Certifying a hardtail | GTAMotorcycle.com

Certifying a hardtail

TK4

TK4

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Just a hypothetical question.
Saw a Sportster the order day that the owner had replaced the rear shocks with (crudely made) struts.
When certifying something like this, or a RYCA kit Suzuki LS650 conversion, is it up to the discretion of the mechanic as to whether or not its roadworthy, ergo safe ?
I know it'll handle like a POS, but I couldn't find anything in Ministry guidelines to indicate one way or the other ?
 
strictly speaking out my azz
but I feel if the modification is obvious
where it could pose a safety problem
a decent licensed mechanic is going to notice it
and although the parts fall within the general guidelines of the MTO
they will not write a safety certificate for it
 
TK4 said:
I saw that, and it essentially covers condition of existing parts. But when they've been removed and replaced entirely ?
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In this case, both springs and shocks are missing. If you wanted to remain in compliance yet still have a hardtail, install the heaviest spring you can find. The rear suspension won't work anymore, but that law doesn't refer to functioning properly.
 
I would be worried about fatigue and cracking with a home-made setup like that.
 
Oh you young whippersnappers are so much fun. Replacing shocks with struts was a relatively common modification in the early seventies. It is of course a stupid idea but lots of guys did it. Today it would not pass a safety, now if you put your sportster engine in a custom rigid frame, that was fabricated as a rigid, most mechanics at a chopper shop would safety it. If you want to check out really stupid stuff, look up fork slugs, used to extend front ends on a budget, really dumb and dangerous. Yep, we used to do some pretty dumb things, in the pursuit of being cool. Now get off my lawn.
 
FLSTC said:
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900611#BK8

SUSPENSION, WHEELS AND TIRES​
4. (1) Front and rear springs, shock-absorbers, swing arms, their supports and attachments shall not be loose, bent, cracked, broken, excessively worn, disconnected or missing.
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If I was taking the easy way out and fabricating struts rather than building a new tail section, I could still pass no problem. A decently welded strut with good poly bushings and tight tolerances will go a long way in such a case. In this case there are no missing, broken etc parts. The shock has simply been replaced with a solid swing arm support.
 
A few years ago I started dreaming about buying an old Yamaha xs650 and building a hardtailed bobber out of it. There are weld-on kits available from TC Bros. So, I started looking into everything it would take to do it LEGALLY and spoke at great length with a bike shop owner who does things by the book and won't bend the rules for certifications. He said that his shop would not certify a bike that had been modified in that way and most other shops he knew wouldn't either. According to him, the way to do it is to buy the bike stock, have it certified and THEN start modifications. Once the bike is yours and certified you don't have to re-certify it after it's been modified. The down side being that after you build your hardtailed dream and get bored of it, it's a really tough sell as the next guy most likely won't find a shop to certify. Basically if you think you want to build a bobber you should plan on keeping it for life! lol
 
That's another reason why a solid strut with poly bushings and tight tolerances would be a good solution. Safety with shocks, switch to struts, back to shocks for resale.
 
JTR said:
If I was taking the easy way out and fabricating struts rather than building a new tail section, I could still pass no problem. A decently welded strut with good poly bushings and tight tolerances will go a long way in such a case. In this case there are no missing, broken etc parts. The shock has simply been replaced with a solid swing arm support.
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The problem with this is when they changed some of the certification standards last year one of the points was that anything replaced had to meet OEM specifications.
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