Monday 28 May 2018

Getting the Fleet Back on the Road


If you follow this blog you will notice that, since the start of the year, I've been riding my Suzuki SV650 exclusively. However I've got three roadworthy bikes and my master plan was as follows:

Honda CBF250 -  winter bike, general running about town
Yamaha FJ1200 - longer runs and touring
Suzuki SV650 -    back road fun

Well, for one reason or another (mostly laziness on my part) I ended up using the SV for everything. It's such a great bike this works ok. It is small, light and agile and fine for running about town. It's also goes as fast as I could reasonably want. But I decided to get the CBF & FJ back on the road. In the UK this means getting an MOT (safety check) and paying some tax.

The advantage of this is that I can do some maintenance on the SV. Also it's not a good idea not to use older bikes. Strangely random things seem to go wrong with them when just sitting doing nothing in the garage.

The CBF has been unused since the start of the year. It needed an sprocket carrier bearing and we were going on holiday……. The FJ hasn't been used since October 2016. I don't ride it over the winter so it didn't seem worth taxing & MOTing it. I intended to use it last year but with a broken collar bone it just seemed too heavy.

The FJ & the CBF are both well-used. They have a lot of years and/or miles between then and so it was a little worrying whether they'd pass the test. As it turned out they were fine.
My fleet
The FJ's MOT certificate - 76 miles until it goes round the clock!

2 comments:

  1. Glad you are getting them all ready to ride. Gives you more choices too when you are planning something.

    Do they charge you an arm and leg to get the MOT certificates?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was out on the FJ today and it was strange riding it after a lay-off. I don't really need three bikes but the variety is nice.

      An MOT test is £30 ($40) - I think the guy gave me a small discount for two bikes. It's the road tax (vehicle excise duty) that bugs me - £88 for the FJ. Gwen's car (a Ford Mondeo - a large car by UK standards) is £30 - I feel a rant coming on!

      Delete