My thoughts exactly when I was on the phone to another biker buddy in the last place (after they failed me), my friend asked 'why dont you get them to do the work?', to which I replied making sure everyone could hear in the shop ' I would rather do the work myself as I wouldnt have to pay for the work and I know it will be a good job'.

Almost in a sarcastic tone as this was the second test I paid for with them and I had done everything they asked them to do, including waiting for very expensive bearings for nearly 2 months! As you can imagine I was very upset....

But you live and learn! Now happy my baby is back on the road (THUMP THUMP THUMP)

You know..You can phone Vosa. Especially now you have a valid MOT, they will refund you for your old failures (probably) and the testing station will maybe be reassessed.

Why is that? because I went to another station and they passed it?

You can contest an MOT easily. Even easier when you get it to pass elsewhere. I've never done it or had it done to me but I know it happens... Worth a phone call at least..

I've just had a similar experience to Rfothy, so thought I might share this as it may be of use to others.
2001 XT600 4PT, 25000 km recently failed a WOF (MOT) due to excessive swingarm vertical movement, which was about 10mm at the wheel end of the swingarm.
After checking with a lever under the rear wheel to locate the source of movement, I found the most movement coming from the Relay Arm centre pivot where it attaches through the swingarm, and a lesser amount of movement from the shock lower mount.
I removed the relay arm and with micrometer and dial verniers measured the-
1/ Relay arm centre bolt(which passes through the swingarm)- found no wear.
2/ Relay arm centre floating hardened solid bush(which the centre bolt passes through)- found no wear or ovality.
3/ Relay arm centre outer bushes(pressed into arm)- found no wear or ovality.

Bolt to floating solid bush clearance = 0.005"
Floating solid bush to outer bush clearance = 0.004" (0.1 mm)

So a total of 0.009" play which must be standard clearances.
So renewing the bolt, or either of the bushes is not going to solve the problem.

What I did was dot-punched the mid-section of the bolt where the solid bush is positioned multiple times to enlarge it and reduce the bolt to solid bush clearance of 0.005" down to approx 0.001"
The solid bush is extremely hard so should withstand the rough surface of the bolt.
Greased and reassembled. Swingarm vertical movement now down from 10mm to 5mm.

I then checked for the cause of the shock lower mount movement and found-
1/ The pin had no wear
2/ The relay arm top holes where the pin fits had no wear as the pin can't rotate.

There was some minimal movement approx 0.003" between the relay arm and the pin, which is a slide fit secured with a splitpin and can't rotate.
There was some minimal movement approx 0.003" between the pin and the shock lower bush which floats.

What I did here was to dot punch the top holes in the relay arm multiple times to reduce the diameter so the pin was a firm push fit.
Greased and reassembled. Swingarm vertical movement now down from 5mm to 2-3mm.
Rechecked WOF(MOT) and passed.:thumbup1:

Although the movement at the shock or relay arm bushes seemed minimal, it is exaggerated by a ratio of 1:6 due to the length of the swingarm.
There is no spec or wear tolerance in the shop manual, only swingarm "side" movement.
It would be good if we could provide written proof to an inspector as to what is acceptable.
I wonder how much vertical swingarm movement these bikes have when new?
since Rfothy has renewed all bushes and still has 10mm movement, and I had 10mm movement with unworn original bushes. :confused1:

Bob

I've checked brand new, out of the box bikes, of all makes and models and plenty of them have play. Its determining where the play is. If its a Bush or bearing then yes it can be an MOT problem. If its the shock then a qualified bike mechanic would know that play can be normal.

Like I said earlier, the problem is you have car garages and other non qualified people doing motorcycle MOT courses and not really capable..