work as already stated but its very loose after that. You would only get a daytime MOT of course.
Not actually true, you must have a working method of warning i.e. horn, and if registered after 1/4/86 you must have working indicators. As said, everything else must work if fitted. More info on chronolgy here http://thames-valley-region.mag-uk.org/Pages/legisla_chronology_of_motorcycles.htm (http://thames-valley-region.mag-uk.org/Pages/legisla_chronology_of_motorcycles.htm)
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Not actually true
Bloody close though...you only need a rubber-bulb horn on the bars if its pre-86, which i assume all bikes on here are.
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;D
I actually did that way back in the 70's when my 500/4 failed due to a faulty horn. As I was in a bicycle shop (many MOT stations were in those days), he sold me a cheap rubber bulb horn, watched while I fitted it and promptly passed me.
I then went home and took it off (and fixed the horn eventually)
One of my bikes failed recently as the Cibie Z-beam headlamp was actually French and dipped the wrong way. No MOT tester had noticed this since it was fitted 20 years ago!
He gave me some black tape and checked the beam pattern as I masked off various bits of the lens. He then passed me and suggested that I remove that ugly black tape once I was out of his premises...
;D
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About twenty something years ago I built a cafe race cx500. I turned the handle bars upside down, replaced the saddle with a strip of metal with carpet glued to it, put on a different headlamp, removed everything I could do without and, being a country boy, made my own exhaust system out of tractor parts. I had chopped down the front mudguard to about seven inches because I wanted to keep the fork brace. When I took it for the MOT everything was fine apart from the mudguard which I was told must cover one third of the circumference of the wheel. I took it home and attached some plastic onto each side using self-tapping screws. It was good enough for the MOT man and as soon as I returned from the MOT station I took the 'extensions' off again.
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The front mudgaurd can stay I suppose but the plan was to remove the rear mudgaurd and mount the brake light and licence plate directly under the seat to shorten the back of the bike up but if I need to cover more of the rear wheel that idea might be out of the question. I have been using a lot of the USA modern cafe racers as inspiration but obviously they have more lenient laws over there.
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I'm sure that things which sit on your bike for the MOT can easily 'fall' off again when you get home....
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Mozza, I just noticed you are in Aber....( I am over carmarthen way ) i know Aber well, especially ciliau aeron, trefenter lake area, roads to lampeter (back and main) llangurig roads and over to Tregaron ..etc.
I also know that what is legal for the MOT is not the same as what the Old bill in wales will accept...
Motorbike shop in Carmarthen built a racing bike and sidecar, they got in legally Mot'd with healights brake lights and horn, indicators etc, it was a beautifull build, and flew through the MOT. They went out on it, the cops pulled em immediately ....when they argued it was totally legal, the cops said "we don't care we don't like it, its only 22inches tall, what would happen if you went under a truck?" All attempts at argueing the law failed... The bottom line was "get it off the road or we will" With cops like these about, what can one do?
There are many instances of folk who have travelled the world without incident , just to get pulled over and haranged as soon as they come down the M4...
West wales cops dont understand a "noisy" exhaust is a safe exhaust as folk can hear you, usually before they see you, as can little kids that may jump out etc.
Anything that the cops here see as "unusual" has to be pretty much perfect and safe, which I am certain your build will be... Unfortunatley I believe in the UK you do need a front mudgaurd....
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I went to college in carmarthen, we have some good roads down this part of the country, can't wait to finish this build and take it out for a spin, best place to to test my first ever classic bike. Couldn't agree more with you about the cops in this part of Wales I know plenty of people who have been pulled in cars and bikes for trivial reasons I know they are only doing their jobs but it can seem a bit much sometimes. I remember reading in mcn a while back about a guy who was pulled over because his licence plate was millimetres too small when a guy came speeding past them well over the speed limit and they kept going on at him rather than catch someone doing something that puts others in danger. There's a certain officer everyone knows in this area who does that sort of thing but I won't name names.
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Indeed Mozza, It got so bad for me, everytime I went into town they pulled me... then they said "we will also pull anyone we see you talking too" So I became a hermit for a while.
They are magic roads though? (watch out for slurry and diesel)
The roads over Telsarn are magic especially the "old way " of getting from Lampeter to Aber (accross "the tops") Is "the graig" cafe still open in aber? (good woodburner but no meat on the menu)
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The graig haha I just asked my dad about that place as I had never heard of it, he reckons it's been shut about 10years. The council forced them to fix it as it was falling apart. I really don't get what the police have against motorcyclists sometimes I have a mate who is a pcso and he came over to me and another mate of mine who has a bike and after saying hello the next thing out of his mouth was are those standard cans? And he was looking around for markings on them it's like it's drilled into them as soon as they start.
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oh no !! that was the best cafe in Aber, on a cold day ( okay every day) you could sit in there round the woodburner, a lovely Jotul. ..And a great meeting place. IS the "angel Inn" still there, that was Okay..
The other good thing to do in aber, was to visit the army ex suplus and buy para boots...oh and buy 2000AD comic cos it came out on a wednesday there and it took till thursday before it got to lampeter...ah good days... thank your dad for the info....if you get a chance ask him were folk go instead of the graig would you?
thanks.
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I have been out of testing for some years now but remember that Bulb horns are only legal for bikes registered prior to 1st August 1973. If you got to:-
http://www.transportoffice.gov.uk/crt/doitonline/bl/mottestingmanualsandguides/mottestingmanualsandguides.htm (http://www.transportoffice.gov.uk/crt/doitonline/bl/mottestingmanualsandguides/mottestingmanualsandguides.htm)
You can read the official testers manual to find out what you can and cant do
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There are many instances of folk who have travelled the world without incident , just to get pulled over and haranged as soon as they come down the M4...
The cops in West Wales are bad enough, but that evil barsteward who used to run North Wales constabulary, Richard Brunstrom aka "The Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban" was worse by far! I remember when he used a photos of a dead biker in a press conference to show just why he was down on bikes, the poor sod was hardly cold in his grave and there's Brunstrom showing pictures of the guy's decapitated head (without his family's permission) to illustrate a point! >:(
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There are many instances of folk who have travelled the world without incident , just to get pulled over and haranged as soon as they come down the M4...
The cops in West Wales are bad enough, but that evil barsteward who used to run North Wales constabulary, Richard Brunstrom aka "The Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban" was worse by far! I remember when he used a photos of a dead biker in a press conference to show just why he was down on bikes, the poor sod was hardly cold in his grave and there's Brunstrom showing pictures of the guy's decapitated head (without his family's permission) to illustrate a point! >:(
I remember hearing about that, absolutely disgusting he could do that. The angel is still open yes, not sure if that's a good thing though. I have lived here all my life and can't remember there ever being an army surplus store, my dad reckons that might have been shut for 20 years!! I don't think there is an alternative to the graig as everything is steadily shutting down it's becoming a real ghost town.
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Mud is the answer to all your problems. During the summer, in the countryside, thousands of people come up from the towns to rip it up on our twisty roads on their shiny metallic rockets and to be honest I can understand that the local police get annoyed; I have seen some pretty irresponsible riding.
However, if your bike is caked with mud, you're wearing the uniform (tweed and gum boots) and you have either a lamb or a sack of pig food bungeed to the back, you will be recognised as a local lunatic, saluted and waved on.
I was recently pulled over for going, in the officer's opinion, too fast. The first thing he asked me was if I was local. When I told him where I lived and apologised, admitting the foolishness of my actions, he advised me to ride more carefully in future and sent me away without further to-do.
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I'm only a few miles up the road 12 miles from Machynlleth but appart from my Susuki FZ50 days - that ped was totally stock and so uncool it was cool but got stopped 6 times in the 6 months that I had it as daily transport. Anyway appart from that 1 bike I've never had so much as a second look from the law on my bike round here (well had a polite note to let me know my carb was leaking and they'd turned the tap off, left on the bike in Newtown once) Given the bikes I ride that's surprising. My 500/4 sported for most of my time on it a triumph rockett 3 exhaust that emmitted such a growl that I heard the previous owner delivering the thing from a clear 6 miles away. That bike was from Brecon and the previous owner had also notced she was never stopped on that bike.
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Getting back to the bike...i'm pretty sure that you need a chainguard if you're not going to have a pillion space ie. a single person seat...but I would have one anyway so's not to get splattered by chain lube being flung about. I don't need to have one on my KTM enduro to be road legal as it has no pillion carrying ability at all...but I have one fitted to try & keep as much mud off the chain as posiible. I also don't have indicators even though it's a 2004 model, even though the bike came with them as standard. I removed them & the switch & the bike flies through the MoT without even an advisory.
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Inicators, or blinkers as our US cousins insit on caling them, have to be fitted to all ROAD motorcycles registered AFTER 1st August 1986----Ash your KTM dont count 'cos its designed as an OFF ROAD vehicle