MOT Fail - Help i need some advice!

[Dan]

As the title suggests my bike just failed it's MOT and i'm fairly pissed off about it as i'm currently trying to sell the thing!

It failed on two things:

The first is the front brake pads are knackered - Fine i can replace those easily not a problem.

The second was that it had excessive "notching" when turning the handlebars with the front wheel off the ground, which i was told is the steering head bearings. The guy demonstrated it to me and i could indeed feel the notching when turning the handlebars left and right.

For those in the know, does this sound like the correct diagnosis for the notching?

I was quoted over £200 for the work as apparently it takes ages to dismantle and then get down to them, about 3 hours.

Time aside is this an easy job to do as i might just do it myself rather then pay out £200 plus retest fees for a bike i'm desperately trying to sell!!

Also i had an advisory 'Rear roller brake test indicates slight fluctuation of brake effort' what could be causing that?

I hadn't noticed a single damn one of these things the bike rides, brakes and turns absolutely fine (for a 5 year old scooter with 19k miles on the clock) and i just want to get rid of it so i make some room on the drive for a CBF. its very frustrating. Any advice much appreciated

[Joeman]

there is a lot of bodywork on those scooters, but it shouldnt take 3 hours for a professional to change the bearings!

and i bet there is a quick way to do it without removing too much body work.

sounds like he didnt want to do the work...

If you have the time and the tools, give it a go.. whats the worst that can happen??

[eastanglianbiker]

1st off if you leave the bike with the mot place to change the headrace bearings then retest should be free of charge normally but as bearing set is no more than £25 then £175 labour does seem a bit over the top and have to agree with other op that they have priced it as they not keen on doing the work but will for a price like that

[Dan]

Cheers for the advice.

After ringing around and getting similar quotes, I ended up getting in a strop and sticking it on autotrader yesterday afternoon minus the price of all the work that needed doing. By 7pm i'd flogged it!

Im pleased as that means i don't have to spend money and time on something i'm trying to be rid of and i have yet more £'s towards getting an actual bike, but it all happened so suddenly, now i have no bike at all and i don't like the feeling

On the plus side it's bike shopping time