MOT Woes

Ok the B12 isn't quite vintage or classic, 1996, but I took it over to
Scotland last Friday and arranged ahead to get it MOT'd in Greenock.
Haldanes, a nice old gent with a small shop firmly roots in the 1970's. He
has passed every bike I've taken there since 1978.....until now.

This Bandit is completely non standard but he didn't blink about the
chassis, the exhaust the mini speedo etc etc but in the course of completing
the online details we ran up against "Lack of Indicators". Now it hasn't had
any since it was Streetfightered and I have always believed they were
optional - working if fitted only. Duh Duh, all bikes made since 1986 fitted
with running lights must have functional indicators. The Inspectors are
getting very hot on the tail of MOT testers and he couldn't let it slide. No
small job to fit them so he gave me a print out passing all items bar one,
not a fail but not a pass.

Back at home in my Bangor garage I had a stash containing a solid state
flasher unit and various sets of indicators. With an MOT booked in
Newtonards this morning I burned midnight oil and fitted all the requisite
parts. I prefer it without but it doesn't look too bad. 09:45 and the
examiner, in NI the MOT stations are Govmint, looks over the bike and
declares everything, including the new indicators, satisfactory......except.
He walked of mumbling and returned with a book and a buddy.

Lah de fucking Dah. Vehicle regs are different in NI. A speedo must display
MPH and KPH as we share a land border with another EU country. Mini Speedos
only come in one or t'other. Oh and there is the engine breather, which can
be seen here www.photobox.co.uk/shared/photo.html?c_photo=32884367

"In NI Sir they must be routed into the airbox"
"There is no airbox, it has K&N filters"
"you will need to refit the airbox or route the breather into the K&N"

They didn't fail the bike but gave me a form to bring back once the mods
were completed. So now I have choices. Spend countless hours fitting this
here Acewell 3850 Digital display (1) and make it <cough> look as if the
engine breather goes somewhere else....or ride it back to Scotland to show
off my new indicators.

Perhaps I'll throw it in the back of the garage to rot and ride the RD400
through the winter )

(1) another item in the stash and very sexy but very complex to install, it
was heading to eBay before this.

 

How do you get a Ducati MoT'd in NI, then? Because my 750SS (as did all
SSs of that era) came with an MPH-only speedometer,,,,

Mini Speedos

This has to be bollocks. I can't see the engine breather being in the
MoT. I mean, what of any number of SOBs which just vent to atmospehere?

 

Mine does for one. A dirty great tube venting into the atmosphere, of
similar bore to the Monobloc fitted.
However, this has never been an issue at MOT, but they made me fix a
reflector to the rear mudguard because of some horrid retrospective UK
legislation.

BTW, have you seen those Maplins solar-powered 12v battery trickle
chargers, ½ price at a tenner? (L58BF)
As soon as they get more in at Cheltenham I'm gonna grab one. Very
useful I think, for that laid-up bike.

 

I guess you need to stick on an overlay

Emissions controls?

 

Not retro-active. If they were, you'd never get any old vehicle on the
road. And think of steam lorries....

 

SNIP

How about something like this for the speedo -
http://tinyurl.com/wq5kt
cut out the numbers you need and stick them on for the test. You could even
cut off the "M" and make up a "K" from the leftover bits if you wanted to
add "KPH".

 

Can't you just fit a cycle computer (push bike variety)? Some of them
can display up to 300 km/h, and be programmed to display either mph or
km/h. Being more accurate than the standard speedos, they are actually
of some use as well.

 

Stick-on strip wiv kph on it.