Ever bought a bike and immediately realised your mistake?

[HLK]

*FLASH* ......went the mobile speed camera as I passed the final overpass before exiting the highway.

The bike, a 1990 Kawasaki GPZ600r (ZX600), nick named the Ninja Cop Killer (because of stickers that some previous owner had put on) was due for maintenance. It was gonna need at least a new exhaust header, front tire, and a carb overhaul. I myself was in desperate need of a bike that would just get me to work everyday, and I was so strapped for cash that I had set up a meeting with a guy that wanted to trade his 1988 Honda CB450s for my Kawa.

As we test rode each others machines, I looked at the Kawa's black and gold color scheme, the square brake light, the old school styling....and imagined how bad-ass you would have looked riding this around in the 80s and early 90s.

The Honda was....well, it ran. I figured it would get me to work for another 6 months without too much trouble. Feeling sorry for the state my Kawa was in, I even paid the guy some extra money for the trade.

As I rode home, I couldn't help but feel like a total douche. The Honda turned out to be a very, very tired bike as well, but I slapped on a new chain set, kept topping up the oil and squeezed another 3500km out of it....before selling it to a trader for a scrap price.

[oomis]

I bought one of these - a '99 Suzuki TL1000R. It had Yosh slip on's, and it was nicknamed the Nukular Banana. It made the most glorious sound - I've described it previously as "it sounds like God's coming to dinner and he doesn't like what's on the table".

At the time I lived on the second floor of a two-floor apartment walk-up, and I commuted to work. I would go down and start the bike up in the parking lot, then pop back up to get into my gear while the bike warmed up. I realized that at idle it was making the dishes in my kitchen cupboard rattle around, and probably wasn't winning me a popularity contest with my neighbours.

Plus, with a 36" inseam, no matter how badly I wanted to, I just didn't fit on the bike. Helibars didn't make a material difference, and my knees suffered.

Also, when riding over anything less smooth than a baby's bottom, the suspension sucked so badly that it felt like my kidneys were being smashed by dwarves weilding hammers.

In a world where I can own 7 motorcycles, I'd have another one in a heartbeat, but as my primary mode of transportation, it had to go.

[bogey78]

A few years ago things got a little tight in the fiscal area. I had an '06 Weestrom that I had set up just the way I wanted. However, I really needed a small car to get around and for hauling a few things. I put an ad on stromtrooper and had a buyer lined up within a few hours. We did the deal and as he was pulling out of the driveway with the Strom in the back of his pickup, I immediately knew I had screwed up by selling that bike. I bought a small, fuel efficient car with the money and I actually still have it and it is great for what it is.

Fast forward a year and I found a guy on ADVrider that was fairly local and selling his KLR. Now the only thing I didn't like about the strom was it felt entirely too big to do any moderate offroading, at least in my opinion. I bought the KLR and I kind of liked it. The problem was that it would have been a great second bike but it just wasn't for me as an only bike.

I sold the KLR and the next year I saw a craigslist ad for a old concours 1000 with over 100k on the clock. The guy was selling it for $1000 and it had the luggage and a Corbin. I went over and bought it the same day. I liked it OK but it just felt "old". I decided that I was going to sell it before I had driven 20 miles. I sold it a few months later for $1000 just to get rid of it. I wanted to like it, but it just had too many things I didn't like.

And although I've always said my Vstrom 650 was the absolute best bike I've ever had, I really don't want another one right now. I've been looking for a unmolested FZ6 or FZ1 or maybe a Naked SV for my next bike. I really want something nimble and quick but still comfortable enough for the occasional 500 mile day. Ideally, I would like a FZ6 and maybe a DR650 to scratch the dirt itch every now and again.

Summary, old style concours was just not for me.

[The Kurgan]

BMW K1200RS... heavy, cumbersome, unnecessarily sophisticated, boring. What a waste of money. Sold it a year later at a substantial loss.

[FlagRS]

Originally Posted by The Kurgan

BMW K1200RS... heavy, cumbersome, unnecessarily sophisticated, boring. What a waste of money. Sold it a year later at a substantial loss.

Really? What happened? Back in 2009 when you got your RS you said it was a great bike. You even endorsed it a year later as a good sport tourer. Just curious.
FlagRS

[bobbed06]

OK, after reading like 20 pages here I think I can add something in here. Looking back on the 30-40 bikes I have owned in the past 25 years I have to say that only 3 bikes come to mind.

The 1984 Yamaha YZ 490, what a POS. Hard starting, terrible carb, and no suspension. When my mom caught my 14 year old, 145lb self standing on a bucket just trying to start that mule the look on her face explained without words that I had bought the incorrect machine for myself.

The 1998 Suzuki TL1000R.......Hmmmm... The fuel injection had a "4 barrel" type action and used 2 injectors for part throttle low RPM situations and used all 4 under Heavy use High RPM situations. Problem was that eventually it got funny and this action would take place anywhere from 5500-6500 RPM whenever it felt like it and shredded rear tires as a result. The rear shock (rotary damper) was garbage.

Now this is a funny one here...

The 1983 XL 600 dual sport....Now I bought this bike on a whim around 2000 during a time when I raced MX and rode the latest and greatest newest MX bikes. Mostly KX 250 MXers.

So this was bought as a way for me to slow down and enjoy the ride kinda deal. I had my girlfriend take me 1.5 hrs into the mountains to buy the bike, equipped with $900 bux, and a license plate removed from my 98 GSXR 600 so I could ride it home. I bought the bike and rode it home, it didnt do anything good. Hit the throttle....No power....Hit a jump.....No suspension, but hey it holds 5 gallons of gas in this huge tank and a much needed quart of oil in the fender bag ( i should have made a note of that half used qt of oil in the fender bag when i bought it )

Anyways I rode that bike everywhere, up stairs, down stairs, through yards, off of small 3-4 ft retaining walls, basically whatever I wanted to do with it. I would take off and ride for hours and hours on dirt roads always topping off the oil prior to a ride, and the bike never let me down. Eventually I sold this bike and bought a Honda TRX 250R ATV and never much thought about the old XL for quite some time.

Funny thing is that now when I look back on that bike, even though it was nothing great, that bike provided me some great memories of what motorcycling is all about. I will always have a smile in my mind when I think back to that bike.

I know where there is a brand new one owner 1983 XL 600 that has extremely low miles on it and I have been workin on the owner to sell it to me for about the last 5 years. One day he will break down and let me have that bike. Its mint.

[ZZ-R Rider]

2006 Suzuki S50 (VS800) Boulevard ... hated that Bike ...

[The Kurgan]

Originally Posted by FlagRS

Really? What happened? Back in 2009 when you got your RS you said it was a great bike. You even endorsed it a year later as a good sport tourer. Just curious.
FlagRS

A/ I made the mistake of trying to bleed the damn brakes myself, thus trying to avoid the punitive dealer charge. Let's just say I hope the neighbour's kids didn't hear me in the garage for that 6 hour hell session.
B/ It did make a good sport tourer as long as I didn't try to carve up overly technical roads. Note C/ below...
C/ The rear suspension essentially gave up the ghost at 20,000 km and became dangerously soft, "wallowed". Not very confidence inspiring. New factory shock cost me an arm and a leg, and it didn't feel a great deal better!
D/ The timing chain cover began to really "weep". When I bought it, the dealer indicated that "a bit of moisture around the seal was normal for this model". Three months later, it became much worse, and cost me an arm and a leg to get repaired. The repair held for 3 weeks and did it again. When I took it back, they said "you're better off living with the character of the motor".
E/ Various rubber bits, including the factory grips essentially fell apart due to dry rot. For a motorcycle under 10 years old, and mainly garage stored, this was unacceptable.
F/ It had a lumpy idle, that just didn't seem right. Dealer said it was "normal".
G/ I found it really top heavy, and on one morning Toronto commute, I almost dropped it. I managed to "save it" only to pull the tendons in my shoulder. Still feel the pain 2.5 years later.

... that was enough to say goodbye. Now, your experiences may be completely different, but I wouldn't own another RS if somebody gave it to me for free.

(note: It sure looked good, and had nice straight-line turbine like speed!)

[s&s]

H-D XR1200... Took me like 5 kilometers to get that oh sh*t realization. I tried to like it for 3 months and 2000 kilometers, even bought ohlins suspension but ended up trading it against GSA. With no regrets.

[Blakebird]

Last year I was tipped off to a nice low mile CBX in the Portland area that was for sale after the owner passed away. It had 25,000 miles on it and looked to be in excellent shape.
I'd wanted a CBX for as long as I could remember.... so I sold a primo TE610 to get the $$ together, flew to Portland and bought it.

By the time I'd ridden it half of the 1400 miles back to Denver I knew I would be putting it up for sale soon after getting back...and I did.

It was in very good shape, but just didn't light my fire like I'd hoped.

[scotteroni]

Quite a few years ago I came upon and Old Suzuki 750 twin. Guy was real eager to sell it and bought it for cheap. I rode it up and down the street and it was OK. Just OK. no grunt,, buck horn handlebars, missing sidecover etc. I had better bikes in the past but I was financially strapped and didn't want to be without something. He offered to bring it to my house in his truck and on the way there I was starting to regret spending what little money I had for something that I would look at with disdain for months until more money became available. We had not finalized the sale yet and I was wondering how I could back out of the deal without being a jerk especially after him driving it to my house. I wanted to look at a few more things before handing over the money and traded ppwk and one of them was the inside of the tank. It looked like it was coated and the coating was starting to peel off where you could see it easily. Being concerned about the rest of it peeling off and gumming up the carbs and engine was my way out. I didn't like to handle things this way but if I had given him the money before he brought it over I would of sucked it up despite my misgivings later and put it for sale by the side of the road the next day.

[FlagRS]

Originally Posted by The Kurgan

... that was enough to say goodbye. Now, your experiences may be completely different, but I wouldn't own another RS if somebody gave it to me for free.

(note: It sure looked good, and had nice straight-line turbine like speed!)

Sounds like a real nightmare. Glad you got rid of it and onto something new. Ride safe

[Mr. Canoehead]

Originally Posted by Blakebird

Last year I was tipped off to a nice low mile CBX in the Portland area that was for sale after the owner passed away. It had 25,000 miles on it and looked to be in excellent shape.
I'd wanted a CBX for as long as I could remember.... so I sold a primo TE610 to get the $$ together, flew to Portland and bought it.

By the time I'd ridden it half of the 1400 miles back to Denver I knew I would be putting it up for sale soon after getting back...and I did.

It was in very good shape, but just didn't light my fire like I'd hoped.

I've always wanted one of those. Can you elaborate and maybe save me from the same mistake?

[RussellH]

Sold my Ninja 650 for the ST1300 when my gf started riding with me. It's a great bike for what it is i.e. a heavy sport tourer, amazingly smooth engine (but no soul), quiet, comfortable, great handling for a big bike but...BUT...I feel 15 years older on it. The chicks riding the R6s think I'm a grandpa and it's an ungainly pig to move around in the garage, parking lots.

I still have it and I'm trying to like it but I think its days are numbered. I picked up a 2003 Ninja 250 for the gf and I'm having such a blast riding the wheels off of this little bike.

Also bought a 05 FJR with 9k miles on it- for 1 week. Didn't like it at all. More top heavy than the heavier ST, lots of grunt but weird vibration, snatchy throttle and had a disconnected feeling to it.

After the ST I'm either going back to a Ninja 1000 or a BMW K1300S or some such.

[Blakebird]

Originally Posted by Mr. Canoehead

I've always wanted one of those. Can you elaborate and maybe save me from the same mistake?

I probably would have been thrilled with a '79/'80 naked CBX....but I was looking for a two-up bike to do some traveling on to add to the garage.
This bike seemed to fit the bill until I got on the road.

It was a combination of range, luggage capacity, 30 yr old bike stuff that can go wrong 2,500 miles from home.... things like that. I ended up selling it and buying a low mile ST1300 which was much better suited.

Had I bought it just as a vintage cool bike, it would have been fine. I thought I'd kill two birds (two up touring and cool vintage bike) and it wasn't the best plan I'd ever had.

They are still very cool bikes and worth owning, it just wasn't the right pick that particular time.