Nick’s Bike MOT Shock

Well I have to admit I’m not a happy bunny, I took the last of our bikes for an MOT (well you have to show willing don’t you) and the bloody thing failed!!! I can’t remember the last time that I had anything fail an MOT. Well if I was being totally honest my Robin for Reliants to Russia Click Here (or to be exact A Reliant with the factory fitted Thunderbird 4 full body kit with optional solid rocket boosters) failed it’s MOT when the tester was checking the brakes and the whole hand brake lever ripped out of the floor in his hand but I don’t really count that as it was comedy!

Red, Not A Colour I Am Used To!!


If I was being honest we weren’t even going to bother testing Nick’s bike in any case, he owns the UK’s largest collection of Puch Maxi’s (really!) and doesn’t deserve a legal bike, loser! When I told him it had failed he declared his trust and faith in the British MOT system, fickle tosser, only the other day he was moaning that he had to test his Puch’s at all, he thought it would be fine for the local bicycle dealer to give them a once over, he has a point though!

I had given the bike a full pre MOT check (which involved putting the kettle on) prior to throwing it in the back of the van and taking it down to the local while U wait testing station, while I was waiting (oh that’s why they call them that) I made a fatal mistake and started to fall into a deep coma brought on by reading a 10 year old copy of Readers Digest only to be snapped out of my trance by the receptionist looking for a 73 year old grandad with gout and a variety of interesting war stories, the natural owner of a T80.

Once she had got over the fact that such a bike could be owned by a nubile young man such as myself she gave me the news that it had failed the MOT on 3 points, firstly the nearside front indicator was insecure (I have to admit I did notice it was a bit loose but as they will be gone completely the first time Nick demonstrates his riding skills and bins it I didn’t think it was important) which is no big deal but the other 2 items were the “nearside (& offside) rear suspension has severe distortion of a load bearing member or it’s supporting structure”! What the hell does the mean? I got the tester to come out and show me what was wrong and he said that it was the rust in the rear mudguard as the seat was mounted on it. I tried to explain that it was only Nick and humanity wouldn’t miss him but he said that it had to be sorted “and no filler”!

Looks Fine To Me!!


I got it home and took the grinder to the bike opening up a miniscule hole you can see in the photo below (Nick, the fact you can see right through the other side is an optical illusion and there is not another gaping hole in the other side as well, you know I put your safety First), I don’t know what all the fuss was about. A bit of welding (using the well known fire proof properties of a Stella box to protect the tires) later with a couple of brackets that are used to bolt roof trusses together and it was good as new ;-)

It's Just A Rust Spot!!
















It’s The Quality Of the Bodge That Counts!!


I took it back for a re-test and it sailed through although the tester did say he was amazed that I had bothered and I should have just scrapped it, I wearily drew breath and once again explained that it was only Nicks bike and it would be funny when he didn’t even make it to Dover but as the tester has had the good fortune not to meet Nick he didn’t really know what I was on about, I asked him for a bit of video for our diary but he refused to be interviewed and walked off muttering something about a prat to himself.

Never mind, I’m just sitting at home waiting for the £100K cheque from Readers Digest to drop on the mat!