Good South London MOT places?

[cliff]

One for the Sarf Londoners, can anyone reccomend a good MOT test centre? My SV needs a ticket and I'm looking for somewhere south of the river that people have tried and trusted. Sorry to post this here but couldn't think of anywhere better to post!
____________________
Sweet reggae music.

[Fizzer Thou]

Shaft is a motorcycle MoT tester

https://www.bikechatforums.com/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=68967
____________________
Just talk bikes.What else is there?

Always have a 'Plan B'

[JohanTheAndro...]

[Nobby the Bastard]

I normally just take it to the nearest. It either passes or fails. They don't get any money for repairing it.
____________________
trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[davebike]

Call themselves motorcycle MOT London part Tower scooters
66 Beckenham Road BR3 4LS 020 8314 1660
I use them a lot (I am also Trade) good friendly honest
____________________
Dave
NC750Xdct + others at work !
davebike1@gmail.com

[hellkat]

Couple of guys in Falcon Road just by the overbridge at Clapham Junction station, can't remember what it's called, but they've got old Britbike labels in their front window.


Edit: Russell Motors

Suppose they're still there, been going for yonks.
I've not been down that necko the woods for a while lately, but they were always good when I lived down SW London.
____________________
Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[jimster]

Depends what you mean by South London but I used the Deptford branch of these guys last year for my car (they do bikes but I've never used them for that) and I was VERY impressed and they have a few branches in other places nearby like Dartford (that I've never visited). The one I used was:

https://www.thetestcentre.co.uk/
Telephone
0208 691 9827
Address
193-197 Edward Place, Deptford, London, SE8 5HD

They only do MOTs and don't do repair work so they claim they don't have any reason to fail you (whereas I've twice had garages falsely fail me in the past to try and ding me for unneeded work, a more common problem than most people realise). My car has plenty of minor issues but nothing serious and they did a proper check but passed it straight up while mentioning a few minor issues they'd spotted that I should get checked out (which I did and they were correct).

The mechanic also let my son go under the car and look at various bits and even play with the lift (it was quiet) . They have something like 4 or 5 bays and I just turned up in the evening and was the only person there so went straight in.

Main downside is that because they don't do work if you get a sufficiently bad fail you'll have to find a way of trailering the bike away as you won't be able to legally ride home and they can't fix any problems (or perhaps they do have some way of "helping you out" at an extortionate price but thankfully I didn't have to explore that....in fact I'll ask the next time I get an MOT what they do in that situation as it's better to be prepared than surprised!)

I have no connection with the outfit at all, I was just impressed overall and intend to use them again this winter when my MOT is needed. Although this is only based on a single visit a year ago so no doubt YMMV!!

OPTION TWO:

There's also a bike-only MOT place in South Bermondsey, but it has irregular hours and a grumpy & somewhat patronising but well meaning owner who gets great google reviews and who'll tell you before the MOT whether he thinks it'll pass who I used once but he told me my bike would fail (which I already knew) so to come back when it was fixed and he gave me a pretty detailed list of issues (without charging me!). His details:

Bermondsey Motorcycles - MOT Centre
Address: 330 St James's Rd, London SE1 5JX
Hours:
Closed ⋅ Opens 9:30AM Thu
Phone: 020 7232 1814

OPTION THREE

I also used Mick's Garage for my car MOT a couple of times a decade ago, there used to be an old owner who passed most vehicles with barely a glance (which can be good ... or not depending on whether you rely on the MOT as a replacement for regular servicing ) but it's now under new ownership and I've got mixed feelings from them when I called for quotes so haven't actually tested them out and their public reviews are a bit more mixed. I also don't know if they actually do MOTs on bikes which could be a problem for you

Mick's Garage
Address: 16 Bombay St, London SE16 3UX
Hours:
Closed ⋅ Opens 9AM
Phone: 020 7231 7300

There's also loads of other car garages in that area as it's an industrial dump / semi-war zone with cheap land (for central London...) and I'm sure there are other good ones I've missed (and many sketchy places who will fleece you heavily!)

There was also a big bike only place near London Bridge that I used about a decade ago, it's quite large and well known (at least it was as I can't remember the name and I don't know if its even still there) but I had some major issues with them as they missed a vital deadline before I went overseas for a half-year and as a result they had to store my bike in their garage that entire time (which they didn't charge me for which was nice although it was their fault so I would have grumbled had they tried!) and they also failed to properly fix the problems (they gave me the bike back with the engine set to rev at 3k at idle...!) and charged quite a high price, so I didn't use them again and wouldn't recommend them.

Another place is the motorbike rental shop just a few hundreds metres directly south of the Surrey Quays shopping centre, they do bike work but they seemed fairly expensive when I got a quote so I never used them but they did seem to know their stuff.
____________________
Current: Yamaha Diversion XJ900
Previous: Yamaha Diversion 600cc, Piaggio Zip 50cc, Honda CG125-W, Siamoto Caddy 50cc moped