‘Dodgy brake would have made it really hard to control’
MoT failure could’ve been far worse
The owner of this Kawasaki ZZR1400 barely touched the rear brake as he hauled the high-speed beastie to a halt – and that habit nearly cost him dearly. When Doncaster Motorcycles inspected the machine for an
MoT, mechanic Kevin Hollingsworth, was amazed to see how rarely-used the Kawasaki’s rearstopper had been.
He said: “He is one of those riders who does all his braking with the front discs. Although the pads were quite well-worn, they were within limits. But if he had used the rear brake in an emergency stop it could have locked on solid and pitched him off. That would have flatspotted the rear tyre at the very least, which would then make the bike really hard to control.” Because the rear pedal hadn’t moved for months corrosion had sneaked into the pivot point and stiffened it up so that it didn’t return when the rider took his foot off, keeping the pads in contact with the disc. This would lead to brake ‘drag’, which would have worn the pads down to the metal in no time. Many riders are blissfully unaware of MoT faults and don’t even bother to give their bike a once-over before it’s examined, that’s especially daft because you can download the same motorcycle MoT Inspection checklist that examiners use from the DVSA. On top of that, 20% of MoT failures involve brakes.
Kev added: “It was only four bolts to get the assembly off and grease it all up again, so it only cost £20 to sort, when he could have needed a new tyre or a new bike if he’d had to use the rear brake in anger.”