Crap, failed MOT

RedexRobB · Post by **RedexRobB** » Wed May 02, 2007 1:46 pm

ZX7R went in this morning for its MOT, bloke came out and asked

MOT guy -'how long you had this bike?'

ME - 'coming up for a year now'

MOT guy - 'oh, well i gotta fail the bike on the headlight, its not a UK one, the 'kickup' of the beam is on the wrong side so its completely illegal'

ME - 'crap'

It appears either the bike is an import or as the MOT guy said it might be that its been crashed and he replaced the whole lot with the headlight and didnt realise, stilll doesnt explain why it went through an MOT 3 weeks before i bought it tho

Expensive fix too apparently, been looking at new headlights and they are in the region of Â£300!!!! 2nd hand will suffice!

Anyone know of a mod? I cant use tape because the beam pattern is on the spotlight lense and not the lense cover, apparently rendering the idea useless. A whole new headlight job :smt013

Post by **Jamz** » Wed May 02, 2007 1:59 pm

Get a daylight only MOT and risk it?

Or maybe look at mods they used for endurance racers? Dunno if any would be road legal though...

Post by **Northern ANdy** » Wed May 02, 2007 2:01 pm

don't know about your headlight. This is a common one on the aprilia, with many being imports. I have opened up the light and stripped it right down to cheaply fix this problem. Inside the rs lights is a thin aluminium plate, which sorts the beam pattern out. I basically got some copper sheet, marked it out the opposite way around using the original deflector reversed. Re-drilled the holes for the pegs it sits on and heypresto.

Worth a try, your current light is scrap anyway, so win win situation.

RedexRobB · Post by **RedexRobB** » Wed May 02, 2007 2:10 pm

Hmm that sounds like a good idea andy. Theres a guy on the mcn ninjas forum who has modded his 7R headlight. Ive emailed him to find out more details but hopefully its something similar to what you have done.

superman · Post by **superman** » Wed May 02, 2007 2:25 pm

I know 2 ways you can fix this problem easily.........

1... Slip the MOT guy a few quid i know afew who do that, then you got all yr to save up for one
OR
You could just use the old lump hammer method you basically smash a piece of the faring in front of the headlight an say " if you dont fix yourself i swear". failin that hit the mechanic with the lump hammer.

Post by **masterofinsanity** » Wed May 02, 2007 9:47 pm

RobB take it elsewhere for an MOT. check the reflectors haven't come loose! yellow beam tape???ebay!!

Post by **Northern ANdy** » Wed May 02, 2007 10:07 pm

spose Rob would like to take advantage of his Â£10 retest if possible.

dan76 · Post by **dan76** » Wed May 02, 2007 10:42 pm

i put mine through mot a few months ago with an import headlight, he mentioned it to me but said it wasn't illegal and passed it. then again the mot is different over here. nobody you know living close by that would lend you their headlight for an hour or so? i've done that type of thing with cars a time or 2, or 3 or quite a lot come to think of it.

RedexRobB · Post by **RedexRobB** » Thu May 03, 2007 7:52 am

Update, the guy from mcn ninjas has emailed me back and all I have to do is take a piece out of the headlight and reshape it, which i might take the opportunity to do tonight, but doubt ill get in for a retest before the weekend unless they are open on saturday.

Yes i would definately like to take advantage of the cheap retest, finances are tighter than a ducks butt at the moment, student loan dissapeared like David Copperfield paying people back what i owe, now i gotta borrow again. Roll on summer job!!

Post by **masterofinsanity** » Thu May 03, 2007 11:40 am

see this robB http://www.ukmot.com/bike/1-1.asp

Post by **deviant** » Thu May 03, 2007 12:49 pm

something else in there which might be of interest RobB is that twin headlights have to be either stacked vertically or symmetric about the centreline.

seem to remember you having some sort of plan/photoshopped pic of twin offset lights - i guess that isn't allowed.

very interesting link baz.

superman · Post by **superman** » Thu May 03, 2007 2:31 pm

Iv read somewhere that it is illegal to have it dip the other side cos it faces the wrong way or somethin althoe to be honest i hardly use my dipped headlight anyway maybe to filter motorway traffic if its bad so why they moan about it ill never know

wonderpupp · Post by **wonderpupp** » Thu May 03, 2007 4:02 pm

on my ZX6R I get people flashing their lights at me cos they think I'm on full beam, so I flash that second headlight back at them and blind them

Why do cars flash at you anyway? What do they think they achieve

Car thinks: "Oh, there's an evil biker, I must flash my headlights at them to slow them down or stop them being dangerous."
Biker thinks "You flashed at me and now I've a blind spot where I need to see the road signs, so I can't ride properly. You Nobjockey."

Post by **deviant** » Thu May 03, 2007 10:45 pm

it's like if you are overtaking with someone coming the other way. YES, i can see you. Yes I have plenty of room. No I have no great desire to have a head on collision with you....and NO! flashing your fucking lights at me isn't going to help.

dan76 · Post by **dan76** » Thu May 03, 2007 10:51 pm

i just give them the middle finger when they do that, their reaction to that makes me snigger for a minute or two.