Sig Change.

I've never, ever had one, and it's hardly a deal-breaker anyway.

 

No, but - as the man said - it's a good clue as to the honesty of the
seller.

 

Yes, true enough. Presence of it shows an honest seller: absence
doesn't necesaarily show a dishonest one.

 

Presumably, only the most recent is of any note. If there is no advisory in
the subsequent year(s) then one should assume that either a) the MOT
inspector that issued that advisory was a picky bastard or b) the owner had
the problem fixed.

In my case, the inspector queried a slight play in the rear suspension. I
agreed with him. He issued an advisory. I had it adjusted out by GAMI to
tweak the paralever bearing[1]. When the same bloke retested the bike the
following year the problem was not present. The fault was identified in
2007. Would knowing what that fault was influence your decision to buy a
bike 4 years later?

[1] it's needed doing twice in the 50,000 miles I've owned the bike

 

I've had one the last couple of years, for the chain being too loose.
It's adjusted according to the manual on the tight spot and having had
shops do a chain like a bow string I'd sooner it was a little slack.

 

If that ever happened to me, I'd ask what the slack should be for my
non-standard suspension settings & sprocket sizes, & when they couldn't
answer, I'd want to know how they can claim it's 'excessively loose'
(MOT manual wording) when they don't know what it's supposed to be.

 

I definitely check numbers: dodgy wheel bearings are one thing, like
Sweller I expect to bid to buy, but dodgy provenance is something else
entirely.

If the bike was clearly misrepresented then sure, I might argue the
point, but if it's stuff that's a little optimistically described then
I'll definitely let it go: I don't expect perfection at the sort of
prices I pay. Mind you, if I'd known all that was wrong with the V11 I
bought 18 months ago, I'd definiely have bidded much lower.

Speaking of which, I'd still like to know its history. It was almost
certainly a demo or loaner from Speedaway Motorcycles at the start of
its life.

It has been crashed, and it has lived outside for years, but when was
the crash? Did it languish, broken and unloved for years in some
garden? Actually, probably not: I'm sure the odometer would've faded
unevenly if that had been the case. Or was it crashed and patched up
just after its recent MOT? The overall condition says otherwise,
though.

HPI reckon 'no mileage anomolies' and the clocks seemed to be in a
similar state of wear and tear and corrosion as the rest of the bike,
but the headlight brackets were smashed, so the headlight had to be a
replacement, so maybe the clocks were, too. Or maybe it's done a full
100K+ miles. Then again, maybe the clocks were replaced before its
first MOT and it had racked up quite a mileage in those three years.

It came with a three-month-old MOT (that I checked online) but no way
would it have got through an MOT in the state I bought it. So maybe it
was crashed and patched up *after* the MOT, but the damage looks quite
old.

It's a mystery.