Stupid bikes you have owned

[HenryDorsetCase]

and should have known better, knowing bought fully aware of friends advice and reviews.

Mine was a Honda 400F, gutless, most boring of all Honda's, only slightly alleviated by fitting Yoshimura cam, a decision even more reprehensible by selling a tricked out CB750.

Don't be dissing the CB400F (4 cyl). You can bag the CB400N because that was a piece of shit.

[HenryDorsetCase]

+1 on the XS650.....what a fuckin dawg

they go for crazy money now.

[pritch]

Yamaha DT250D.
What a bi heavy pig, wouldn't go around corners and it's party piece was dieseling.

I have liked whatever bike I had at the time and wouldn't mind having a good example of most again. One exception would be my Yamaha RT360. It didn't diesel but I had two different rated spark plugs in the head and I would stop and swap to a harder plug once the engine was hot enough if going any distance on the highway. The bike was ideal for zapping around Wellington's hilly streets but otherwise uninspiring.

The RT360 was new when I bought it but the gearbox shat itself. When asked what had happened the shop staff could only tell me that the RT360 wasn't Yamahas best model.

I never owned one but I escaped a Norton Commando by the skin of my teeth. I was looking at one with intent to buy while the salesman studiously ignored me. The apprentice, who I knew, walked past and quietly mentioned that every Commando they had sold had blown up in under 2000 miles. "Thanks, see ya."

[98tls]

PE 400, was a fucking nightmare of a thing. XS 650,horrible.

You think the XS was a bad choice mate for reasons still unknown i many many years ago handed over coin (earnt by myself which makes it worse) for a XS650 SpecialOnly on the fucking internet would i own up to that,the thing was so bad that i left the thing somewhere and never bothered going back to get it.

[Ender EnZed]

CBX750

The VFR I replaced it with was easily three times the bike.

[swarfie]

You think the XS was a bad choice mate for reasons still unknown i many many years ago handed over coin (earnt by myself which makes it worse) for a XS650 SpecialOnly on the fucking internet would i own up to that,the thing was so bad that i left the thing somewhere and never bothered going back to get it.

+1 A mate of mine bought one new...dunno what the hell he was thinking, the fool. Wobblyest motorcycle ever made

[98tls]

+1 A mate of mine bought one new...dunno what the hell he was thinking, the fool. Wobblyest motorcycle ever made

I rode mine 2up to a pissup in Dunedin,great do really highlights included some good looking tart in a cunt length skirt whose boyfriend didnt seem to care that when she introduced me to him my hand was in her knickers then later that night being driven around dunners by some tart moaning about how unhappy she was with her policeman husband whist choking on a huge doobie,at some stage she pulled over took off all her clothes then much to my annoyance gets back in the car carrys on driving whist ignoring my efforts to shag her.Anyways thats where the bike was left.

[swarfie]

I rode mine 2up to a pissup in Dunedin,great do really highlights included some good looking tart in a cunt length skirt whose boyfriend didnt seem to care that when she introduced me to him my hand was in her knickers then later that night being driven around dunners by some tart moaning about how unhappy she was with her policeman husband whist choking on a huge doobie,at some stage she pulled over took off all her clothes then much to my annoyance gets back in the car carrys on driving whist ignoring my efforts to shag her.Anyways thats where the bike was left.

Cool, sounds like you had better things on your mind than foul handling bikes. Well shod of it I say

Hows the Motorsport coming on? I did about 30k on my 1975 one in the late 70's. Cool old thing and probably another bike I shouldn't have sold

[kave]

When I owned one I thought the XS250 was the best thing since sliced bread. About the only bike I have no regrets about selling.

Since I have learned what a difference proper engineering can make.

A while ago several bike mags I regularly read all did best / worst polls on bikes from the 80s to 2005(?).
This was not multi choice and all the magazines had different bikes in most of the ranks. What did they all have in common? XS 250 was rated worst.

Good to see I'm not the only person to have suffered through owning an XS250, they are absolute pigs to ride. If it was my first bike I probably would have given up on riding and gone back to car ownership.

[GrayWolf]

You think the XS was a bad choice mate for reasons still unknown i many many years ago handed over coin (earnt by myself which makes it worse) for a XS650 SpecialOnly on the fucking internet would i own up to that,the thing was so bad that i left the thing somewhere and never bothered going back to get it.

I also had an XS650 Special (heritage custom version) wtf the diff was I never worked out.
Yes they had 'unusual handling' and vibrated like the biggest sex toy imaginable, but as has been shown, the donk was a bloody good one, in the UK they were ripped out and put into hardtail frames 'wholesale' in the 80's. It was a Bonneville that had the same vibration and performance, but didnt break down

Now if you wanted to really admit to owning a hideous Yamaha twin, you could have gone 2 bikes better (worse) TX500 or TX750

[Oscar]

I have liked whatever bike I had at the time and wouldn't mind having a good example of most again. One exception would be my Yamaha RT360. It didn't diesel but I had two different rated spark plugs in the head and I would stop and swap to a harder plug once the engine was hot enough if going any distance on the highway. The bike was ideal for zapping around Wellington's hilly streets but otherwise uninspiring.

The RT360 was new when I bought it but the gearbox shat itself. When asked what had happened the shop staff could only tell me that the RT360 wasn't Yamahas best model.

I never owned one but I escaped a Norton Commando by the skin of my teeth. I was looking at one with intent to buy while the salesman studiously ignored me. The apprentice, who I knew, walked past and quietly mentioned that every Commando they had sold had blown up in under 2000 miles. "Thanks, see ya."

I had two mates with DT360's and they used to make outlandish claims about perfomance (the 100mph top speed being the most notable).
After a drag race against my 250, I could only conclude that Yamaha were delivered a bad batch of speedo's for the 360.

[Voltaire]

I never owned one but I escaped a Norton Commando by the skin of my teeth. I was looking at one with intent to buy while the salesman studiously ignored me. The apprentice, who I knew, walked past and quietly mentioned that every Commando they had sold had blown up in under 2000 miles. "Thanks, see ya."

OMG....I've over 5000 miles on mine...must be due to blow

I gather the original 750 Combats rarely made it past 5000 miles. They were not up to the advertised hype. The Interstate Combat was even less up to the task it was named after.

Bike I disliked the most and I love BMW airheads was a late 80s R100 RT. The fairing and the tiller bars were horrible.

[caspernz]

The most hideous bike I've owned has to be a Yamaha XZ400. Shaft drive of course, and basically a shrunken motor version of the XZ550, itself not bad but performance was not it's strong point. Then again, the GN250 that came before it wasn't exactly a fire breathing monster either

Next on that list would be a Honda CBX550. Nice bike, odd inboard disc brakes and all, but just a bit...what's the word here? Boring? Still, it went quite well until it dropped a valve and poked a rod out the side of the block shortly thereafter. Fast on the clutch saved me from sliding down the road. Come to think of it haven't owned a Honda since that CBX550

[Grumph]

Good to see I'm not the only person to have suffered through owning an XS250, they are absolute pigs to ride. If it was my first bike I probably would have given up on riding and gone back to car ownership.

The XS250 came with a performance limiter....if you were game to hold it wide open for long enough - not that far actually - it started to starve for fuel. The tap was too small bore believe it or not. I sorted one for a youngish Vicar many years ago. i think he went up the tunnel road regularly and it would starve before the tunnel. i warned him when i gave it back that it might not see the tunnel mouth if he gave it the message all the way up....never saw it back again thankfully.

[Big Dog]

Good to see I'm not the only person to have suffered through owning an XS250, they are absolute pigs to ride. If it was my first bike I probably would have given up on riding and gone back to car ownership.

Most of the pics on the net look a lot like a gn. Mine was more square with a deep nacelle tank similar to an FJ. Four exhaust headers are a bit of a clue there were a few variants.
When mine disappears down the road in a trail of sparks there was diesel on the road to be sure but the primary contributing factor was the bearings spitting out of the rear hub mid corner. Apparently an early experiment with conical bearings. One set either side as opposed to cylindrical. More resistant to crushing during assembly.
Cue 6 weeks wait on bearing to arrive from japan. Everything else on the bike was sorted in 10 days. 6 weeks is a long time to hitch to and from work.

Frigging thing slowed down in a tailwind. Something about having a small ram on the intake. Starving the carb of oxygen in a tail wind.
Until my next bike I just assumed a bike was supposed to pitch to the right when you cracked on.
Until my next bike I assumed it was normal to pitch left under brakes.
Oh the list goes on...

Oh and mine blew its gear box 100 km after I traded it in. Bike shop serviced it and sold it to another learner. They did not even make it home and back to polytechnic. They personally got 37kms.

Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.