Discussion
I now live on the West coast of Scotland ( lucky me ), and have the pleasure of traversing the roads from Campbeltown to Newtonmore regularly. So, this week at Fort William, one of the car parks has been taken up with many teams of trial bike riders. My question is very simple, is it legal to ride one of these on the "open" road? They have no lights front or rear, no indicators, no speedometer, no seat as such, and most have no number plate.....however, I have seen dozens of them using the A82 travelling between Fort William and Duror....a distance of approx 12 miles.
I'm guessing that if they have no registration number, then they won't be taxed or insured to use on the road. If an accident were to happen involving one of these bikes, what could the possible outcome be with regards to coasts ?
I'm guessing that if they have no registration number, then they won't be taxed or insured to use on the road. If an accident were to happen involving one of these bikes, what could the possible outcome be with regards to coasts ?
They are there for the Scottish Six Day Trial, all the bikes will have a number plate if you look hard enough, a horn and a speedo, nothing else is you mentioned as being missing is required to make them road legal. There's not much point in having a bike that isn't road legal, you would not be allowed to ride in the competition.
It's the Scottish Six Day Trial this week, hence the number scooting about. The bikes will need to be registered but they're down as 'trial bike'. The number plates are usually quite small to avoid damage, not sure about the legalities re sizing but never known anyone to have trouble. They need to be insured for road use as a rally car would need to be (here's a link; http://www.ssdt.org/2016-ssdt-scottish-six-days-tr... It's most likely they'll have a daytime MOT which gets round things like lights.
ETA:- beaten to it by a fair bit!
ETA:- beaten to it by a fair bit!
ks.delboy735 said:
I'd spotted it was the 6day trial. Thanks for the replies about road use. Was just surprised at the lack of lights etc. I know rally cars have to be insured for road use, but they do have all of their lights available and working. Anyway, question answered thanks 
You don't need side, head or fog lights for a car mot either...gazza285 said:
delboy735 said:
I'd spotted it was the 6day trial. Thanks for the replies about road use. Was just surprised at the lack of lights etc. I know rally cars have to be insured for road use, but they do have all of their lights available and working. Anyway, question answered thanks
You don't need side, head or fog lights for a car mot either...Saleen836 said:
There are two types of MOT for a motorbike, a normal MOT and a 'daylight' MOT
There aren't. There is one type of MOT. Should you present a bike for an MOT without lights it will pass, you'll get a normal MOT certificate with advisories for the items that are not fitted. Saleen836 said:
There are two types of MOT for a motorbike, a normal MOT and a 'daylight' MOT
No there aren't. Please stop propagating this myth.
Also - even if you present your vehicle without lights for an mot and get an advisory, there's nothing to stop you putting some on the day after and riding around in the dark perfectly legally.
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