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Killswitch, legally needed?


wild foamy
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Hey peeps.

is there anything stopping me from removing the killswitch from the bars and simply shutting off the ignition from the key? i.e. will it pass an mot or any inspectionwithout one? trying to neaten up the bars on the FUCR, luckily i still have a set of clubmans under my bed so they will have to suffice for now.

plan is run the bare minimum, possibly jawa style ignition whereby the key is turned beyond the ignition position to illuminate the lights.

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Well....................

You can always try and find a place that will do a moody MOT, my mates chopper has no hand controls at all uses the key to shut off the bike like you want to do and has the vintage high beam switch on top of the light unit and his passes the MOT, but its one they call a "moody MOT". Basically once the bike has gone in for the MOT and nothing falls off they will give your the cert if you come and get the bike within 4 minutes. As long as nothing is stupidly dangerous and is a risk to both the rider or the public then they are "ok" with it.

Ok the killswitch is there to kill the motor in the event of an accedent, most accedents will kill the motor for you.

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Yeah I'm with Noise on this, the switch only shuts the engine off in case of an accident other wise the wheel can still turn while the bike is on it's side, back in the 60s and 70s it was not required and it was only the Japanese that started the kill switch idea. So yes you can have a non kill switch bike but like most ideas it came about because people got hurt by the bike AFTER a crash, some one would try to pick the bike up while it was still running and it would take off up the road if they had no idea of what a bike could do without the clutch pulled in, so if you don't really care what happens to the bike and passers by in the event of a tumble then it's all yours to play with.

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Not even all modern bikes have a physical kill switch, so I'm not sure if they're a legal requirement.

For instance, on the YBR, it's a tilt switch - if the bike goes on its side, it gets tripped.

I also see no [obvious] mention of it in this: http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual/mc_contents.htm

How accurate that is, is another matter.

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I use the kill switch all the time on my draggy, but that's because its a fiddle to reach where the key is, on my old XJ600 the key was between the clocks so hardly ever used the kill switch.

MOT tends to be if something is fitted it should work, so if you take it off then it should be fine.

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Right Steve, good news. I have been helping my MOT examiner do my MOT test for the last twelve years or so. The reason being is they are out in the sticks and are a family business so are not interested in making money from MOT failures. How I help him is once he wheels the bike into the bike MOT area and checks the front suspension and rear suspension he then gets me to sit on the bike and go through all the other checks etc. But he never checks the kill switch.

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Speedo is not even an M.O.T. Item, so a kill switch shouldna be,, has to start to hear exhaust, but nowt about killing engine,,

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The kill switch on my DR650 doesn't lock in once pressed, so presumably doesn't work correctly. Still passed the MOT though!

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My classic Mini used to pass its MOT despite the obvious lack of cat converter. Purely because I knew the MOT guy and he used to own a classic himself. I still owned the cat, and used to bring it with me for an MOT, but ultimately he printed off a doctored emissions test from a similar car which had passed.

He got paid, I was happy, we both won. As a result, even if it was a legal requirement (though not so according to previous comments), you'll always find someone happy to pass it!

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