Worst bike ever ridden

[Jantar]

Suzuki RE5, big fat and ugly. you wouldnt want your mates to know you were riding one.

I just stumbled across this post while searching for something else. I can only conclude that stanko has either never ridden an RE5, or if he has, then he has not ridden any other large Japanese bike that was made earlier than 1985.

The RE5 was the smoothest and best handling bike out of Japan in the mid 70s. Read the review in a recent issue of BRM where its quick turn in to a corner was compared favourably with an R1.

[Dadpole]

Agree with Jantar. The RE5 was just so good on the twisty stuff. I once had the use of one for a month, and nothing compared until the GS750 arrived. (same frame designer as I recall)

[crazyxr250rider]

all those chinese bikes are pigs heavy and gutles...

[crazyxr250rider]

stanko watch what you say..........

[Bonez]

stanko watch what you say..........

sniffing too much petrol ? Bad for your health you know.

[crazyxr250rider]

sniffing too much petrol ? Bad for your health you know.

who me? I never.............

[eliot-ness]

The first Kawasaki 650 W1 & W1SS (street scrambler - high pipes) was a direct knock off of the BSA A10, right down to the seperate gearbox. I've never heard that Yamaha copied BSA but the Kawaski - for sure. Kawasaki took over another Japanese maker, Meguro, and got the 650 design with that.
Another Jap factory that made a knock off of European bikes was Lilac - they copied BMW

Meguro didn't knock off the A10 BSA design. They built it legitimately under licence from BSA. Kawasaki inherited the licence with the takeover.

Lilac's only flat twin was a 339cc, in 1954. More akin to a Douglas of that era than BMW, who, incidentally, started by building Douglas fore and aft flat twins under licence in 1922. Douglas had been building them since 1907. In 1959 Lilac made a transverse V twin. 247cc. also with shaft drive.

Yamaha didn't copy anything. The XS was original from the ground up. They merely extended the Brit parallel twin layout by adding overhead cams. As with the Brit machines increasing capacity to 750cc was unsuccesfull. The balancer shaft, added to smooth out vibration, sapped too much power and the 750, although smoother, was slower than the 650.

[Pablo Uganda]

The worst bike I rode was an old Triumph from the 50s, a restored thing that I cant recall the model, but the rear wheel had almost a full fender on it.
Shit it was awfull.

[VasalineWarrior]

A 1979 Suzuki TS 125-twin plug head just like above and so many loose nuts that the damn thing would vibrate to bits down a pot holed road. Fond memories of looking for the missing exhaust in the bushes and pushing a friends seized example down the road. A real shit excuse for a bike

[ducatilover]

ts 125 was the worst ever for me.....even my mums hoda eve was better than that, shit even my gn is......the ts125 literally snapped in half when my brother was riding it about a year ago, turns out all that was holding it together was the zorst.........

[stanko]

I just stumbled across this post while searching for something else. I can only conclude that stanko has either never ridden an RE5, or if he has, then he has not ridden any other large Japanese bike that was made earlier than 1985.

The RE5 was the smoothest and best handling bike out of Japan in the mid 70s. Read the review in a recent issue of BRM where its quick turn in to a corner was compared favourably with an R1.

Wrong on both counts, I have owned an RE5, hated it, sold it to you

I have owned a Kawasaki gt750, z500, H1 and s2, yamaha RD350,rz350, rz500
so have some experience with pre 85 bikes.

[simonantz]

Yep i had one of these in the late 70s, and thats how I learned to kick, and kick and kick!
But I must admit I loved that bike and when she went it was just awsome.
Gad damme that oil filter was expensive!!

[jim.cox]

Kawasaki KH100

a nasty little two-stroker with only just enough power to get me my licence

[Skinny_Birdman]

Worst bike ridden: 1981 Moto Guzzi V1100 Spada - If it sounds like a tractor, performs like a tractor, and handles like a tractor, it must be.......

Worst bike owned: BMW F650 Funduro - Probably a bad example of a reasonable bike, but something broke every week or so, and when nothing was actually broken stuff would just randomly fall off it. I think that Loc-tite is available as a genuine part. It was a nice bike to ride, but the penny probably should have dropped when I got the ownership papers - 14 owners in 11 years? WTF?

Honourable mention: 1983 Suzuki GS 750ED - Had it when I was a poor student; was a poor student because I had it. The CDI unit blew, $900 for a new one from Suzuki. $900? I only paid $1000 for the bike! Got a 2nd hand one from a wrecker for $150, but after that I used to lie awake at night wondering when the electrical system would finally crap out for good and all.
Eventually sold it to a mate, and heard recently that the stator finally bit the dust.

[Askelon]

Worst Ive ever ridden was a Suzuki Savage 650 with drag pipes (not sure what year - around '99 I think). Man it felt so underpowered, the brakes were quite possibly worse than just plain sticking your feet on the ground to stop, it cornered brilliantly as long as you were going in a staight line (Im used to scraping pegs but it was friggin crazy). And the vibes! It felt very cramped. I rode it for about a week after my Harley was stolen - that was seriously all I could handle it for. Replaced it with a 89 GSX600 and been pretty happy since..