Bikes with flaws you hate

The transmission from the Red October tractor works that BMW keeps putting on their bikes.

And the KLR too. I also wish they came with suspension. The 08+ KLRs at least have brakes, but to get brakes, they had to 50lbs of useless crap. Maybe in 20 more years they will get suspension and EFI, but they will probably have to ad another 100lbs for that stuff.

The one thing I HATE about my first gen KLR (besides no suspension or brakes) is the totally shitty chain adjuster. You have to line up the marks to align the wheel, but the marks don't match. If you line up the marks, the wheel is slightly crooked, which makes deep gravel LOTS of fun.

it be the old klr i had.

the massive weight that the bike had with a tiny tank. the bike should of been reframed with a newer lighter frame and then fi it with a bigger tank. would be best for offroading.

I hate clip-ons.
I hate the lack of a tach on the Buell Blast, and that the motor only makes 34 hp.
I hate the fact that I don't have the time and money to buy and ride all the bikes I want.

Love my strom and the lights are bright but.....

Why are "big" sportbikes like the ZX-14 and the Hayabusa just as cramped as the 600s? C'mon -- throw the big & tall guys a bone and stretch the ergos out a bit on just one or two of the plastic meateaters.

I mean, the Aprilia Dorsoduro is nice, but...

So do I...but then again I'm a little impartial

VStrom headlights....

The seat on my Suzuki bandit 1250 sucks, much too soft. I'm not sure if I ough to have it specially re-upholstered as I usually do only very short rides, (40-50 miles) on the other hand I'm planning to keep that bike for a long, long time.

It has always been my dream bike (except for the Honda CB 1300 and the Yamaha XJR 1300, the first was about 40% again as expensive as the Suzi and the latter guzzled gas like a tank) to the point that I have become very un-up-to-date as far as the current motorcycle market is concerned... before I bought it I devoured every motorcycle magazine I could get my hands on

so where are the throttle bodies?

They made them look just like those POS Keihin CV carbs!

REALLY wish that the KTM 950 had a clutch that operated the way a clutch is supposed to. It's my only real bitch about the bike, because it makes for crunchy shifting also.
Great bike, but the clutch sucks. At least it doesn't slip, so I should be happy for small miracles.

Chris

No thinstrom option ...

Thought of another one on my ride home yesterday. My BMW F800 has a "feature" on the dash which shows the temperature. If it is below about 36 degrees, the temperature displays starts to flash. It also overrides whatever else you have selected, in order to show you the flashing temperature warning.

Just irritates me. I already know it's cold! And it feels like the bike is repeatedly calling me an idiot for riding in the winter.

^^

The oil drinking motor on the 2008 KLR650

The horrendous fuel mapping on Ducatis

Do all duelys have to have hard as rock seats? I would think putting a stock comfortable seat on a bike would draw in lots of customers? It certainly can't cost anymore to make a seat softer. Could it?

The carb idle and transition circuits on the '86-'06 Concours. They're so small that they clog easily and require removal to clean, and R&R of the carb rack isn't the easiest task.

It might be just me, but the factory handlebar position on both my R1100GS and GTS1000 leave something to be desired - Too low and too far away in both cases - also at the wrong angle for my wrists in the case of the GS. The demand for adapters to raise the bars on both models seems to bear out my complaint, however. I am just over 6' tall and of normal proportions so it's doubly frustrating that both bikes have their footpegs slightly too high, although that is a compromise with ground clearance and seat height that I at least understand.

The GTS is a lovely and unique bike. It's comfortable, smooth, and great to ride but it was built with a number of other flaws, including mirrors that mostly show your elbows and a misguided 100HP restriction, strangling the magnificent FZ1000 engine to meet supposed European limitations that never came to pass.

I also don't get why Yamaha went away from having a functional self-cancelling turn signal system in the 70's and 80's.

My DR350 had a crap seat for any prolonged (over 45 min) ride but it might be argued that is not what it was intended for.

Japanese crap fasteners. Working on my Honda or Yamaha dual sporrts always meant rolling the whole damned tool chest over to it. You could count on about a dozen different sized bolts, nuts and screws. Then there were the idiotic phillips head case screws that were made out of some type of alleged metal that is about as solid as cold peanut butter. So the hand impact driver was the first tool out if you had to remove an engine cover. A drill was the second tool out because you could count on the heads stripping anyway.

My KTM's are not without their own flaws. But at least fasteners aren't one of them. I can actually do almost all of the work on them with the on board tool kits. And, more importantly, all of the case screws are 8mm hex head. So you can actually remove them and even better put them back in at the right torque with a normal torque wrench and socket. Somehow Austrians manage to build a bike with only three hex head sizes, one allen size and common axle nuts across the whole line.

Be glad you don't own a Ford 6.0 or 6.4 liter diesel truck(No, I don't own one). The cab has to be removed from the frame to do most any work on the engine...and people here complain about removing fairings and body panels on bikes for valve adjustments/oil changes.