General topics » UK MOT Tests

What’s folks experience of such things.

My bike reaches it’s 3rd birthday late in June and is booked in for it's first MOT on Tuesday.

I use the same little local garage for my tyre fitting, so today I asked if the 2018 tightening of MOT rules should worry me.

“Mustn’t be noisy” he said. So I’ve replaced my Akra baffle for the day.

I asked about my HID headlamps and he said they’ll be OK if they’re not flashing (whatever that means).

Fingers crossed.

Apologies that I don’t know the answer to your question about the MOT test but please could you explain how tricky it was to remove the baffle from your Akra exhaust, how it sounds without it and how you can put it back in place, as you intend. Cheers.

I love it. I like a bike to sound like a bike not a lawn mower. Without being silly noisy.

I run the Akra silencer (muffler / can) without baffle all the the time. I do use moulded ear plugs, but these are more to combat wind noise than exhaust noise.

With the Quick Shifter I love the Snap, Crackle and Pop that happens automatically on the up and down shifts.

I chuckled one day after boarding a ferry when the rider behind me admired the bark from the exhaust simply after a normal start up.

Anyway - to your questions.

Getting the baffle out or in isn’t as easy as you’d expect.

1.Pull out the rubber plug on the outer casing. Find a long slim 8mm socket of some kind. Discover that the small screw will not undo easily as the clever Akropovic man has tack welded the securing bolt to stop it falling out. So apply a LOT more force than expected to shear the weld securing the bolt. DO NOT DROP IT INSIDE THE OUTER SKIN if the can is fitted to the bike or else you’ll have to take it all off.

2. Grip the removable baffle with pliers and find that it does not pull out easily. Using the baffle with Big Boy Mole Grip type wrench, grab hold of the baffle and wrestle it out of the can by twisting and pulling. Then go lie down to recover.

3. Take a fine file and clean up the removable baffle to remove all the rough areas so that it slides in and out of the silencer easier next time. While admiring the new permanent flat spot on the baffle caused by your Mole Grip wrench.

4. I refitted the baffle while the can was off the bike for wheel removal. An easy job with 2 bolts provided you threw away any superfluous “Heat Shield”. Having slid the baffle in, ensuring the securing screw hole is lined up perfectly, now figure out how on earth will you insert the very small securing screw Go find a plastic bag and with the small screw in your long, slim 8mm socket, push the screw through a corner of the plastic bag and insert it through the outer wall of the silencer into the baffle. Turn it once or twice and then pull the plastic bag out. Finally tighten the screw so that the baffle doesn’t blow out of the can at high speed.

Thanks very much for your post, I’m going to give this a go today as per your instructions. Really looking forward to hearing the exhaust with the baffle out, hope I don’t lose faith as it sounds like a devious mixture of brute force and delicate touch!

Good luck with your MOT test, they will
probably never realise!

Of course the bike passed the test. Clean for another 12 months.

So out comes the baffle.

Just don’t lose that little screw.
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