Buying a bike without an MOT?

[whockin]

Anyone ever done it?

Do you usually just run a mile?

Reasonable to ask the seller to put it through one?

Any advice and comments welcome!

[pompousporcup...]

if its a good price and has service history, an MOT shouldn't be an issue

all IMO obviouisly.

[Baggyman]

done it but generally with complete basket cases.

I would think about why no mot - is the seller too useless/gormless/mateless etc to get it there (insurance etc) or is he Arfuring you?

How comfortable are you going over the bike yourself?

It may be possible to do a deal with him to mitigate risk - e.g. agree price subject to mot with you both sharing the mot cost, if it fails, either walk or take some more bites out of the price
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Old fart
Baghira, modded GS1000 and the T150 I bought in 1978 when I was 21

[BTTD]

I've never known a seller not get an mot if it'll pass.

[Fizzoid]

Bought my YBR without an MOT. It looked ok, although had been stood a fair while, and started/ran fine, so I was expecting anything it would need would be related to it being stood

The guy I bought it off had a van so delivered it to my local bike mechanic, and it needed the front brake freeing off which I expected, as well as a headlight bulb and new grips.

Chain/sprocket were ok, and I had the oil changed as well. Fork seals went about 5 weeks after the MOT, but that was no great surprise either, seeing as it'd been stood for so long


I did check the MOT history of it online, to see what it may need first, and it showed nothing. My mechanic said if it starts/runs fine then there shouldn't be any major issues, and it was a decent price, so I took a bit of a gamble, but I could still probably give it a clean and get my money back on it
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Rogerborg wrote: It'd certainly make it easier to ego-find my own posts on pages, given the number of fags (gay like traps) who insist on putting my name in their .sig

[tom_e]

Any advert with the words "No MOT but should sail through" puts me on edge, if it'll sail through spend the £30-40 getting it done even if you have to get a mobile mechanic to pick it up and sort it for you which is my plan with my old YBR.

If they're not willing to throw 10 minutes and a little cash at it to make it much easier to sell and for another couple of hundred quid then it doesn't feel right.

[Polarbear]

[hellkat]

I'd not personally, but that's cos I are mechanically clueless.

I don't perceive it as, like, a major crime for a bike to be advertised without one, cos there are loads of people who are looking for something specific and don't mind tinkering to get it there. There's always two sides to every story.

Case in point: I often have bikes which for this or that reason I've not got the knowledge/ability to get it thru an MOT, so I'd just buy another bike that has one, and eventually sell the other one, by which time the non-MOT'd bike has sat for a bit, but nothing substantially wrong with it, except I haven't got the brains/time/manpower to fix it. So don't completely vilify people who do sell them without MOT; you could be missing out on a not-bad little bargain.

But yeah, those "Yeah mate, it will shoot through an MOT no prob" merchants, I'd take someone who knows what to look at.
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Motorhate]

1. Get registration of the bike

2. Check the history of the MOTs of said bike here:

https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

3. Check last MOT's advisories. These will more than likely be what it will fail on.

4. Make an assessment of how much said advisories will be to fix. Offset this against the asking price.

The number one rule before I even look at a bike is to check the MOT history and advisories if any. You can learn a lot about a bike that way without even looking at it.
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Current - Harley Davidson FXDB Street Bob | Harley Davidson FLTR Road Glide | Harley Davidson Road King
GONE - Honda CB500 Ratbike | Yamaha FZ750 | Yamaha XVS1100 | Kawasaki VN2000 | Kawasaki ER-6 F | Harley Davidson XL883L Sportster

[The Shaggy D.A.]

I bought an untidy CB400/4 with no MOT off a workmate. It had been standing for a while, but got it started and it ran OK, and a spin around the block gave me no red flags. I'd do it again, but the price would have to reflect the potential outlay to get it through an MOT. Although...

[Rogerborg]

It's not as suspicious as with cars, since plenty of bikes are garage queens.

Also, having an MOT means very little, especially from a dealer. You still have to assume that any bike is a Vince Candelin Special until proven otherwise.

Ballpark, I'd knock off £100 plus anything that needs done. But it's the hassle of doing MOTs that puts me off more than the potential cost. It's not 10 minutes[*], it's more like an hour once you're there and back, which means at least a half day off work per vehicle (and I have loads, being considerably richer than yoww).

One thing that really puts me off is "Will MOT for buyer."

Oh, you'd rather reduce the appeal and value of your bike while still putting in the same amount of your own time and money, would you? Seems legit. And you think that handing over the money is the start of some preparation process? If I wanted that experience, I'd go to a dealer.

Bike is ready pay monies ride away.

"Will MOT" is at best a sign that you're an idiot, more likely that you're a liar, or possibly both. That's not a good basis for starting a negotiation.


[*] My MOT Man does the tippy-tappy to start the "test", chats for quarter of an hour, does the brappy/beepy/flashy/bouncy/shiny/brakey bits in a few minutes then issues the pass after the required 20 elapsed minutes that keeps Friend Computer at the DVSA happy.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[thx1138]

[tom_e]

[andym]

To date the bikes I've bought with no MOT (and how much was spent to get them through the MOT) are:

First scooter - £350 (didn't need any work) - sold for £50
Intruder - £250 (spent about £600 on parts) - sold for £950
Diversion - £175 (didn't need any work) - sold for £670
GPz - £250 (project bike that was never intended to go back on the road, spent around £400) - sold for £50
CBR600 - £550 (didn't need any work) - sold for £600
ZX9R - £1500 (spent around £120 on a rear tyre and caliper seals) - current bike

The only one I really took a chance on was the Ninja, as that was bought unseen, but the seller told me about the problems (other than the back tyre).

[chris-red]

An MoT on a bike is worth about £50 extra for me. That is purely for the cost of the MoT and the convenience of having it done.

I can do all the MoT tests for a bike myself in a 2 minutes test ride and 5 minute look over.

Anyone buying a bike should be giving it a far better look over than an MoT tester does.
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Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
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WANTED:- Fujinon (Fuji) M42 (Screw on) lenses, let me know if you have anything.

[Baffler186]

It's becoming more common to avoid MOTs now I think, ever since they were veiwable online. In the past, one could get a failure but just hide the slip and say "will fly thru easy". Nowadays there's no hiding from failures, so I guess if people have any doubts it's less risky to just not get one done and try to blag it.
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Current: 2009 SV650 S, 1990 Kawasaki GT550
Previous: 2009 CBF125, 1998 GSF600, 2004 FZ6 Fazer, 1978 CB400a Hondamatic

[davethekwak]

I'd happily buy a bike without MOT. Know enough about bikes to assess what will need doing.
It doesn't surprise me that sellers don't put a bike through MOT. If bike is not insured and they don't have a van then getting it to the MOT station could prove expensive and not reflected in the additional selling price.
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ZX6R G2 (1999) & ZX6R F2 (1996). I like ZX6!