Your 5 worst bikes ever

[peter f]

Well,

Let's list the donkey stuff here.

My list:

1. Kawasaki H2 750 triple: the widow maker.

2. Laverda Jota: like 3rd marriage > triumph of hope VS experience.

3. K1200R: the art of pointless.

4. R1200S: good in theory, crap (my bike) in reality .

5. GSXR 1000 K3: dangerous (frame failures) and kitsch.

[BumbleBeemer36]

1. HD Sportster
2. HD Softtail
3. HD Bagger
4. HD Heritage
5. HD Night Train

[cageyar]

The first 4 are in no particular order but the last is the all time worst:

#5: 1972 CZ 125
The yellow one with the toaster tank with black rubber knee panels. You measured the shift lever travel in feet, not inches or mm.



#4: 1973 Triumph 750 twin
At the end, the tooling was shot and they were coming back into Golden Cycle in Lodi, NJ with 1500 miles on them needing a valve job.



#3: 70's-80's vintage shovelhead Sportsters
When a bike vibrates so hard that your hands go numb in between bar hops, you know you've got problems.


#2: 1973 Yamaha TX750
The only Yamaha that competed with the Triumphs at Golden Cycle for the all time oil leak champ-the Yamaha won.



And, drum roll please........the all time worst bike ever, because they sold so many,
#1: 1975 Honda CB500T
Take a decent bike, the 1965-74 CB450, lengthen the stroke to make it a 500 to remain "competitive" and turn a nice bike into the most ugly, vibrating mix-master ever made. A dark brown mettalic tank with a lighter brown seat? Yummy. One came back into Ralph's Cycle in S. Orange, NJ with the speedo and tach broken from vibration. When you rev'd the bike up in neutral, the gauge internals spun around inside their housings-faceplate and all. It was fascinating to see the speedo and tach spinning around under the glass. Truly a pile of $hit.

[flatbutt]

1. AMF Sportster, 'nuff said
2.+1 to the Kawi 2 stroke triple, no brakes, gumby frame
3. 1966 Ducati 250, constant continual eternal electrical failures
4. 750 Norton Commando mostly because the first owner was a doosh
5. Kawi 750 LTD, the electric leg was beyond useless, no power, no brakes, no charm

[Guest24]

+1 on the 750 Triumph except mine was a '73 Tiger. But, I loved the look. All the rest of my bikes were OK considering the technology available at the time.

[Sofatester]

Never bought a bad bike.
And I guess some folks have the special talent to wreck up everything.

The list of my motorbikes is a list of crates I love. Starting in 1981 my list consists of:

Yamaha DT80MX, XT500, XS850, FZ750 (1FN), FZ750 (2KK)
Ducati 750F1, 750S, self-built 750-TT-F1 Replica (with my old F1. 750 Motor)
Yamaha TDM850 (3VD)
Honda VTR1000F
BMW R1100S, R1200S, Kuhzilla 1200S,

[cageyar]

My list was more bikes I've ridden and/or worked on when I was a motorcycle technician in the 70's and 80's.
I feel the same way about never owning a bad bike, although some I've owned some that had "character" and made some of the other lists:

1972 Kawasaki H2 750
I bought this bike as my first real street bike having only owned dual purpose bikes up until then. Pretty quick and the front end would get light and float as you went by 115 mph. But it was fun strafing gaggles of HD's on a Sunday afternoon and leaving them in a haze of blue smoke. Actually rode it cross country in 1973. At one time or another, I also own/have owned 2 1972 Kawasaki S2 350's, 1975 Kawasaki S3 400 and a 1975 Kawasaki S1 250.

I currently own the orginal Kawasaki triple, the 1969 H1 500. Going to restore that one day and go looking for HD's again.................

[flatbutt]

I also had the S3 400. Rode it 2 up to Cape Cod...ONCE.

[shreddr]

i never owned one or rode one, but the 1974 Yamaha SC500 was rumored to be so ill handling as to be unridable, which combined with a light switch powerband on a two stroke 500cc makes for rodeo ride. My friend had a 74' MX 360 which was a close second!

[PFFOG]

My 5 worst would be some of my 5 best too since I have only owned 7 including the track bike!

[markjenn]

This discusssion is going to bifurcate depending on whether it is specific to bikes you've owned (or have ridden enough to form an opinion) vs. bikes in general that you just think are crap, like the Harley-bashing above.

On personally owned/ridden bikes, I have impecable taste so I would never own a bad bike. But on my list of "not as good as the others", I would include:

+ a Suzuki GT550 that gave me lots of mechanical headaches
+ a Yamaha Seca 750 that was just boring
+ a Honda GB500 that was a joy to look at, but was cheaply made and ridiculously underpowered
+ a KTM 640 Adventure that I talked myself into thinking it had acceptable vibration, but looking back at I realize I was deluding myself; it also had a seat height that almost required an oxygen mask to mount the thing

If you're talking about bikes in general, then I'd go with bikes like:

+ Bimota V-Due
+ Suzuki Madura
+ Harley Sportsters (sorry Harley fans - I like some of the big twins and the Road King in particular)
+ Cannondale MX bikes (all of them)
+ Honda Rune

- Mark

[cageyar]

Having worked motorcycle retail for several brands as well as 10 years for American Honda Motorcycle Division, I've had the opportunity to ride hundreds of different models, some for quite some time. Honda used to rent Willow Springs each year and we go up there for two days and flog all the new models as well as the competitor new models. Needless to say there was periodic carnage. Ah, when the motorcycle business still had money.

I've ridden most motorcycles sold in the U.S. during the 70's and 80's up to about 1992. There used to be a much bigger difference from bike to bike and brand to brand. Now most bikes are really pretty competent. It's a shame the industry is on it's a$$ when so many good bikes are available. I sat in meetings in 1985 that claimed Honda alone would be selling 1,000,000 units in the U.S. by 1990. Of course, it never happened and these days they're not even close and have warehouses of unsold bikes.

[tim22]

I don't think I've owned enough bikes to have had five bad ones (the count is seventeen now), but the worst one was my 1976 CR125 Elsinore. My mom and step dad traded in her CB750 (Windjammer fairing!) for my 'Elsie.' It blew pistons like crazy and I had to push it back home from riding in the surrounding woods several times. Once I tried to race it and I could barely get around the track. It was in Northern Michigan and was all sand. Worst time EVER!

[varmint]

the first five on my list all have the name buell.

that ching-jiang bwm r-32 clone. the metal on those was so poor they decayed in the showrooms. looked like a mouthful of bad teeth up close.

the late 70's triumphs

[shreddr]

Originally Posted by tim22

I don't think I've owned enough bikes to have had five bad ones (the count is seventeen now), but the worst one was my 1976 CR125 Elsinore. My mom and step dad traded in her CB750 (Windjammer fairing!) for my 'Elsie.' It blew pistons like crazy and I had to push it back home from riding in the surrounding woods several times. Once I tried to race it and I could barely get around the track. It was in Northern Michigan and was all sand. Worst time EVER!

I bet you loved every minute of it!

[anotheroldrider]

Boy oh boy - in no particular order:

AMF Sportster - I was sure I could get it sorted out. Eventually I gave up.

7-speed DKW - it had such a narrow power spread you needed all 7 speeds, and one enduro would require so many shifts you'd wear a hole in your boot (and possibly your toes, too).

R-90S - pre-frame brace and suspension work it was possibly the worst handling motorcycle at speed on anything other than perfect pavement I've ever ridden. Really crap brakes, too. (I still have it, tho')

Pre square-barrel 360 Maico - mine had a very fragile ignition and a crank that until welded would twist out of balance if you even thought about revving it hard.

OK, only one left - the limit was 5, correct? I suppose the early Ducatis should be on the list - although I still have them purely as collector items for nostalgia sake, my 250 Diana had truly horrible electrics, and the 350 Scrambler was really awful, too. Come to think about it, the then "new" 900SS belt drive motors weren't all that great at first, either - actually somewhat slow, prone to breaking cylinder studs, poorly executed carb's, etc etc.

As an aside, I can't help but wonder why so much difference between Peter F's R12S and mine - it's one of my all time favorites, right up there with my Honda 650 Hawk and newer KTM's. Granted, I'm an old guy who doesn't push it very hard, but it's been a truly excellent bike.

[motoman]

(In no particular order..)

1. 1988 Honda Hurricane 1000 - Is it that hard to design a decent CCT??
2. 1985 Honda Nighthawk 700 - Squeak! Squeak!
3. 1982 Suzuki GS750E - Not a bad bike at the time but... big hinge in the middle!
4. 2003 Moto Guzzi Aluminum - Valvole Hydraulica? Eh?
5. 2003 HD Nightrain A good bike for the genre, and a chiropractor's dream!

[shreddr]

Originally Posted by anotheroldrider

as an aside, i can't help but wonder why so much difference between peter f's r12s and mine - it's one of my all time favorites....

+1

[Bob Hancock]

I've only had two that were truly cr@p. A '73 Triumph 750 Bonneville that started pinging when it heated up after about 2000 miles. Sounded like it was headed to destruction so I sold it to a Navy guy. Chrome would turn to tarnish if you looked at it. I got it new from a mail order place and picked it up in a crate in New Orleans, brought it home and put it in service. This must have been sometime around 1974. Not a bad bike if it'd run.

The worst was a 1967 Norton 750 P-11A. Shifter wouldn't work, head gasket leaked, suspension was a marshmallow with NO damping, speedo drive was good for 50 miles before breaking and leaking. Brakes were awful, but then it wasn't that fast so didn't matter much. If you wanted to ride a favorite road, best to trailer it there and ride locally because it probably wouldn't get there and back.

Several Sportsters, but they weren't that bad really, even the AMF one I had that had the speedo glass that fell out. More reliable than the Triumph or Norton. And not to bad mouth Brit bikes, I also had a '67 BSA 650 Thunderbolt that was a pretty good bike. Had to rebuild the engine at 22,000 miles or so, but good miles until that point. Sold it for nearly what I paid for it after 2 years of ownership.

Never had a bad BMW.

Only one UJM (before the XR650 I have now) and it was an RC-51. Great bike.....just never liked it much for some reason.

[cageyar]

Originally Posted by Bob Hancock

I've only had two that were truly cr@p. A '73 Triumph 750 Bonneville that started pinging when it heated up after about 2000 miles. Sounded like it was headed to destruction so I sold it to a Navy guy. Chrome would turn to tarnish if you looked at it. I got it new from a mail order place and picked it up in a crate in New Orleans, brought it home and put it in service. This must have been sometime around 1974. Not a bad bike if it'd run.

Originally Posted by cageyar

#4: 1973 Triumph 750 twin
At the end, the tooling was shot and they were coming back into Golden Cycle in Lodi, NJ with 1500 miles on them needing a valve job.

Bob,

That's exactly why I listed that bike in my list. Those bikes were really junk.