What is the worst bike you ever owned?

[Bob Southgate]

1983 Laverda Mirage 1200TTS. Top heavy, vibrated badly above 4000rpm, poor back up from the UK importer and worst of all, thanks to a known defect with the valve springs, it needed a top end rebuild at 10000 miles as a result of a valve spring breaking and allowing the valves and piston to collide. Of course this happened 3 months out of warranty and the importer and factory didn't want to know. I wasn't sorry to see the factory go down the pan about a year later.

[Drummer]

Originally Posted by gelandestrasse

The one that let you down even though you took great care of it, or the one that was an absolute terror to ride: flexible flyer frame, "excuses" instead of brakes etc. ?

Oh that is way too easy to answer. Without a question a late 1970's Harley Davidson AMC version. It was a single cylinder 450 that was in the shop more than it was on the road. Handled like a 1940's REO truck (seen pictures, never drove one and can only imagine how they handled), and shook like a vibrating floor before you go into a clean room for computer science lab. What a joke of a bike. Parts literally fell off while you rode the thing and one time it was the rear break pedal.

[Erase]

Harley

[rivers]

This POS!!!



Left me stranded on many occasions...complete hunk o' shit!

It got so bad that friends didn't want to ride with me for fear of sitting on the side of the road with me.

Purchased from Santa Cruz Harley Davidson & Buell. They didn't give a rat's ass once the $$$ was in their hand nor would they help me in my efforts with Buell...

Fuck You Santa Cruz Harley Davidson/Buell!!!

Fuck You Erik Buell!!!

Fuck You Harley Davidson!!!

Never again!

[markjenn]

Originally Posted by Drummer

Oh that is way too easy to answer. Without a question a late 1970's Harley Davidson AMC version. It was a single cylinder 450..

Sprint SS 350 single? Other than some weird scooters and two-strokes, that's the only single-cyl 4-stroke Harley I recall (built by Aermacchi) and discontinued about 1974.

- Mark

[srosa]

2006 KTM 950 Supermoto. It was a complete lemon.

[Motornoggin]

Originally Posted by rivers

This POS!!!



Left me stranded on many occasions...complete hunk o' shit!

It got so bad that friends didn't want to ride with me for fear of sitting on the side of the road with me.

Purchased from Santa Cruz Harley Davidson & Buell. They didn't give a rat's ass once the $$$ was in their hand nor would they help me in my efforts with Buell...

Fuck You Santa Cruz Harley Davidson/Buell!!!

Fuck You Erik Buell!!!

Fuck You Harley Davidson!!!

Never again!

And yet I keep hearing that I'm the only one who ever had a problem with HD/Buell.

[dchakrab]

The worst bike, like the best bike, is always the one I'm going to buy next. Because it will cost ever so much more money than I should spend on it, and go ever so much faster than further than any sane human will ever want it to go.

I suppose the worst bike I've *already* owned is the '83 Yamaha Vision 550; it was ridden for a couple of months, not rideable for a couple of years, and may someday be resurrected to leave me stranded yet again. My lack of mechanical inclination was not a happy combination with that bike. Even with a parts bike.

A Royal Enfield Bullet would also be on this list, and would certainly give the Yamaha a run for its money in the sheer contrariness of the thing, if it weren't such a joy to ride.

[Diablo_man]

technically my current bike 1984 honda xl600r is the worst as it doesnt run and i have only managed to start it twice. however, it seems to be a minor electric problem, and some rejetting to fix, and it was free!!!! so so far it is in the clear.

i guess then i would have to say my 1984 Yamaha Virago xv500. got it used for 2 grand, with 55,000km on it. ripped. try looking up that year, you get nothing, these bikes only lasted one or two years before they changed the design completely.
pros
-it looked REAL nice!

-exterior was very clean and well maintained.
-when it was behaving it had some decent get up and go.
-started pretty reliably

cons
-interior did not match the exterior, previous owners had thrashed the hell out of it according to my mechanic

-the previous owner was a riding school. yup. it had been dropped a couple times at low speed. i didnt notice at first, but the right handgrip was compressed and bent(part metal grip) and the bar was slightly bent, destroyed my wrist after a short ride. many other component were found to be twisted or out of alignment in later inspections

-stock ape hangers did jack for controlling the bike, swapped a set of sport touring bars on and it could finally corner!

-always ended up running ultra rich sooner or later, crapping out the plugs, belching black smoke. first it was a stuck choke, . didnt like being run in the city after a highway session. occasionally i had to limp it back home one one shitty cylinder, with a top speed of 80 km and so little confidence that it could start again or even accellerate from zero that i only slowed down for the few stop signs on the way home. cleaned the plugs and fixed it.

-did not like to run in a constant RPM, was always having to rev up and down

-the pegs were pretty far back for a cruiser, combined with the ultra low seat destroyed my knees.

-the "new" battery shorted out and leaked acid when we charged it once. this was after it started sounding like a dying man half way up a 13% grade hill, with the tach jumping from 0 to redline erratically then finally running no more. i rolled it down that hill, then pushed it in mid summer for 2 miles and up a smaller hill to get it home.

-NO saddlebags could be found to fit this, not even throw overs.

-2.9 gallon gas tank, nuff said


it basically didnt behave all that well, and frequently found a new problem for me. so i fixed everything, cleaned it up, nothing went wrong for a longish time and i sold it at a bit of a loss.
even so, i miss it, first bike and all.

Originally Posted by srosa

2006 KTM 950 Supermoto. It was a complete lemon.

seriously? i have only heard good things about it, might be my next bike. what was wrong with it?

Originally Posted by Tim McKittrick

1984 Honda XL600R. It's issue was all about oil- the folks at Honda apparently never figured the bike would be ridden if it was below 40F or so. After the 3rd set of rocker arms and the 3rd replacement cam I found a circular describing a similar issue with Lycoming airplane engines and concluded the bike wasn't getting enough oil to the top end at start up on cold days. I designed a new oiling system and that problem was forever resolved. However, the bike still ate 2nd gear and two connecting rods while it was mine, as well as 3 pistons and a host of other odds and ends.

as i said above, i was just given an 84 xl600r. very little luck starting in the cold so far. could you please go into a bit more detail about this fix of yours? maybe in a new thread? if it worked i would have to bear your children or something :) haha

[Warthog]

Dude. I loved everyone one of my motorcycles.

I suppose the bike I liked least was my first second-hand bike I got on my 16th birthday...a 1978 Yamaha 175 Enduro. It was slow, not much power, antique suspension, had orange paint, and a lovely white lace pattern on the tank...but I still loved to ride it!

1978 Yamaha 175 - worst, but still great!
1990 Suzuki GSX-R 750 - loved it!
1989 BMW R100GS - still got it, love it!
2006 BMW HP2 - riding in Korea, and love it!

The worst bike I've ridden lately is the Yamaha STX 155 bike that I borrow when I'm in the Philippines. Load capacity: 5 Filipinos or 1 American and his wife. But I tell you this - I was thankful I had it, and I rode it everywhere I could...mountain roads, mud trails to the swimming hole, twisty National Hwy, footpaths to the beach...

I'm happy to have a "worst" bike if I don't have anything else.

[Drummer]

Originally Posted by markjenn

Sprint SS 350 single? Other than some weird scooters and two-strokes, that's the only single-cyl 4-stroke Harley I recall (built by Aermacchi) and discontinued about 1974.

- Mark

It must have been a 350 and you're correct it was a 1974. As I was writing the above I kept questioning myself about the size and year. Thanks for the clarification - my memory of the bad always leaves a little to be desired.

[stainlesscycle]

WORST:
1968 harley xlh. just a total pos. never owned another harley, and probably never will. made a bunch of noise, but accelerated like a pig. handling was ridiculous, as were the pitiful brakes. felt ungodly heavy, even though it was one of their lightest bikes.. all cruisers have ungodly bad ergonomics for me.

kawasaki h1 - more fun than anything, but rubber frame/swingarm did all kindsa funny (not haha funny...) things in turns. scary bike when ridden to it's max. i still own several. i don't ride them anymore. if i want excitement + handling + 2 stroke + vintage, i stick with the rd's..

tx750 yamaha what a pos. there is nothing right about this bike.

1979 yz400 lotsa top end power, handled like ass.

xv535 virago - need i say more.

1978 t140 triumph. uh, caught on fire randomly - kinda exciting built in seat warmer feature..., handled bad, felt weird. i can't ride parallel twins much anymore, they all remind me of this p.o.s.


there's probably more i can't think of right now..lotsa bikes i rode once or twice and hated and sold asap.

BEST:
all morini's - even the 5 speed 500 is fun to ride. never rode one i didn't like. i have 7 or 8 of them now. always looking for more.... the down side: too small for highway. dry clutch can become wet if seal surface is worn....

all big block guzzi's 1967-1985-ish. bulletproof, comfortable, and surprisingly good handling..i avoid all low mileage guzzi's...if it ain't got
40-50k on it i don't want it. these run better the more worn out they are. downside: most 850 and smaller had chrome bores...

1994 ducati 900ss - does everything well enough, high reliability factor for a duc, not the fastest or best, just the easiest to deal with. it does what it's supposed to do. you can actually tour on this...tours better than the st4...downside? typical ducati charging issues. gotta change belts/adjust valves (easy on 2v, a pita on 4v)

drz400 kick - does everything it's supposed to do. unknown mileage, beat to shit, have't needed to do anything mechanical on it aside from basic maintenance. takes a serious licking and starts right up. but you can spend a ton of money in farkles for this seemingly cheap dirt bike! - downside: early (or all?) auto cam chain tensioners are junk.

ct110 - there's a reason they still sell these to ranchers in nz. indestructible. would climb 45 degree hills. you could ride around the world on one if you could handle the 45mph top speed. extremely comfortable. get sick of the seat? scoot back and sit on the rack! trained monkeys can ride these. downside? occasional cam chain tightening. can eat clutches if you beat them to death.

[kbuckey]

Ok, I'll bite. It would have to be my 1969 Yamaha R-3. Though it was fast (for it's day) and handled well (for it's day) and I thought it was real purty it kept getting mice in the pistons. Yep, nasty little metal eating mice. The dealer put three sets of pistons in the thing and couldn't figure out why it was doing it. One day in 1970 it did it right in front of the Honda dealer - pushed it in, rode out on a brand spanking new gold CB450.

[jonsom]

My first bike, a used 2004 Moto Guzzi Breva 750, I bought it off E-Bay with 24,400 miles and rode it for about 10 days and 700 miles when I laid it down. Still ran fine for 1700 more miles, now it has been in the shop since Oct 2007. Major tranny problems, since Oct 2007 I have rode it for 2 weeks. Fixed and paid almost $2000 then on my way home the tranny started squelling real bad, now back in the shop. Got $9000+ in to it and worth less than 1/4 of that now. Still in the shop.

Spent all summer of 2008 watching everyone but me riding, so my second bike I bought a 2008 Wee Strom DL650. Love it. And I never wanted to own a Asian bike, or chain drive. Only complaint is kind of top heavy.

[markjenn]

Originally Posted by Drummer

It must have been a 350 and you're correct it was a 1974. As I was writing the above I kept questioning myself about the size and year. Thanks for the clarification - my memory of the bad always leaves a little to be desired.

You won't have too many disputing that it was a pretty poor motorcycle. I recall when Cycle magazine tested 1970 350's (an amazingly comprehensive test and still a good read today), it finished a very distant sixth out of six with the dubious distinction of being both a very poor performer and also unreliable.

- Mark