Annoying bike quirks

[Trudes]

I was reading in another thread someone saying that their bike can't be started when sitting on its sidestand, and it made me wonder if I would be able to live with that. I think I could, but it would probably end up annoying me in the long-run.
Is there anything about your bike or a bike you've owned that is an annoying feature or that just annoys you?

[quallman1234]

2 stroke oil.

[McJim]

No temperature guage on the Ducati and having to pull the clutch in to start the Suzuki.

[Trudes]

2 stroke oil.
The mixing??
I actually find it quite therapeutic doing the 2 stroke mix, but can imagine if I had to do it for a bike I rode a lot it would get to me, especially if doing a long trip.
:rockon:

[MIXONE]

Triumph T140 owned previously.Loved it but hated the slipping clutch.

[Trudes]

No temperature guage on the Ducati and having to pull the clutch in to start the Suzuki.

immm, no temp gauge, that would be annoying... and a little unnerving at times too I would think, as for the clutch thing, well, Suzukis :rolleyes:
I have got into a habit of holding in the clutch during start up anyway, guess it's from driving a manual car.

[vifferman]

I was reading in another thread someone saying that their bike can't be started when sitting on its sidestand
That's not always true. Some bikes (like mine) will allow you to start them on the sidestand, but only if the bike's in neutral. As soon as you put it in gear with the sidestand down, it cuts the ignition.

Annoying quirks? Hmmmm.... thinking... thinking...... thinking.............
Nup.

The gear-driven cams do make an annoying cakemixer-like noise that took me over a year to get used to.
And some eejit put the gargre door-opener button in an awkward place (above the start button), which caused me to drop the bike once when trying to brake, turn and open the gargre at the same time. That was a really annoying quirk, lying down in the middle of the road like that.

And once in a blue moon, the Power Commander seems to need to be reset.

But the most annoying quirk is that because the battery is old and marginal, sometimes the instrument panel resets itself when I push the starter.

[Trudes]

That's not always true. Some bikes (like mine) will allow you to start them on the sidestand, but only if the bike's in neutral. As soon as you put it in gear with the sidestand down, it cuts the ignition.


That's probably a good feature I'd say, so you can't accidently start the bike while it's in gear and it lurch forward and fall over, or ride off with the sidestand down, (not a good look, been there done that!)

Ok, another question for all....
did you know these things about your bike before you bought it? If you didn't, if you had, would you have still bought it? Or are they so minor that the rest of the bike's good features out-weigh the bad?:mellow:

[Whynot]

Some bikes (like mine) will allow you to start them on the sidestand, but only if the bike's in neutral. As soon as you put it in gear with the sidestand down, it cuts the ignition.

My old bike had that, i actually found it quite usefull as a secondary kill switch.
Basically come to a stop on the bike, leave it in first and kick the stand down .... engine stops, remove keys - job done :)

[avgas]

fuel gauge and neutral light dont work.....probably easily fixed but i haven't bothered.
i dislike the fact that the bars up upright but not quite high enough so i semi curl when on her.

[RantyDave]

Is there anything about your bike or a bike you've owned that is an annoying feature or that just annoys you?
VTR250 side stand is a tad too long and always makes me think the bike's going to be blown over.

If you left the Triumph in gear it would turn over, but not start giving the impression that the ignition circuits were dead. Clutch in to start, obviously.

Dave

[k1w160]

I fill the bike up and, I'll be dammed, if everytime I've ridden a couple of hundred k's if I don't have to put more petrol in it, I'm thinking it must be a design fault...

[McJim]

Ah yes, the infamous Ducati "Suicide Stand" teaches you to be very careful where you park your bike.

[chester]

no fuel guage

[MaxCannon]

Hmm,

Broken fuel gauge
Won't idle when cold unless you hold the throttle
Can't be started unless clutch is in
General wear and tear, it's had a hard life.

Still, even with all it's faults it's way better to ride than the GN

[Hitcher]

No air temperature gauge. That's the only thing the ST1300 did better than my FJR, although Mr Yamaha has now remedied this on the latest model.

It's just over two years since the ST1300 and I parted company spectacularly and forever. I note (thanks to Carfax) that somebody has bought it, painted it blue, presumably made the necessary repairs, replated it and is now running it as a rental. Disturbing stuff.

[Pwalo]

My old FT400 was so slooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww.

[Maha]

I was reading in another thread someone saying that their bike can't be started when sitting on its sidestand,

True story
Some tome ago, I had a starting problem with the Triumph..got it sorted and the very next weekend we went to Kopu and met up with DMNTD and Unit and some other funny buggers, anyway, time to head home, the others had gone over to the Mobil to gahas up, I had the bike running and was waiting for Anne to get it together, anyway, she hopes on, taps my shoulder (shes ready) I put into 1st and the bike stops, no worries, I will try that again, fuck same thing, again and again and again, WTF??? I just got this fuckin' thing sorted!!....anyway, Anne hopes off (of cause that'll fix it) and says to me that ummmmmm, the side stand is down....:confused:
Ahhhhhhhhhhh I knew that....:innocent:

[dino3310]

the only quirk i've got with my old DR is that it's an old DR and not a new one, it rattles, it's soooo slow, it's hard to get part's, when i fix something i find something else that need's fixing, vvvvvribrating foot pegs.:argh:
But i wouldn't change a thing, it's a love hate thing, she is what she is and i love her for it.

so i guess the main quirk with my bike is the rider.

[HornetBoy]

More acceleration ,stock,would be nice instead of having to spend a couple grand to get the bike to wake up :yawn:


Feels notso different to wrestleing the HD through the twisties.......

Although nothing really is wrong with the bike as a whole because it wasnt built to tackle the chicanes anyway but still i like to moan. <_<

[merv]

Nothing annoying on the Hondas I've had. The VFR has the sidestand gear cutoff thing but no clutch switch and then I always start it in neutral, clutch out, from cold so have no worries with that.

The Suzuki trail bikes have the clutch sidestand thing too so on the 250 I had I disconnected the clutch one. On the DR650 we have left it so far with both working and have got used to it a bit but don't use it so hard out in the dirt anyway.

My DR250R had some other very annoying flaws, little things you don't notice until you work on the bike. It had an adjustable ride height rear shock like the 650 has but the position of the dogbone linkages was such you had to push down on the suspension to see the bolt. Now try unscrewing under load - yeah right. So to change the setting I had to dismantle the linkages - ridiculous. Then there was the carb drain screw that sat behind an oil feed line to the cylinder head - try and screw that? Next there was the rear suspension linkage grease nipple of a straight variety that was right behind a side frame tube. I replaced that with a 45 deg angle one to fix it. There was the sticky flat slide carb too. All annoying stuff - typical Suzuki built to their price I thought. Hence I replaced it with the Yamaha.

[fireball]

its love and hate with me and rawberry
the fact ive put in 2 new choke cables and neither have worked so no choke:bash:
and she hates to go faster than 100 even when i push her to 120 shes bitching about it
but she LOVES her oil :scooter:

[zeocen]

Ah yes, the infamous Ducati "Suicide Stand" teaches you to be very careful where you park your bike.

I test road a Ducati ST4s before purchasing my new bike, at Motohaus, a few days later on my new bike I went back to look at some stuff there and saw the poor thing in bits.. Someone had put it on it's side stand but it didn't stick and about 5 minutes later they heard a crash.. the poor thing had hit the edge of a table on the way down and shattered the windscreen (yes! shattered plastic!) and it looked a right mess. Poor thing!

My bike has quirks, such as if I leave neutral with side stand it cuts out, same if I put the side stand down in gear it cuts out, but I like that!

[NighthawkNZ]

Is there anything about your bike or a bike you've owned that is an annoying feature or that just annoys you?

It runs out of fuel...

[Meekey_Mouse]

No clock... It's handy to know what time you're making. I find I usually buy a cheap one from the W/H house and attach it some where I can see it, saves finding my phone as I don't wear watches or even if I did... I'd have to roll up sleeves n pull off my glove.

[Chisanga]

The fact that I don't currently have a bike at the moment is particularly irksome :(

[vifferman]

My old bike had that, i actually found it quite usefull as a secondary kill switch.
Basically come to a stop on the bike, leave it in first and kick the stand down .... engine stops, remove keys - job done :)
Yeah, me too, when parking on a hill.

[vifferman]

VTR250 side stand is a tad too long and always makes me think the bike's going to be blown over.
Has the VTR been lowered?
I have the opposite thing with the VFR - the Elka shock is longer than the Showa one, so there's only a few mm under the rear tyre when it's on the centrestand, and it leans further on the sidestand than it used to.

[vifferman]

No clock... It's handy to know what time you're making. I find I usually buy a cheap one from the W/H house and attach it some where I can see it, saves finding my phone as I don't wear watches or even if I did... I'd have to roll up sleeves n pull off my glove.
I found that annoying on the VTR, which was only because the VFR had a clock (bikes before that didn't have clocks and it didn't worry me). Because I also needed to know what the charging system and battery were up to, I bought a combination clock/voltmeter/lap timer from Jaycar and stuck that on the underside of the windscreen.

[Choco]

I fill the bike up and, I'll be dammed, if everytime I've ridden a couple of hundred k's if I don't have to put more petrol in it, I'm thinking it must be a design fault...

Mine does that, real pain with petrol prices too.

[Dakara]

That's probably a good feature I'd say, so you can't accidently start the bike while it's in gear and it lurch forward and fall over, or ride off with the sidestand down, (not a good look, been there done that!)

It's a pain in the arse on my Hyo! Has no problems getting into Neutral, but 99% of the time the Neutral light wont come on (or just flashes on then off again), and unless the lights on it wont start (or stay running) with the stand down :doh:

Means on the cold mornings I need to be sitting on the bike, stand up and clutch in to start and warm it up, even though it's actually in neutral....

[riffer]

No fuel gauge.
Low fuel light that comes on with 120 kms left in the tank.
80 kms reserve. Too big.
Wears only the inside brake pads. Doesn't touch the outside ones.
The cam chain adjuster sometimes sticks and makes the camchain rattle like a bastard for a minute or so.
Choke cable comes loose and needs retightening every once in a while.
preload setting 2 on forks too hard. preload setting 3 too soft.
vibration at 4-5000 rpms.
Triangulates front tyres.

[NZsarge]

having to pull the clutch in to start the Suzuki.

Ditto.......

[merv]

So Trudes how come you started this thread, has KD been telling you some pillow talk about how Suzukis are parts bin specials and they have all these flaws people are mentioning (e.g. riffer RF900) and he wished he had his lovely Honda back :angry2:?

[James Deuce]

It's just over two years since the ST1300 and I parted company spectacularly and forever. I note (thanks to Carfax) that somebody has bought it, painted it blue, presumably made the necessary repairs, replated it and is now running it as a rental. Disturbing stuff.

Two words.

Holy.

Crap.

[aroberts]

The Suzuki takes forever to fill up. The first few litres are fine, but the last couple of litres has to be dribbled in bit by bit while waiting for the level to sink down each time.

Anybody else have that? I thought it may have a blocked breather tube but I had it checked so I assume it is just a thing with the GSX.

[Nagash]

Err.. lets see.

No fuel guage, though i've never had one so ain't bothered. No tacho either but once again I get on fine without it..

Kills the engine if in gear and the stand is down, which I have no problem with, means I can park just that little bit quicker in first.

The tank is set up in a way that if I try and fill it with any sort of decent burst it'll all bounce back and spray all over me.

Speedo needle wobbles 10-20ks back and fourth when going over a hundred.

The whole thing vibrates at any sort of revs. Specially for pillion..

Sucks through batteries in no time at all...

Massive clutch range but it only grips right at the very end of it's reach (Yes I know it's adjustable, have done so with no huge affects)

Rear brake lever is so huge that if I trail it on a right hand corner i'm practically unable to lean.

Sticky throttle. Good for no hand riding though..

Shit, good for nothing lights.

And yeah.. there's more. But it's an awsome bike. Can't get enough of it.

[Trudes]

So Trudes how come you started this thread, has KD been telling you some pillow talk about how Suzukis are parts bin specials and they have all these flaws people are mentioning (e.g. riffer RF900) and he wished he had his lovely Honda back :angry2:?

haha, nah, was just thinking about how with bikes we tend to just live with the little things that annoy us about them, whereas if it was a car, you'd test drive it and go "oh look, it doesn't have a fuel gage, it won't start unless the clutch is pushed in, or it doesn't have an interior light" etc and probably go down the road and buy a similar car that did have all the little 'extra' things we expect in our cage. On a bike these things are it's character, on a car they are a pain in the arse.
Also how you learn to live with the things our bikes are missing or do etc, like my Hornet doesn't have a gear indicator (apart from neutral), the gixxer has one and whenever Nigel rides my bike he bitches about there being no gear indicator, but it doesn't bother me at all, I've got used to watching the revs instead.



who do you think added the tags?? :laugh:

[riffer]

The Suzuki takes forever to fill up. The first few litres are fine, but the last couple of litres has to be dribbled in bit by bit while waiting for the level to sink down each time.

Anybody else have that? I thought it may have a blocked breather tube but I had it checked so I assume it is just a thing with the GSX.

Your problem is you have an RF900 tank fitted. Forgot that one.

I also forgot it has a habit of blowing main fuses for absolutely no reason every 6-9 months or so. Problem goes as quickly as it appears.

Did I also mention most RF's won't run on all four in the wet?

And yeah - the sidestand thing. Meh - my FZR would run with the sidestand down. I don't recommend it. However Frosty showed me a really cool trick one night with an XJ900 centrestand. Mega sparks!!!!

[hellkat]

I had an XT660 for a couple of weeks, before it got nicked :angry: , which beeped (sort of like a reversing truck) when you had the indicators on, and didnt stop beeping till you turned them off. I knew about it obviously cos I test rode the bike before I bought it, but I didn't think it would bug me as much as it eventually did.

[Trudes]

I had an XT660 for a couple of weeks, before it got nicked :angry: , which beeped (sort of like a reversing truck) when you had the indicators on, and didnt stop beeping till you turned them off. I knew about it obviously cos I test rode the bike before I bought it, but I didn't think it would bug me as much as it eventually did.

haha, that reminds me of that movie 'Little Miss Sunshine', if you haven't seen it, you should!!

[JMemonic]

No clock... It's handy to know what time you're making. I find I usually buy a cheap one from the W/H house and attach it some where I can see it, saves finding my phone as I don't wear watches or even if I did... I'd have to roll up sleeves n pull off my glove.

Geez odd isn't it that's the one thing that annoys me most about the Duke, the fact it has a clock horrible concept makes me think I might have to be somewhere at a given time instead of just enjoying the ride. (And the fact the dam bike is off the road but that's not quirk :angry2:)

[gijoe1313]

I am the quirk on my bike(s) :doh:

[merv]

Also how you learn to live with the things our bikes are missing or do etc, like my Hornet doesn't have a gear indicator (apart from neutral), the gixxer has one and whenever Nigel rides my bike he bitches about there being no gear indicator, but it doesn't bother me at all, I've got used to watching the revs instead.

:laugh:

Haha - hmmmm - never owned a bike with a gear indicator and when most of them have been dirt bikes and you're so focussed watching where you going you're not watching down at the instruments anyway so its not something I've felt I've needed. Similarly the VFR is the only one of five in our garage that has a rev counter. I bought it at the time partly because it had a clock on the dash and few bikes did then. Nowadays I can use the GPS to display time so no worries there either.

[McJim]

I'm surprised at the number of people complaining about 'No Fuel Guage'. The only bikes I have seen with fuel guages are wildly inaccurate.

I prefer the ol' zero the trip meter and when it gets to 220km stop at the next petrol station.

I got 287km out of a tank but then I was wringing the nuts off the bike in the twisties through the Catlins. Got to Papatowai and turned around - then the low fuel light came on. 80kms left in the tank and 110 kms to next petrol!:doh:

[Swoop]

I have an issue with my "PASS" switch.
Whenever I'm behind a cage and press this switch, the cage invariably does nothing.
I have to pass said cage, regardless. Switch must be faulty though.

[young1]

The button to turn the ABS off - I have to take my glove off to push it (with gloves on my finger is too big - I can not push the centre of it down).

Thought of one more, the KTM is such a great bike that it shows how much of a shit rider I am!! ha ha

[rok-the-boat]

All the things listed above would annoy the hell out of me and most of them could be remedied by simply undoing the odd wire. What annoys my on my DR500 is that the sidestand. It is set up at an odd angle - kinda hard to explain - it does not lean much, but 1 degree more lean and it would fall over. As long as you're careful, it's fine.

[zeocen]

I went from digital speedo, temp gauge, fuel gauge, clock and trip metres... to analogue speedo/rpm and a tiny digital clock and trip metres, I prefer the latter.

Simplistic wins, I know the km range on when I need to fill up (and if I don't I have a nice fuckoff bright LED and the trip metre starts caps lock cruise control "FUEL FUEL FUEL FUEL".

The digital fuel gauge was unbelievably inaccurate, it would be on full to 80% for most of the trip then within the next 50 - 60km drop straight down to the last blinking cube.

[Big Dave]

Quirky thing on a test bike that bugged me most was the orange 'overdrive' indicator on a V-strom. Exactly the same as most bike's fuel warning light.

[sweetp]

I have a sidestand with a super lean which always makes me think abit before I get off! But all stuff I can live with. Didn't realise the first time the reserve light came on that it was an auto switch and i didn't have a tap, that was an embrassing mistake (i was at the ferry and asked a rider there if he could find it - he didn't but asked the rest of the group - 30+ people if they could).

Currently in a hotel room with an interesting quirk - the wardrobe has lights that we cant seem to turn off. A bit off topic but so unusal I had to throw it in!

[Patch]

The piddly fuel tank - 17l but only 15 is usable.
Mirrors too small or I'm too fat - fuckin useless either way
An indicator switch that doesn't switch itself off
Cheap shitty bolts that keep unscrewing themselves

Fuck Suzuki - I want a real Twin.

[James Deuce]

Change tyres and end up with no ground clearance.

That's odd.

[Spuds1234]

I havnt used 2nd gear for about 6 months.

Its broken. Rest of the bikes bullet proof though.