Restricted? Get the proof
Kids today, you just can’t trust them. No really, you can’t trust them. Buy a 50cc somethingor-other from your average tracksuit-wearing school-dodger and there’s every chance it’s wearing an 80cc kit. That could land you in trouble if your licence or insurance doesn’t fit the bill. And the problem doesn’t stop at petrol-powered hair dryers either. The same game has long been played using 125s, too, with the same consequences if you’re an A1 category licence holder. And with A2 bikes often just being a remap away from compliance, it’s even harder to know if it’s kosher.
Spotting a problem
A 50cc bike that’ll do 60mph is clearly a ringer. If a bike is restricted by its OE exhaust and blanking plates is easy enough to see if they’ve been tampered with. Some bikes are impossible to fully derestrict, too. Take the A2 licence Z800e model: Restricted it will make 47bhp. Derestricted it’ll give 94bhp, but you can’t get it up to the normal Z800’s 111bhp, which also can’t be restricted to 47. The only real answer with a secondhand bike is to stick it on a dyno, which isn’t practicable. Buy from a dealer though and you can insist on them certifying the restriction as a condition of sale, giving you as much evidence and protection as you can hope for. Of course, you might rather take the benefit, and hope you never get caught, but that could be an expensive risk to take.