Death traps you have ridden

[tri boy]

Death Trap I've Ridden?
Train from New Delhi to Agra (taj). Stopped 8 times, engineer kept replacing high amp fuses, until the swith board caught fire.
Dozens of Hindu's charging through the carriages jabbering a whole lot of stuff I didn't understand until I saw the flames.
Adrenalin is wicked stuff! Where can I buy it.

[Dodger]

Hmmm, I still have and use my Chinese made 50cc Scooter.

[outlawtorn]

Colemans Suzuki have a Kawasaki Eliminator 250 (1996) and this thing is completely and utterly dodgy as all hell. I rode it yesterday and it scared the crap outta me.

[Dodger]

Colemans Suzuki have a Kawasaki Eliminator 250 (1996) and this thing is completely and utterly dodgy as all hell. I rode it yesterday and it scared the crap outta me.

Ahh, the good old shop bikes.
The GN250 at TSS can be interesting at times

[PeteJ]

Ah, and then there is my Suzuki RV90 with sidecar. The sidebox is so light that it's easier to ride the thing tilted over and on the bike wheels only.

Once you've learned to ride that sidecar, you can ride any sidecar, so there is some advantage to it. My first left hand corner on it gave me a life-changing adrenaline rush.

[swbarnett]

It had those square wheelbarrow type tyres on it too so you went from having a huge footprint on the ground to riding on a knife edge as soon as you leaned it over....

Sounds a lot like the stock tyres on a GN. Should've changed them when I bought it.

[Oakie]

Umm. Suzuki GT750 ('Waterbus'). Took one for a test ride from a dealer in Oamaru in the early 80s. Got up to road speed but the first time I applied the brakes the front wheel lurched to the left. I still don't know why but it felt like it was loose somehow. (Hard to explain.) Took it straight back to the dealer using the back brake only.
A friend subsequently bought the bike and it blew up spectacularly after a short time.

[Timber020]

Death traps. Turbo fireblade. Had brakes but it needed a chute and to be ridden on salt flats.

Took a GSXR750 for a test ride that had no front brakes. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Had a TM400 with no brakes and a habit of getting stuck in one gear while the carb wouldnt stop feeding the engine. Ended up in a few hedges, hitting a few trees.


Cars, My Pontiac Bonneville, 7.5 litre modded engine in a 1982 oversizes boat with the standard shocks and brakes.....from 1982. Tires like hard biscuits, handling like the car was permanently drunk. Had a ton of get up and go but you had no say where you were going. Someone nicknamed it the "stoned scud". 10 years back it cost $20 to fill in the US and it could seat 4 in the front and 5 in the back relatively comfortably. Cost me $850 and if I had brought the engine back a guy would have given me over 10k for it-hindsight sucks.

I have to blame my mates for the following

Mk4 cortina with worked 351. No he didnt upgrade the brakes OR put in power steering. But put on really wide tires. Parking it was a killer. It shook like crazy at 120 to 140, but was sweet above that, so the benchmark was set. Boiled the brakes on every trip.

Starlet with 20z twin turbo rotary. Loud loud loud loud. fast fast fast fast. Didnt like to idle, run at below 5000rpm but always wanted to stop at the next fuel station.

[Mom]

The only time I have ever been scared riding was about 30 years ago, when I took a Kawasaki off road machine (may have been 185/250) for a test ride.......I could not reach the ground, except on the tip of one foot, it had the power band from hell, and I liked to twist the wrist.......spent the whole time either one one wheel, or creeping along hoping not to foul a plug.....LOL. *mutters something about uncontrollable 2 strokes*

Cars...AP5 Valiant!.........mean machine, did my first 100 miles p/hour in it, OK so the accellerator was stuck down, was on my way to watch then boyfriend fool around on the dirt out on what is now Te Rakau Dr in Auckland. Best was its inability to go round corners straight.........them boy sliders have nothing on my AP5!!!

[more_fasterer]

My mate's Yammie SR500 that I rode last year - the forks leaked, the shocks leaked, the front brake was as progressive as a light switch. So much so that my cousin got 200m down the road on it, went to brush off some speed and locked the front - down he went, right under the back of a parked car!

[Roj]

Then I started thinking about the ones at the other end of the scale. Bikes that I for one reason or another should not have ridden (but as a result of youth, enthusiasm, foolishness and perhaps a bullet proof attitude I did ride)

MY friends old RD350, it had a bent frame and a problem with the points that meant it had a mind of its own as to how many cylinders it would run on, borrowed it to nip home to get some tools while working on a bike at his place, running on one cylinder while heading towards a rail crossing with the throttle wound out, the barrier arms start coming down at the same time as it decides now is when 2 cylinders would be good, it takes off and I hit the brakes and end up sliding up to the barrier arms sideways as the train rumbles through

[Swoop]

"Death traps you have ridden"...

Let me think...
SH1,
SH2,
Etc.........

[peasea]

A Phillips 'Gadabout' moped

A CA Bedford van with mid-mounted 272 V8 - and NO brakes!
Boy, did I ever get the learn about need for brakes in THAT sucker!! (long story)

CA Bedford?
272?
No brakes?

You really are a star, aren't you?

Glad to see you progressed to president of your local hot rod club.

Do your bikes have brakes?

[peasea]

"Death traps you have ridden"...

Let me think...
SH1,
SH2,
Etc.........

Oh brill, bling dude.

[slopster]

My first bike a gsxr 250 had no oil in the forks. Only problem was since it was my first bike I thought that was just how it was supposed to be. It was like riding a pogo stick. I had it for a year and did 10000km on it before blowing the motor up. When I got another bike I couldn't believe the improvement!