Whats the crappest bike you've ever owned and why?

[cooleronthecoast]

Yes its true, I'm getting bored, there's only so much DIY work around the house a bloke can do!   Also I have to admit I nicked the idea of this thread off another forum, but what the hell:

I have to say mine was a Honda    I had a CB350K4 twin back in the mid 70's.  Its one saving grace was the parallel twin engine sounded nice, even with the stock exhausts, but there wasn't much else to write home about as I recall.  It was gutless and slow, the handling wasn't great either, but perhaps if I'd treated it to some decent rear shocks it might have been better, but I suppose it was a reliable old steed and it never let me down.  I wasn't sad to see the back of it when I saved up enough drinking vouchers from my Apprentice wages to buy a CB400/4. 

[Andrew-S]

This bloody thing, it was loud, smokey, smelly and kept firing the baffles out of the spanners, apart from that it was great. I bought it in the summer of 84 and didn't keep it long. Thing is, these are worth good money these days....

[bobv7]

Velocette Vogue. I bought this simply because I was riding locally to work and only sometimes into town plus I didn't need to wear leathers for that. It mainly leaked water, a lot, even after I changed both cylinder head gaskets (twice) and sometimes it just wouldn't fire up for no apparent reason. It broke down on my way to work on a hill and my sister went and got it home freewheeling all the way! Gave up and sold it to a Velo dealer in East Sheen as a non runner. A year later I bought a CB175 and happiness was restored.

[Lobo]

...mine was a CB250G5 (Green). The outgoing bike was a Suzuki A100, and in my wee brain I expected 2.5 x the performance & fun. What I got was about 1.05 the performance and abouts 0.95 the fun.

But hey, happy days....

(& the more observant amongst us might be querying why I’ve not nominated the Moto Guzzi Griso 😂.)

[Green1]

I will have to nominate my old Triumph Speed four Great looking and handling bike but build quality was shocking.
It leaked like a 70's Triumph needing a new rockercover and sump gasket, the wiring harness rubbed through on the mono shock bolt, It went through 2 rectifiers, The rubber hoses perished, Swarf in the head race bearings from new and the alarm imobalizer was forever playing up. Far to many problems in 13000 miles

Oh and Triumph dealers are stuck up unhelpfull arseholes

[Arch stanton]

Without a shadow of a doubt.
CBX750. The worst engine I have ever had.
3yrs old, 14,000 miles, Tony Scott blue print motor.
2lt of oil per 1,000 miles. Replacing the rings. Reduced that to 1lr per K. Threw the crank whilst following a mate on a 883 Harley.so Hardy revving. Utter crap.

[royhall]

Sounds like Tony Scott had a lot to answer for.

[ka-ja]

Without a doubt, my worst was a Matchless 250cc circa 1960'ish.

[Arch stanton]

The reason behind the Tony Scott engine was.
The bike was entered into the Production TT. By Bill Head motorcycles. Ridden by Phil Nicolls. The bike would have won but for Bill Head over ruling the rider. By not allowing a fuel stop. Phil pushed in to finish 26th after a good lead.
I think the race must have taken too much out of the motor.
I have had a Tiger cub & even a Norton Jubilee. Both were utter Shite. But nothing more could have been expected of those. But a Honda!

[Nurse Julie]

Without a shadow of a doubt a Suzuki T500 back in 1980. She didn't have, or I could never find 2nd gear and the hotter the engine got the more of a bitch she was to start.

[bobv7]

Funny isn't it; two of the bikes so far mentioned I have rather fond memories of! 

[sye]

Funny isn't it; two of the bikes so far mentioned I have rather fond memories of! 

Me too, I had a CBX 750 from 89 - 96 as my only form of transport. Used every day and covered over 70k miles on it. Cost nothing except a battery, tyres and two chains. Utterly reliable, went like stink (to me at the time) and all day comfy. PX'd it against a VFR750, that was a good move too.

My worst bike ever was an A10. Utter pile of poo, leaked oil, almost never got me to where I wanted to go and tried to kill me every time I used the kick start. Let go of all its oil in Wales, was left in the hedge and I thumbed a lift home.

[Johnwebley]

an old Norton 99 dominator,

 it must have been in a shunt,as it had Royal Enfield forks,

 magneto ignition,terrible to start when hot,rubbish brakes,


 heavy as hell,

  swopped it for a 500 Triumph unit twin,

   I enjoyed that,

[taysidedragon]

BSA Bantam D7. Crappy 6V electrics, bakelite Exide battery and brush painted by the previous owner. Broke down on a regular basis. Joke switch on headlight nacelle called 'Emergency Ignition', used lighting coil to fail to power the ignition! 😂

[royhall]

CJ250T, don't need to add anything else, just the model designation is enough. Sold it after a week and got an SS50 with the money, the SS went faster.

Was it by any chance canary yellow, or was it parakete yellow? Mine was horrible, a ford escort ran into the back of it whilst I was stopped at a roundabout. Wrote it off fortunately. Bought an RD350 with the insurance money, worst to best in one move.