Have the ‘opportunity’ to buy a bike at a competitive price, however its ABS light doesn’t extinguish on setting off. I had a BMW r1150 with the same issue but that had had the servo removed. It always passed its MOT with the bulb removed, on a 51 bike. Anyone know if on 06 bikes it’s a requirement that the light goes out?
It should be a fail, but how it actually plays out will be down to the diligence and legal savvy of the tester. I don’t know your specific case, but I think that if a manufacturer offered the same model in the same year without ABS, because that is then part of the type approval for that model, it would be permissible to present a bike originally equipped with ABS without the ABS working so long as the system on the tested bike completely matches the non ABS version - same master cyl and caliper sizes, no pump, no pipework, no dash light.
Thanks. Is my thinking, I’ve done a little more research and the answer seems to be it’s a pass as it isn’t compulsory on motorcycles before a certain date. Hence why my r1150 passed with the light illuminated as it had the servo removed as they’re notorious for failing.
There is no requirement to test any of the abs system on a motorcycle So if the light is on its pass with advisory
Interesting - I'd have thought that MOT testing would throw an ABS fault anyway, as only one wheel's rotating on the brake test Not been able to look over a tester's shoulder for decades, so I'm only guessing....
When I bought my r1150rt with an ABS fault it passed its brake test on the rollers. However out in the real world they were obscenely pathetic. BMW laughingly call it residual braking when the servo fails but you’d be better just putting your feet down. Some poor gent had his ABS fail coming off the slipway of a motorway 2 up with full luggage packed……
My Gen2 S1000RR started throwing the ABS light on the first application of the brakes after start up. Turn the ignition off and on again, and it stayed off for the rest of the day. It was 5 years old but I'd had it serviced at BMW every year from new, and after some haggling BMW replaced the £1200 ABS unit. Feckers made me pay the labour though.
