What's the worst bike you've ridden?

[naphazoline]

there's been a few.
an old 80's cb650 i used to own,was pretty ordinary.
but one bike in the same era,comes to mind. a kawasaki 550. i can't remember the exact model,but crickey, was it a real dog.
it had power nowhere,noises everywhere,and pretty much didn't do what you told it to do.
it was butt ugly,petrol hungry,and flat out,was probably around the 140kms mark.
i didn't own this bike,but rode it to work a lot at the time.it certainly put me off ever buying one,that's for sure.

i'd be more then keen to hear some of your horror stories.

[Forest]

Kawasaki GPZ305

I vowed never to ride a Kawasaki again.

[raftn]

Kawasaki GPZ305

I vowed never to ride a Kawasaki again.

And that is a good decision indeed!

[MIXONE]

A nzeta scooter from the 1950's.Butt ugly like the guy who owned it.(not me)

[cave weta]

A nzeta scooter from the 1950's.Butt ugly like the guy who owned it.(not me)


I can even beat that!

A Heinkel touring 250 motorscooter it had a car battery sitting on the floorboards and some times you had to slide it out of the way to use the brakes!!!
Ride it too hard and the engine cover would catch fire, it was a sort of bakelite- plastic resin thing that was one piece over the entire arse end with a seat on it. But it did have a spare wheel and a wheelbrace...

[Jerry74]

Suzuki B120 eeewwww was like riding a deformed scooter.

[98tls]

89 900 SS,absolute shitbox.

[Wingnut]

2002 VT750 - heap of crap - would pull a schoolboy off ya daughter

[spookytooth]

pushbike: Bloody thing was gutless handled bad and wouldn't go up hills

[naphazoline]

I can even beat that!

A Heinkel touring 250 motorscooter it had a car battery sitting on the floorboards and some times you had to slide it out of the way to use the brakes!!!
Ride it too hard and the engine cover would catch fire, it was a sort of bakelite- plastic resin thing that was one piece over the entire arse end with a seat on it. But it did have a spare wheel and a wheelbrace...

aaawwww man. that's beautiful. that's the sort of story that really makes ya appreciate what ya got.and it's good to look back and have a good laugh.

[dwnundabkr]

the oldmans niftyfifty from the late 80s, but got caught pulling wheel stands on it, got a kick up the arse and banned for a month still did wheel stands but made sure it was out of prying eyes
:scooter::scooter::scooter:

[JimO]

old 60 - 70s kawasaki mountain goat

[madbikeboy]

Sorry guys, got you all beat. The worst bike I ever rode was the evil ex, the bitch was super hard to get started, would bite and kick for no apparent reason, handled badly, got heavier with age, and it seems that other people liked riding her too.:clap:

[Duke girl]

A F***ing push bike.

[MotoGirl]

Kawasaki GPZ305

I vowed never to ride a Kawasaki again.

Yep, I'll jump on the GPZ wagon with you. We had a 500 with drum brakes and its handling was somewhat average. It was far superior once we did it up but we haven't owned any Kawasakis since!

[Daffyd]

A pushbike with a 25 cc Mini-motor perched precariously over the back wheel.

I actually saw 35 mph on it, but had to hang on for grim death!

[AllanB]

Hmmm, I rode a GPZ305 when they were brand new- I thought it was fine for the size, year etc - it even had a radical belt drive instead of a chain.

Can't say I remember riding anything really vile, but my most disappointing was four years ago getting off my 1983 Kawasaki 750 twin onto a brand new demo Road King (at the time priced in the low thirty thou). I was very disappointed - the old Kaw went faster, braked better and cornered better!

I just did not get it at all........

Note to angry HD owners I've ridden HD's that I have enjoyed :niceone:

[dwnundabkr]

Sorry guys, got you all beat. The worst bike I ever rode was the evil ex, the bitch was super hard to get started, would bite and kick for no apparent reason, handled badly, got heavier with age, and it seems that other people liked riding her too.:clap:

hehehehehehe yep you beat me, but sounded like you liked to get the beat as well lol

[naphazoline]

i was once given a 200cc farm bike to use that had an auto transmission :doh:
i used to have to use it to get to a mates place 44km away,4 times a week :shit:

one day while following a truck,i decided to pull out to pass.
what a joke.it took about a minute to get half way up beside him,then i had to pull back cause of on coming traffic :o
this happened 3-4 times,when i happened to see the truck driver pissing himself laughing.

i never did make that pass stick

[Manxman]

Hired moped in Majorca. Got into a massive wheelie-throttle-more wheelie-more throttle vicious circle, until I landed on my apex about 20m up the road. How my mates laughed.:clap::lol:

Followed by Yamaha YZF750, homo-logation superbike. Fecken, farken, focken - beastly power. Just had to glance at it and it would be doing 100-ish, officer. Too much go.

Vowed never to buy another Yamaha...which lasted about two weeks, when I saw this noooice R6 (which is the best bike I've ever ridden).

[Squiggles]

A 150cc Vespa complete with Billboard trailer, incredibly dodgey in all regards, trailer was mounted via a special bracket coming off the Vespa's standard rear suspension.

[Fatt Max]

An old mate of mine back in London had a pink Honda scooter that was an absolute piece of shit. I had to borrow it one day to get across town. It broke down twice, run out of gas, the spark plug kept popping out and the rear wheel needed air at every 5 km's or so.

In the end, me and a couple of the lads called time on it and dumped it in the Grand Union Canal.

[Pedrostt500]

never owned one but had to fix a few, Chinese mini choppers, particurly the ones with the 2 stroke weed eater motors, when ever I see one now I just want to Burn them, the amount of times that some punter would ask if it would get them over the wainui hill was amazing, in the end I decided that any one who took a serious liking to one and was over 15yrs, wasnt worth wasting time on.

[hospitalfood]

my first bike. 1974 CB 350 four. worst ever but i loved it.........oh, and maybe the 88 KLR 650 i bought today, but i love that 2.

[mnkyboy]

Honda ct90 scooter

Picked it up for free - would power up and down rather indiscriminately, irrespective of throttle position. Was always push started, - go the lovely 3 speed - did manage to see 70mph down Pukehangi Rd before she got the wobbles

ended up having a hole in the carb bowl which meant using duct tape, rubber hoses, knead it and a carb jet for a morris minor that was floating around in a box to keep it going - throttle controlled by fuel tap and butterfly position - which only lasted a week. Gave it to a mate and he still has it in his garage.

Never had a WOF or Reg but back then the cops didnt care - just sent you on your way

[smoky]

Picked her up in a dark pub in some little hick town on the West Coast - I was about 18, kind of embarrassed about it now.










You weren't just talking about bikes right!!!!!

[nallac]

Gn250, gutless pile of shit i had to use to do my full,

[Peril]

1983 GSX250EZ....Slow,heavy unreliable piece of crap.Was the only bike I crashed and then it was due to either oil slicks,gravel on a corner or black ice.

[HungusMaximist]

A 150cc Vespa complete with Billboard trailer, incredibly dodgey in all regards, trailer was mounted via a special bracket coming off the Vespa's standard rear suspension.

I second that, however it was quite fun when you take a corner too deep, you can get the trailer on one wheel!

Oh yea, 2 of the scooters electric starters don't work any more and got to kick start the bitch up.

Did I tell you half way through our evening shift on Thursday both our trailer's tail lights, brake light and indicators stopped working completely, should've seen the buses emergency braking behind us! :sunny:

[slofox]

Velocette race bike of unknown vintage and parentage....only the engine was velo and that had been "modified" as well.......bastard thing vibrated so bad that it paralysed your arms via the bars and frequently snapped bits off - including the frame on numerous occasions.......handled like a dray and was about as fast as a crippled snail in the hot sun.......eventually sold it for a song to some dude who wanted it as a museum piece.....best use it could have had.....!!

[Forest]

Hmmm, I rode a GPZ305 when they were brand new- I thought it was fine for the size, year etc - it even had a radical belt drive instead of a chain.

There may well be worse bikes than the GPZ305, but fortunately I haven't ridden them.

I had the earlier chain-drive version of the GPZ305. Aside from the rust and the poor handling, what eventually soured me on the bike was the oil pump. The bloody thing was driven by a nylon gear - which eventually stripped off its teeth and seized my engine.

Consequently I've refused to buy another Kawasaki. I didn't have much money as a student and a seized engine was the last thing I could afford!

The bike ended up being thrown into the Leith.

[KX500]

And that is a good decision indeed!

Stick to your solex's boys, Green Machine way to much power.

[rocketman1]

Any bike that is out of tune , not running sweet, or has the tyres worn badly or wrongly inflated will feel like a pile of shite
Get the same bike in good running order, and you would not think its the same bike.
All manufacturers these days make pretty damn good good bikes, they would not be in business otherwise.
Its only the handicapped owners that are to broke to maintain them, that generally stuff a good bike.. enough said...

[DougB]

Army Indian, hand operated gear lever, the same hand as operates the throttle, foot clutch. A friend swapped the throttle of his to the other handle so it opened and closed the oposite way to all others. He was most dissapointed when I didnt turn it the usual way and charge into a conner and fall off.

[Ixion]

Surely Indians had the throttle twistgrip on the left handlebar ? The ones I rode did. Very confusing, but logical once you got used to it. Like BMW indicators.

(Oddly, Harleys, didn't!)

[rodimus]

A bike by the name of Trisha McKee.

[fatzx10r]

883 sportster. never again

[naphazoline]

All manufacturers these days make pretty damn good good bikes, they would not be in business otherwise....

yep....that may be true, but they all had their lemons along the way.

[OregonKiwi]

one day while following a truck,i decided to pull out to pass.
what a joke.it took about a minute to get half way up beside him,then i had to pull back cause of on coming traffic :o
this happened 3-4 times,when i happened to see the truck driver pissing himself laughing.




Did the same on a '68 Vespa 90 heading south out of CH CH, all the truck driver could hear was this high pitched buzzing. I could see his head frantically turning back & forth wondering what the fuck it was, until he pulled ahead, saw me, laughing as i dropped about 2k rpm's...funny.

No real bad bike, had many brands, they're all good rain or shine...location & desire to ride!!!!:rockon:

[OregonKiwi]

one day while following a truck,i decided to pull out to pass.
what a joke.it took about a minute to get half way up beside him,then i had to pull back cause of on coming traffic :o
this happened 3-4 times,when i happened to see the truck driver pissing himself laughing.




Did the same on a '68 Vespa 90 heading south out of CH CH, all the truck driver could hear was this high pitched buzzing. I could see his head frantically turning back & forth wondering what the fuck it was, until he pulled ahead, saw me, laughing as i dropped about 2k rpm's...funny.

No real bad bike, had many brands, they're all good rain or shine...location & desire to ride!!!!:rockon:

[madbikeboy]

A bike by the name of Trisha McKee.

This post is useless without pictures.

[Beemer]

The worst would be the second-hand Suzuki Goose I rode at Bikeforce in Rotorua when thinking about buying the new one they had for sale. The old one had been owned by a foreign student who obviously hadn't looked after it and as it was being sold on behalf, they hadn't touched it. The chain was so loose it was just about swinging and the guy had put a bellypan on it so every time I went to change gear my boot got caught on the edge of it. It was running really rough and kept cutting out on me, so I wasn't totally convinced I actually wanted one when I got back from the test ride! The new one had no battery in it so I couldn't take that one out, but my husband told me he'd ridden one and they were really lovely so I took a risk and bought it anyway. He was right, when I got the new one it bore no resemblance to the one I'd taken out!

[danchop]

yep....that may be true, but they all had their lemons along the way.
any honda xr with "re" beside it

[EJK]

Suzuki AD50 Address.

Nuff said really... Had it for a loan bike... I didn't want to take it really...

[naphazoline]

any honda xr with "re" beside it

if i remember rightly,the xr with the "rc" suffix was a goody though??

[danchop]

[QUOTE=naphazoline;1812155]if i remember rightly,the xr with the "rc" suffix was a goody though??[/QUOTE
yeah ra thru to rd were superb,re/rf stuffed up big time because of engines then they came right again

[carver]

Harley nightster
Kawasaki ER5
a Mini chopper
my suzuki savage was shit too

cruisers are usually shit

[Bonez]

The CX is absolutely shocking. Can't understand why I ride the bloody thing :whistle:

[sedge]

TL1000s, knackered rear damper/spring, fark, never again, sold it, cried, spent a year off bikes thinking how crap I was.

Sedge.

[danchop]

sad you had a bad time owning one of those,out of the near 150 bikes ive owned or ridden the tl was by far the most fun,probably cause they handled like shit but i loved it

[sedge]

sad you had a bad time owning one of those,out of the near 150 bikes ive owned or ridden the tl was by far the most fun,probably cause they handled like shit but i loved it

Yeah, fair enough, get a shite one and they are shite, same as anything else. If it had had good suspension I'd still have it.

It IS the worst bike I've owned, can't comment on other TLs and I can't claim 150 !, I've owned 10 bikes maybe ???

30k a year on them so I do get to know them quite well, the suspension was so bad I see-sawed into corners and squatted wide on the way out, just couldn't get my head around it, no amount of smoothness helped.

Looked good, sounded great, had enough poke, really didn't like going round corners in a hurry. Like I said, experience shows it was a poked rear end, it shouldn't sag that much.

Sedge.

[cave weta]

old 60 - 70s kawasaki mountain goat
Ha ha - the goat would come as a close second for me too!

I found that when landing it from a tabletop it would shower alkathene plumbing fittings, drench guns and fencing staples accross the raceway as the seat hinge had rusted off!:scooter:

[cave weta]

Ha ha - the goat would come as a close second for me too!

I found that when landing it from a tabletop it would shower alkathene plumbing fittings drench guns and fencing staples accross the raceway as the seat hinge had rusted off!:scooter:

10 characters

[Bass]

Honda XL350. The bike was OK but the tyres on it were unreal. In the wet, any use of throttle at all resullted in instant wheel spin and corners were out of the question.
The strange thing was that I got used to it and actually started to enjoy it after a while.

[vifferman]

The worse bike I've ridden? It'd be a toss up between an old Gummint issue CT90 farmbike, and a well-thrashed Suzuki 125 trailbike a friend of mine bought. I never sorted out what was wrong with it, but we never got the thing running properly: lots of backfiring, spluttering, coughing, cutting out. Was a real pig to ride. May be it was a Suzuki thing; a flatmate of mine back in the early 80's had a late 70s Suzuki T-250 that had a similar problem, but only misfiring, not the rest of the malarkey. While not quite so bad, as the rest of the bike was pretty tidy, it wasn't nice to ride.

Not the worst bike, but the worst ride I've had might be nursing the FahrtSturm in peak-hour traffic in the rain when it was running on only 1-and-a-bit cylinders. Did that a few times till I worked out what the problem was (front sparkplug boot had a minute tear in it).

[vifferman]

Honda XL350.
I've ridden one of those only once - it belonged to the brother of a girlfriend back in 1977/78. I thought it was OK, but the handling on the road was weird, kinda like it had a flexiframe or summat...

[Bass]

I've ridden one of those only once - it belonged to the brother of a girlfriend back in 1977/78. I thought it was OK, but the handling on the road was weird, kinda like it had a flexiframe or summat...


The tyres on the one I am referring to were so bad that I couldn't push it hard enough to find out about the frame.

[Dan Mapp]

A RV 90 with a Side Car lol

[NZsarge]

Honda CT125 or Suzuki Mudbug125, not sure which was the worst though, was a long time ago.

[vifferman]

one day while following a truck,i decided to pull out to pass.
what a joke.it took about a minute to get half way up beside him,then i had to pull back cause of on coming traffic :o
Huh.
That reminds me of test-riding a couple of bikes back in 94-ish. One was a Honda 300 Bros, and the other was a GB400. I can't remember which one it was, but I'm pretty sure it was the GB: I pulled out to pass a car and the guy put his foot down and I had to back off, as it didn't feel like it was going to get past.

[Pwalo]

Huh.
That reminds me of test-riding a couple of bikes back in 94-ish. One was a Honda 300 Bros,a nd the other was a GB400. I can't remember which one it was, but I'm pretty sure it was the GB: I pulled out to pass a car and the guy put his foot down and I had to back off, as it didn't feel like it was going to get past.

Yes indeedy, my FT400 was the same. Looked cool but once it got to 100ks it was soooo slow to accelarate.

But the worst bike I've ridden was a Yamaha XZ550 (the V twin thing). Had one as a loaner while my RD400C was being worked on. Man was I glad to get the RD back!

[nudemetalz]

Amen to that, Pwalo, but one thing worse than that, is the XZ400. Same weight, even less power and dodgy carburetion !!

[inlinefour]

there's been a few.
an old 80's cb650 i used to own,was pretty ordinary.
but one bike in the same era,comes to mind. a kawasaki 550. i can't remember the exact model,but crickey, was it a real dog.
it had power nowhere,noises everywhere,and pretty much didn't do what you told it to do.
it was butt ugly,petrol hungry,and flat out,was probably around the 140kms mark.
i didn't own this bike,but rode it to work a lot at the time.it certainly put me off ever buying one,that's for sure.

i'd be more then keen to hear some of your horror stories.

When I was 8 mum decided to get me her Honda step thru as she hated riding it to work. At the start I though it was cool, but it didnt take long and the novelty ran thin. Not long later dad said if I could kill it he would help me get a trail bike. The rules was I was not allowed to put anything in the petrol or oils, so it had to be the way I rode it. I tried everything to kill it and probably it should have killed me the things I was doing. Even full speed in 3rd smacking the gears down into first didnt do the trick, but I was told it sounded and looked really cool snaking along the grass. In the end I realised I was probably not going to be able to kill it myself without doing harm. I told dad that if I pushed it off into the river or sea that might do the trick, but he said no because of the pollution (was young and all I was focused on was getting a trail bike). We was camping on a farmer land and even he knew what was happening and he was having a good laugh. I ended up digging another huge rubbish hole and I was going to bury the bloody thing, once Id taken the fuel and oild out of course. One of the family friends who was out visiting whated to know what the F I was doing. I told him and everyone that was about just started laughing. The same friend realising that the step thru was still road legal said he would swap it for a trail bike that he had but could not get going. We went and had a look at it and it was abvious that it had just been sitting in his garage for too long. With dads help we cleaned the spark plug, put new fuel in it and checked everything over. All it needed was a new cable for the frount brake. Didnt take long and it was going but not very well, but the more I had it running the better it ran and my first good blast on it appeared to blow out all the cobwebs. Mum and dad at that stage didnt know about me riding on the backroads after school while they was at work, but the amount of fuel I was going through it became very obvious. I liked that bike even on the day I sold it because I had something much better. Swapping a step thru for a green TS185ER was a great deal in my view, pity I abused the step thu too much and it expired a few months down the track. :wari:

[OregonKiwi]

Suzuki AD50 Address.

I didn't want to take it really...



Yeah right!!:rolleyes:

[Badjelly]

A F***ing push bike.

There was probably something wrong with the motor.

[Moki]

My z1300 when the crankshaft went taking along with it all 6 pots.

[vgcspares]

Rode a ZX1400 with warped discs - you can imagine how easilly it got to 200kph but maybe not how much I regretted it when the front end shook so much I thought it was going to fall off

[Divot]

Triumph Speedmaster

[DarkLord]

I'd have to go for the Nifty Fifty's as well.

Horrible bike, well the one I rode was anyway. Speedo didn't work, no suspension whatsoever, tyres couldn't grip anything to save themselves plus the thing was frighteningly unstable.

I heard that bike met its end by being ridden into a fence and snapping in half.

:scooter:

[vtec]

I loved the nifty fifty. Fixed one up for my brother to use while he was down south at Otago University. Rode it to a cocktail party one night. was pissing down with rain on the way home, was motarding it foot out with both wheels sliding round a roundabout, and then the foot platform touched the road and she just washed out from under me. Bent the number plate straight and she was good to go again hahaha. Awesome

A bike I thought was awful was a TL1000s, handled like anus, but with dangerous amounts of torque. Those bikes are just stupid.

My dad had a CBX550 or something like that from the early 80's. What a waste of metal. No go, no handling, no brakes and it weighed heaps... WTF! I was expecting something with some go. I had an RGV250 at the time, and I was worried the much larger engine would be too much for me. It was such a disappointment.

[MotoKuzzi]

Jawa 350? twin 2 stroke. One I had only started with a push, running along side fast as I could pushing it with throttle full open, then all of a sudden it would light up and ya had to be bloody quick to throw ya leg over or get dragged. It was my first bike and had to push it miles along Napiers Marine parade to get it home from where I bought it. Strangely enough I kinda wish I still had it.

[carver]

a KLR650 would be another shit bike

[carver]

Yes indeedy, my FT400 was the same. Looked cool but once it got to 100ks it was soooo slow to accelarate.

But the worst bike I've ridden was a Yamaha XZ550 (the V twin thing). Had one as a loaner while my RD400C was being worked on. Man was I glad to get the RD back!

i had one worse

a shitty yamaha XZ400

that was a sack of shit, never buy one.
the electrics, carbs, handling, power, brakes, fork seals...the whole bike...

is shit, like you have to fix it once a week

[Wannabiker]

For me its a tie between a Honda Z50 mini bike circa 1970's and a Buel Blast....a Harley with an amputated cylinder and a gearbox from a traction engine...it scraped the footpegs around every bend in the road and had no power. The novelty wore off quickly.

[carver]

Triumph Speedmaster

really?
my workmate had one and thought it was the shit!

[orangeback]

Enfield 350 and 500 next to the RZ500 s i've had :argue:

[Goblin]

Worst bike by far was a '95 Vibraglide! Had 1340ccs of noise but very little actual grunt. Forward footpegs meant it was a struggle to change gears so I found neutrals all through the gear box. Brakes were almost non existant. Had to throttle off well before even thinking of cornering. Then cornering was more of a wallow than a corner. YUK!

[vifferman]

Worst bike by far was a '95 Vibraglide! Had 1340ccs of noise but very little actual grunt. Forward footpegs meant it was a struggle to change gears so I found neutrals all through the gear box. Brakes were almost non existant. Had to throttle off well before even thinking of cornering. Then cornering was more of a wallow than a corner. YUK!
That reminds me - not the worst bike I've ever ridden, but the first cruiser I rode was a Honda 1100 Shadow Ace. :eek:
The engine and gears seemed to serve no other purpose than to dial in different levels of noise'n'vibration, and I nearly ripped my boot off on the first corner I came to: a 'challenging' (well... it was for the bike) 50 km/h corner taken at a gob-stopping 20km/h.

Some bikes are just so bad that they somehow revert to being fun. I'm thinking in particular of a Honda Lead 125 scooter I was entrusted with when I asked for a loaner bike. Much giggling was done that day.
Two-up, we had to paddle to get it moving. :laugh:

The next loaner I had was better, but strangely I found it rather insutling - a crappy rusty Suzuki Volty. I was really pissed off and hated the thing, until I took a Ponsonby backstreet and discovered the light(ish) weight and boingy suspension made it perfect for hopping speed humps.

[OregonKiwi]

a KLR650 would be another shit bike


Worse than a VTR250? Try adventure touring/forestry roads on that dude!:laugh:

[carver]

Worse than a VTR250? Try adventure touring/forestry roads on that dude!:laugh:

the VTR is great!
what do you think of ya front brakes, or the top heavy, heavy slow KLR

[vgcspares]

Triumph Speedmaster
seems a little unfair given most owners love them - what on earth went wrong with yours ?

[Insanity_rules]

My worst ever was a 1985 ish Yamaha XZ400, heavy, underpowered and so wouldn't corner to save its live (even on brand spankers new good rubber)

[Moki]

India Enfield Bullet 350 is worth a mention...