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The "Beast" has her first MOT under my ownership this week, just wondered if there were any common themes in MOT failures among Falcos? (apart from loud exhausts, I am hoping for a tame examiner on that one)

Not heard of anything specific - just run through the usual list before you go and things should be OK.
Most common cause of all MOT failure is lights - ensure they work and don't forget to check the horn.
Make sure you have a rear reflector.

Often Falco rear brakes are fairly useless but I can't recall anyone failing an MOT because of this.

I've had mine over 4 years and around 20k miles and never really had any real problems at all, never mind an MOT fail. Ride all year round as well so I have been well impressed!
Only issue for me has been the rear brake light switch which gummed up a couple of winters ago and could not be freed up, so had to replace it.
After around 22k miles I had to replace the steering head bearings but that was more down to the Falco's willingness to wheelie and me not always landing em as good as I should.
Has sailed through every MOT test with no problems at all, as already said by DR. just do the usual checks.

Is the rear reflector built into the rear light unit or do you need a separate one? Never really paid much attention except to check the rear/brake lights work

2000 bike with blue flames and she's never failed an MOT yet.

EdinburghFalco wrote:Is the rear reflector built into the rear light unit or do you need a separate one? Never really paid much attention except to check the rear/brake lights work

If you have a standard number plate unit, it should have one - if my memory is correct, it is located immediately below the number-plate light.

Make sure you've got a UK headlight, there's a sticky about how to check it and how to get a replacement from Aprilia. It may still pass if it has the EU light though as there's not a lot of difference in the beam pattern.

Mine failed on two things - the horn (which had worked two days before!), and the chain wasn't tight enough

Had the rear brake switch go before as well (as Howard pointed out) - picked up on at the service a couple of months before the MOT. Other than that, the only likely things are from wear & tear, rather than a common failure.

Nooj wrote:Make sure you've got a UK headlight, there's a sticky about how to check it and how to get a replacement from Aprilia. It may still pass if it has the EU light though as there's not a lot of difference in the beam pattern.

Even if it is an EU one, it should pass an MOT with the necessary masking applied to it (I found this out when investigating the EU headlight problem).
Not a long-term solution though - but your dealer should sort it out for you .... a good number of us have had this rectified.

Can't believe someone would fail you over a loose chain! Surely that's something which he knows can be quickly rectified, did he charge for a retest?

I think if it was just the chain, he wouldn't have done (I'd have borrowed some spanners and sorted there and then), but as the horn needed replacing, he put it on the slip.

No charge for retests - anyone who charges for a retest within a set period, I believe, is breaking the agreement with VOSA?

My 2001 model has been through every test with a Euro headlight, with no stickers on. I never knew it was an EU headlight until Andy's thread, and the testers have never noticed, when checked on the beam setter. To be honest if you do the simple shine on the garage door test there ain't much of an assymetric kick up to the side, and some bikes, like my old CBR1000 just seem to have a flat cut off anyway.

My test centre always check the chain condition and tightness by the way.

Poor chain condition would be a critical safety issue, so it makes sense to check it in the test.

Nooj wrote:Poor chain condition would be a critical safety issue, so it makes sense to check it in the test.

Totally agree - if he hadn't flagged it up, I might not have tightened it and it could have slipped off the sprockets (or even worse, worn through by exhaust and cost me money! ). Plus, if he let me go away with an excessively loose chain (which it was, excessively) then he bears some liability for an accident

FAILED: well actually it failed the pre-check I had booked it in with, rear tyre squared off, new chain and sprocket required and brake pads all round. I knew that the pads were coming up to needing replacing but I had hoped to wait a few weeks till its due a service. All in all about £300 to put right and as I am currently unemployed I'll need to put the bike off the road till I save enough pennies, a last ride tomorrow before the MOT runs out on Friday. so I am gutted and grounded!