Still no MoT for Pepé!

It's two weeks just gone since I had my second eye operation and I am on leave from work until the 19th April.  I was told not to ride the bike for two weeks in case the air streaming through the virus blew some dust into it that may undermine the wotk they had done.

Lockdown eases next week and so from the 12th I ought to be able to get the bike MoT'd and taxed for use on the road.

I am hoping for some good weather to be able to give it a good clean.

I need to give Laguna a ring later in the week and book it in.  

Pepé MoT!

I slipped walking the dog. My foot slid forward in some mud and I over extended my left knee.  As a result I am in a lot of pain and walking is very painful.  Paracetamol hardly seem to touch it!

So the visit to Laguna Performance Centre for tomorrow noon will have to be put off until later in the month.

I have a date for the other eye to be operated on to remove the cataract and so I need to get Pepé  tested either before 20th March or after April 6th. The latter would suit me better as that's when I am on leave from work.

Pepé Tax

Every year we have to pay a tax to the Government to be able to use our vehicles on the road. Over the years it has had a few different names and since the 1930's hasn't been spent on the roads! It simply goes in the Government's coffers to spend where they like.

In a pandemic we are expecting the huge financial burden to be spread across taxation, both directly like income tax and of course, indirectly on things like purchases and that includes petrol and the vehicle tax. 

The Government still calls it "Vehicle Tax" although loads of pedants will try and make out it is an emissions tax.  It is vehicle tax that used to be based on the engine capacity of the vehicle and vehicle type. Now it is based on bands depending on the noxious emissions your vehicle pumps out.

As Pepé is currently untaxed and in the garage, I won't have the reminder form V11 sent to me from the licencing agency. I will have to login to the vehicle tax website and use the unique vehicle number on my V5C, what we call the logbook instead.

We no longer display a disc in the car or on the bike to show the expiry date of the vehicle tax. At one time the vehicle was taxed and that stayed with it until it ran out.  If you sold the vehicle, the tax went with it.  Then in a brain storm of incredible money grabbing madness they made the tax more personal.

Why money grabbing? For example.  I tax Pepé from March 1st 2021 for a year. This expires February 28th 2022.  On June 10th I sell the bike.  I send off the change of ownership to the DVLA. They then refund me any unused months of tax. Unused. So I lose the tax for the whole of June.

The new owner has to tax the bike. His tax runs from June 1st.  He pays for ten days he hasn't had the bike.  I pay for 20 days I've not had it but we both end up paying for June.  Under the old system the new owner would not have to tax it until March 1st 2022. Whilst this might not sound all that bad for one vehicle. Think of how many vehicles are traded every day? Every year? It all adds up.

Pepé MoT!

The MoT ran out on the 19th February and so I need to book it in to be legal to ride to the testing station. I have chosen the take it to Laguna as usual.

Called and the earliest they can do it is Monday 8th March at noon. I am probably not going to get too much riding in before the end of March but this should prepare things for getting out and about. 

The first date in the Government's roadmap to get us out of lockdown is not until the end of March!

I can't tax it again until I have the MoT in place.

Urged to sell....

It's always difficult.   Claire pressuring me to sell the Rocket now that the Kettle is due home any day.

To be brutally honest I don't want to sell the bike. I had a guy come around from a "we buy any car" kind of place to give me a rough idea of that it was worth and after nearly three hours they said that they didn't want it.  

I was a bit miffed at that as I had taken off all the personal bits that I wanted to keep, and now I have to piss about putting it back on to use the bike as the lockdown is brought to a close.

It runs perfectly and has been regularly serviced. It's five years old and so there will be a few marks but generally it is is in good condition.  Paint good and no body damage.

Claire wants to replace the Corsa at some stage and as I get nearer retirement we won't need two cars. Mine is not worth much in any case. A ten year old diesel Insignia is worthless. Having a diesel engine makes it as evil akin to having pissed on one of  the Queen's corgis. 

We were told by the last Labour government to buy diesels as they were more economical than petrol and then they shit on us. Made us into social pariahs.

Once that goes for a song and we have one car she wants something bigger and I have to contribute.  So that means the Rocket has to go.

We'll have to see how it all goes.