Daytime MOT - Police view

Originally Posted by DarrenSV650S

I got stopped tonight and they said they were not sure whether it was legal or not. I told them about the mot and how I am not to use the bike at "times of seriously reduced visibility" - as it says on the mot advisory note.

This wouldn't happen to be tayside police that pulled you by any chance. They seem to be having a big purge on bikers at the moment. Plates, exhausts, Visors (not doing the tint test) No bsi kite mark then fail.. daylight sunny with clear visor in visor bag, does not matter. Rumour is they have a new boss who seems to be anti bike, not making them popular (even with the other forces) so be carefull if you are riding up that way.

[DarrenSV650S]

Originally Posted by Kilted Ginger

This wouldn't happen to be tayside police that pulled you by any chance. They seem to be having a big purge on bikers at the moment. Plates, exhausts, Visors (not doing the tint test) No bsi kite mark then fail.. daylight sunny with clear visor in visor bag, does not matter. Rumour is they have a new boss who seems to be anti bike, not making them popular (even with the other forces) so be carefull if you are riding up that way.

Yes it was tayside police. They didn't mention my slightly smaller than normal plate, or the "reprobate" slogan on it

I think the way to approach this is ask if the motorbike fits the definition of a motor vehicle, that being a mechanically propelled vehicle that is intended or adapted for road use. If it does then it has to be registered with the DVLA and you need insurance and a driving licence to ride it on a road. The next thing to look at is when the bike was manufactured, what lighting did it come with?
Your answer with regard to lighting lays within the road lighting regulations 1989, the exemptions are contained within 4-9A....

What you need to remember is MOT regulations are different from those of the used by the police, construction and use, lighting regulations etc. if you have no lights and that's how your motor vehicle was manufactured then you would not commit an offence during daylight hours. However you could commit other offences for not having obligatory lamps if your vehicle is not exempt.

Hope this helps

Fraser01

I've seen someone get pulled for this on telly. Low and behold he was within his rights and was legal but by the time the old bill had figured that out it was night time

I rang the MOT testing station a couple of days ago to check my greenlaner. Maybe the rules are different again for these bikes but he said I didnt need to fit indicators back on but I needed a full size plate. It has brake lights, headlight and horn. It's booked in for Saturday so Ill ask some more questions and find out if there are any issues.

In sayig that I rang Jack Lilleys and they said the bike had to have all the original lights and switch gear re-fitted.... but gut feeling is he wasnt up to speed.

The police have (comparatively few) special officers trained as vehicle inspectors who know the regs inside out, to the level of an MOT and SVA tester. I doubt your typical traffic officer is any more likely to be well informed than we are about construction/type approval regulations. Some of them don't know the subtleties of plate size rules off the top of their head. When they see someone riding a bike they think might be illegal, but not actually marked with "not for road use", nor excessively loud, they usually detain people till one of the vehicle inspectors is free. I saw on one traffic cop program where they detained a chap out riding on his early R1 trackbike (insured, taxed, completely road legal, albeit daylight MOT). They thought it was illegal because of the lack of lights, indicators, etc. they called out the vehicle inspector. 2-3 hours later when he arrived and decreed it fine, it was getting dark and the poor chap was forced to get a mate to come out in a van to collect him and the bike as it would then have been illegal for him to ride it. Absolute nuggets. The local force should have been made to pay for van hire to have it taken home, sent all traffic officers basic construction regulation training and issued a formal apology for the inconvenience to the chap concerned. Instead, they had a bit of a chuckle about how it was illegal to ride it now and maintained that, "well it might be legal, but it's stupid to ride without lights and he shouldn't be doing it". Which is just about the most backhanded admittance of being in the wrong I've seen.

Not having a rant at traffic cops in general, by and large I think they're pretty good and some of them know their stuff, but fundamentals about what is/isn't road legal is integral to their role in policing the roads and should be included in their basic training (with periodic retesting thereafter).

[Ch00]

Any decent copper that didn't know the answer there and then should ask for advice from the control room before making any desions. I dont know anything about daytime MOTs but have asked for advice in the past before making choices.

Ch00

Yup, i've checked this recently as I wanted a track bike on daytime mot.

Rear brake light
horn
Indicators needed (IF SWITCH GEAR IS ON BIKE, otherwise not needed).

Originally Posted by Daimo

Yup, i've checked this recently as I wanted a track bike on daytime mot.

Rear brake light
horn
Indicators needed (IF SWITCH GEAR IS ON BIKE, otherwise not needed).

You 100% on that? It might have changed in the past couple of years, but you didn't use to have to have brake lights, circa 2005. This was confirmed by a vehicle inspector police officer BTW, not hearsay.

Well your on the road, so common sense dictates that its a good idea to let the vehicle behined know you are slowing.

Local bike MOT tester said about it when I asked this exact question.

Kinda makes sense, "im just gonna hit the brakes WACK goes the car up your ass cos he didn't have a clue you were braking"

But then its common sense, so being in the UK, its probably not the case.