As awareness of user-conducted motorcycle inspections has spread widely, isn’t it becoming harder for motorcycle shops to do business?
I hear stories of people getting their inspections done on their own.
But when I say, “Well, you were lucky,”
“????? ” Huh? It’s been fine until now…
That’s just how inspections are.
In the end, humans are doing the inspecting, and inspectors have to check both four-wheelers and two-wheelers.
It’s nearly impossible to keep all the old standards and current standards in your head.
The fact is that the inspection site is always busy, and there are inevitably many things that get overlooked.
And sometimes things fail because the inspector lacks information. So if we don’t know the inspection standards ourselves, we end up in situations where the conversation can’t proceed logically.
It’s important to know whether aftermarket parts you’re changing are inspection-compliant.
The most common problematic phrase I hear is “it passed last time.”
( ﾟДﾟ) Wait?
Just because it passed last time doesn’t mean it’ll pass this time.
If I’m being mean about it, there are plenty of problem areas. It’s almost entirely up to the inspection site.
If I were an inspector…
First,
rear racks and boxes would almost certainly fail 100 percent of the time.
There’s a length issue, so be careful. They’re rarely checked, but if they start checking, it’ll be a big problem.
Mirrors
“All motorcycles manufactured on or after January 1, 2007, and all vehicles with type approval granted on or after January 1, 2005”
These are relatively new, so they’re pretty unrelated to us, but I have a feeling most people who replace them fail.
LED turn signals
Cheap ones you’ve never seen before. Flickering or ones where one light doesn’t come on basically fail.
It’s not just about lighting up.
Hyper-flash has gotten better recently, but there are also flash rate requirements.
Handlebar lock and key cylinder markings
Common on custom bikes. Some have no handlebar lock due to reduced steering angle, or the “ON/OFF/P” markings are missing, which is also not allowed.
There are many more things besides these.
At the inspection site, people often say things like “that owner’s bike is definitely going to fail…”
or “that shop didn’t check that…” pretty frequently.
Also, nowadays everything is managed on terminals, so if there’s a problem and someone tries to escape to a different inspection center, it gets caught anyway.
Pay attention to engine stamps, JWL, secondary air, and all that, okay? (*’ω’*)
