Motorcycle failure heatmap

Every make fails its MOT on something — but not the same something. This maps the 25 highest-volume manufacturers against the main failure areas. Each cell is that make's defect rate in that area versus the whole-fleet average: 1.0× is average, red = fails more, green = fails less.

Make	Pass	Brakes	Tyres	Lights	Steering	Fuel/exh.	Structure	Drive
HONDA	82.1%	1.1×	1.1×	0.9×	1.1×	0.8×	0.9×	1.2×
YAMAHA	80.6%	1.1×	1.2×	1.1×	1.0×	1.2×	1.2×	1.3×
SUZUKI	81.2%	1.1×	1.0×	1.0×	0.9×	1.0×	0.9×	1.5×
KAWASAKI	81.9%	1.1×	1.0×	0.9×	1.0×	1.0×	0.9×	1.2×
TRIUMPH	87.5%	0.6×	0.5×	0.4×	0.4×	0.4×	0.5×	0.4×
BMW	89.8%	0.5×	0.5×	0.3×	0.4×	0.2×	0.3×	0.1×
PIAGGIO	78.1%	1.1×	1.5×	1.6×	1.4×	2.2×	1.1×	0.0×
HARLEY-DAVIDSON	88.5%	0.3×	0.4×	0.5×	0.2×	0.6×	0.3×	0.1×
DUCATI	87%	0.5×	0.5×	0.6×	0.4×	0.5×	0.4×	0.4×
APRILIA	75.4%	1.6×	1.3×	2.0×	2.2×	2.5×	2.2×	2.6×
KTM	81.8%	0.5×	0.9×	1.2×	0.9×	0.3×	1.1×	0.6×
PEUGEOT	69.4%	2.6×	1.7×	2.5×	3.0×	3.0×	1.5×	0.2×
LAMBRETTA	88.1%	0.7×	0.4×	0.7×	0.5×	0.5×	0.2×	0.0×
GILERA	68.7%	2.0×	2.0×	3.2×	3.7×	3.9×	2.4×	1.4×
BSA	91.1%	0.2×	0.3×	0.3×	0.4×	0.4×	0.2×	0.3×
SYM	75%	2.0×	1.7×	1.6×	1.3×	2.5×	1.6×	0.5×
MOTO GUZZI	87.3%	0.6×	0.5×	0.5×	0.4×	0.3×	0.3×	0.0×
ROYAL ENFIELD	89.5%	0.3×	0.3×	0.5×	0.2×	0.3×	0.5×	0.2×
LEXMOTO	63%	3.0×	2.1×	3.4×	3.6×	0.6×	8.4×	1.4×
KYMCO	74.3%	1.6×	1.8×	1.8×	1.6×	2.1×	2.2×	2.0×
NORTON	91.9%	0.2×	0.3×	0.3×	0.2×	0.3×	0.2×	0.2×
VESPA (DOUGLAS)	82.2%	0.8×	0.7×	1.5×	1.0×	0.8×	0.6×	0.0×
AJS	77.6%	1.4×	1.2×	1.8×	1.5×	0.7×	2.7×	1.8×
HUSQVARNA	79.6%	0.5×	1.1×	1.6×	1.2×	0.6×	1.0×	1.0×
BUELL	85.6%	0.4×	0.5×	0.7×	0.5×	0.7×	0.5×	0.1×

Ranked by MOT test volume. "Defect rate" counts recorded defects per 1,000 tests in each area, so a high index means that make picks up that fault more often than the average bike — not that it always fails. Source: DVSA anonymised MOT results (classes 1 & 2), 2005–2025. See the methodology. Embed or query this via the free API.