Very Grey Area, as per usual the people who write these rules never seem to actually live day to day riding etc. with them, hence so many grey areas. I can see both sides, if you have rear seat then you could carry a passenger, hence need foot pegs etc. To CHUCK another spanner in the works, if your insurance does not cover you to carry a pillion, then do you need rear foot pegs, (suppose if you let another rider use your bike who is insured to carry a pillion), Crap the combinations are endless
Still nothing stopping you removing the cowl and a passenger jumping on with no pegs, so MOT tester must assume all possibilities.
Apparently according to my motorcycle dealer that's acceptable and will pass because a pillion won't sit on the cowl. Funny that but my mate picked me up from shop had pegs but only a cowl fitted that was a scary 3 mile ride home as I was sliding all over the place.
I got an advisory for not having footrests (with a pillion seat fitted) years ago on my 916 - passed the MoT though.
Tester discretion I guess. If it's the only issue on an otherwise well maintained bike then I guess a lenient tester might verbally advise, but it's their testing licence at stake. If DVSA are waiting outside to spot check then that could be nasty for the tester. In that context then really your opinion on the matter isn't his problem, and his interpretation of the rules should err on the side of caution as it's his (or her) livelihood at stake. If you dispute the tester's decision then DVSA / VOSA would be your escalation path. If I was the tester then I'd encourage you down that path. The supply of the bike without pegs would be your word against his.
If you are faced with an MoT failure, it may well be something that is going to be expensive and complicated to fix. And if you need the bike for transport, you may have little time available for fixing it. If it turns out that all you have to do to pass is attach the pillion pegs (time taken: five minutes; cost: nil) you should think yourself lucky and stop whingeing.
its the same with cars, (dependent on age) if there's a seat fitted there must be a belt in acceptable working order. remove the seat , no problem but the seat belt must be removed also. there is wee proviso tho, if there's a child seat fitted you don't need to check the seat belt. so, fit a child seat before you represent it cupid. it will be fine
I have to agree with the Oracle on this one. Doesn't say 'if they're present ' it says 'that they're present' However, I would read that in context of the riders seat, as it specifically mentions the riders seat earlier. 2.16 These will be inspected to check that they’re present and fitted securely. If you have them it's easy enough to fit, unless of course the lugs have been removed for some reason....
You know sometimes when you have an opinion, and some interesting experience or facts about something, but really don’t want to be dragged into a ‘conversation’? But I’ll do it anyway. It must be at least 15 years ago that I took a hacksaw to the rear of the frame on my Z1000H to cut the rear frame rails out and weld them back in behind the side panels to tidy up the back end. I’d done a Monoshock conversion years before that, and was never happy with the look of it. At the same time I removed the pillion footrest mounts, took about 1/3 of the length out of the original saddle, and shunted the rear frame section and tailpiece forward by that amount. At the next MOT I had a long ‘conversation’ with the MOT man, who insisted the saddle was still long enough to carry a passenger so it needed pillion footrests, and he failed the bike. I went home a bit annoyed, but instead of shortening the whole back end even more I took the opportunity to cut down and fit a ZXR400 racing single seat unit I had hanging around instead. The MOT man was happy that as there was no rear seat fitted the bike didn’t need pillion footpegs. Nasher.
You'd hope that the MOT tester would take not having a seat on as enough of an indication of not carrying a passenger and pass you. I reckon if you have a seat (and not a cowl) then they should assume you may want to carry a passenger. I don't think they should say that you could take the cowl off and for a seat later; because the bike is presented for MOT as it is, not as it might be later. By that argument you could argue that I could remove the wheels and fit fish tanks instead and fail me on that.
