Well I spent yesterday morning down in Southampton yesterday at the DVSA Test Centre putting the bike through it's MSVA test! What I didn't realise is that you have to stay with the bike and get involved in some of the tests, which was good fun.
What wasn't such fun was seeing just how much utter crap has to be looked at in the "interests" of ensuring the bike is fit to ride in the UK. Well let's be honest most of it is actually pointless European legislation which we continue to adopt post Brexit!
Anyway the end result was that the bike failed on a couple of things which I now need to put right:
- It didn't have a speedo in mph. The guy who imported it and sold it to me neglected to mention this, and I didn't do any research to check in advance and took him on his word that it would sail through with no modification needed! My mistake and at least it is relatively easy to fix.
- It needs a Power Restriction label that states: The Manufacturer's name, the category of vehicle and the number of teeth on the drive and driven sprockets. Yes you read that correctly - it is clearly a danger on the roads unless it has a label attached to it!
The good news is that both things are relatively easy to fix and the even better news is that the bloke doing the test was a reasonable gent and has agreed to do a re-test via a video call so I don't have to bring the bike all the way back down once it is sorted. Apparently that is quite rare so I was fortunate in that respect.
So when I got home I contacted Mark at Seven Seas to see how they got their bikes through the MSVA - he is a proper gent and was extremely helpful and has given me contact details of a nice man in Lancashire who can re-programme the speedo for the princely sum of £75, and another guy who can make me the correct label. So fingers crossed I should be sorted in the next couple of weeks.
The other thing I might do is fit an Opimid (as recommended by Micky and others), and I have my name down for one as soon as they arrive in the UK.
And finally - I learnt that my bike makes a noise output of 86dB, which seems remarkably low to me and will be great for trail riding. Thank God I didn't have to get the Harley tested as I reckon it would have melted the tested device!
Will report back when I have finally got the thing registered!