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

[cooleronthecoast]

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.

The only ones I ever saw were Yellow although didn't they do them in red also?   A friend had one, it was like a budget version of its forerunner the G5.  Am I right in saying they took the electric starter off to save weight?

[royhall]

I may be wrong as it was 1978 but I don't recall there being a starter. However I do recall it being a large dog pile. I think it was possibly the slowest 250 ever.

[cooleronthecoast]

I just found this article:
http://anarchadia.blogspot.com/2008/12/vintage-thing-no36-honda-cj250t.html

[royhall]

I just found this article:
http://anarchadia.blogspot.com/2008/12/vintage-thing-no36-honda-cj250t.html

Great article, good find. I agree with the appraisal whole heartedly. I was so pleased when the insurance company wrote it off, says everything really.

[Arch stanton]

My thoughts on the Cj250 were.
Want a 750 but can't afford the insurance?
Well have a 750 f1 with a 250 engine it.
I have seen restored ones. Why would anyone restore something. That should never have been built?

[Laverda Dave]

My nemises was a Matchless 250CSR. It was ex-plod but the tank had been changed for a full chrome version. It was slow, vibrated like an SDS hammer drill, drank more oil than petrol (at least it made my John Brown Wheels leather boots completely waterproof). Bloody thing was so unreliable all the time. It broke down on the way to work at least once a week. When I took my motorcycle test on it the examiner said 'You intend to take your test on THAT, is it roadworthy'. The big end knocking eventually got so bad it was unrideable. The crank pin on the CSR was the same as in a G50 racer and was beyond my budget (and mechanical means at 17 to fix). I bought a ratty CB200 for £200 to replace it. I eventually sold it for £50 years later when I left home and had nowhere to put it.

[Rozabikes Tim]

Mine was bright yellow, couldn't tell you what yellow as I just thought of it as custard vomited up. Tells you a lot when your willing to drop 200cc just to get more performance. No eleccy start, no guts, no handling, no brakes. I bought it because it was dirt cheap and now I know why, even the scrap man would pass it by.

Why were they so bad? We're they not a dressed up G5 which were not brilliant but not as bad surely?

[davefirestorm]

I always say a brand new CZ175 I bought and kept for one year and 1000 miles was my worst bike but it was realy another brand new bike I bought a 1976 Triumph T140V Bonneville it was a nasty unreliable thing but being patriotic lol. I keep quiet about it😂😂I currently have a 3 year old Suzuki Burgman which has had quite a few issues Suzuki have been reluctant to sort on the 3 year warranty and the build quality or lack of it is shocking I’ve named it the BOSS ( bag of shite Suzuki 😡😡)

[SumpMagnet]

Now....this was a no brainer for me.

I have owned some bikes that were worn out, damaged or suffering from neglect, but I don;t think it's fair to call them crappy because of that. A KH250 with a bent frame and knackered gear selectors....or an X7 with failing main bearings. Or a Z650 with ovalled out headstock....all things that ruined perfectly good machines which could/should have been fixed.

No....The award from me goes to the Yamaha MT07 I bought after my much loved SV1000 got wiped out by an idiot in the work car-park.

It was 4 years old with just 3000 miles on the clock. One owner. The engine was the trusty 660 lump I had had in previous bikes with no issues, only this was in a more road orientated chassis with better wheels and brakes. Should have been a great town bike. I owned it for 4 years and hated EVERY MINUTE after the first week or so to get used to it.

The tail bulbs kept blowing...and you couldn;t remove the light lense to swap the bulb...it was done from the other side which required dismantling about 5 nested brackets.
The thing had an underseat exhaust...so the rear light wires were routed under the mudguard. With connectors down there too. Mickey Mouse silly pinned brittle plastic things corroded to hell. So the rear light/brake light worked only when it was dry.
The brackets worked loose and the numberplate would fall off.... chafing the plastic bolts...or cracking the plate if you used metal.
The battery was under the tank and a nightmare to get to.
The oil tank ( dry sump motor) was low down at the front and would get covered in grit and dirt..so you had to clean it off to check the level
The seat had to be unbolted to get at anything ( including the tank rear mount.... ) and the base was plastic with no metal inserts to stop it getting chewed if overtightened. Both split on mine...
Then...finally...before I sold it...it destroyed the regulator and rectifier. And the battery. Which as it was laid almost flat...had to be overly expensive gel types.

Japanese reliability??? sure.... but the clocks bore the words 'Magnetti Marelli' .... yes. Assembled in Italy and all the electrics were sourced locally.

It also had clips and sticking out bits everywhere, so every time I cleaned it...I ended up bleeding! It never seemed to look clean even when I cleaned it.

But that was not the most hateful thing. No.

The gear ratios were stupid. First gear was so low you couldn't pull away from traffic lights and not need second before you got across the junction. The gaps in the ratios were odd, and if you tried gearing up a bit, it wouldnt pull top and had to nail it in every gear before changing up. So for most of it's life with me it had only 4 useable gears and a top speed around 80mph.....

Nasty thing.

It should have been a perfect town bike ...but Yamaha managed to ruin every bit of it  and make it feel like a home brewed special lashed up in a shed somewhere.

[AshimotoK0]

Have to say C200 90cc . Even though it was my 1st bike, cheap and mega reliable,  the girls at school laughed when I arrived on it and one of them remarked "Where's the engine Ash" Left a deep scar that one. Never had the desire to get one again although I have got an S90 project.

[royhall]

I couldn't agree more oddjob. Mine commited suicide at 0 miles per hour. Funny thing was I just seemed to step off it when the Escort pushed it across the roundabout. Not as much as a bruise. Car ended up on top of it and did a great job. Hurrah.

[Laverda Dave]

I neatly made an offer on a red CJ250 in the mid 80's when I was broke and didn't have a bike (did Honda also make a CJ360?). This one was propped up against a wall in the house next door to the bedsit where I lived. It never moved in the Two years I lived there. Anyway, the guy wasn't interested in selling it, sounds now like he did me a favour!!!
Whilst the Matchless 250 was my crappiest bike, it was well second hand and abused. The worst new bike I have bought was the Triumph ST1050 Sprint. Great engine but the rest of it, oh dear, poor build quality from paint to materials. The stainless discs went rusty around the bobbins within three months. Removing the seat involved removing two self tapping screws from below the rear overhanging foam of the seat. This resulted in the seat material tearing. Once out the screws were impossible to put back due to the stupid captive nuts not holding in the plastic of the tail piece.
When I took the fairing panel off to fit an alarm it was so thin and under so much tension it sprung off. When I eventually got it back on the panel fit was terrible. This applied to any panels removed, absolute sods to get back on. The paint on the wheels must have come from a rattle can, it just flaked off especially if a wheel cleaning brush was used. The first time I had a tyre change the paint came off with the weight leaving a bare patch.
It would eat batteries, I got through three in six years despite using an optimate. If I stopped somewhere I would get a sense of dread if it would start again, it would just give a 'click' and that was it, time to call recovery!
After the first winter of little use the alloy of the engine cases looked as though they had been left in a talc factory during an explosion.
I wanted to love the ST, the road tests were gushing about it, the new VFR they said, so I traded in my immaculate 8 year old VFR800 to buy it. It was great for six months and then it went downhill, rapidly. I eventually traded the ST for a 12 year old, 56k Blackbird that was as good as the day it was made. I sold that and bought a mint 18 year old VFR 800FiX for £1900, the bike I should never have sold to buy the ST in the first place!

[AndyD]

In defence of the poor old CJ, I have quite fond memories of them - had a trip to Devon planned with some friends many many years ago and the day before leaving one of the guys stripped the sump plug on his virtually brand new superdream. The only bike he could borrow at short notice was a badly maintained CJ250t sitting outside a neighbours house. Admittedly it did slow down the journey quite dramatically and even had to be helped going up a couple of very steep roads in Devon but the CJ survived and saved the trip.
A few years ago I saw a couple of these going very cheap and for no good reason bought them so have 2 CJ250's in the shed (I think it collection cost than the bikes!)
Then when I got the 400f it came with a CJ360 so I've now got 3 of the much maligned beasts.
I admit they are a strange bike - kickstart only, very basic styling, 2 into 1 exhaust etc. - very marmite!
One good thing is that they share a lot of parts with the 400f so I have pinched various bits already off them.
One day I'll get at least one of them up and running again - just for old times sake!
Cheers,
Andy
PS back on topic I think the worst bike I had was a CD175 - first bike after a FS1E and came  form a friend's Dad - big topbox, square tyres, awful paintjob ...but cheap. Snapped the camchain the first time I gave it some throttle, almost killed me several times until I discovered rounded tyres that could actually lean and go around corners.
But I also loved the old thing as the first real bike of course

[Bryanj]

Probably the most worked on was my RE Crusader 250 but never really let me down. The T110 used to spit the mag cap off and throw out the cam ring. Never had failures with the Hondas only light fingered scroats!
As to the CJ range main problem was nobody ever took the clutch cover off to clean the centrifugal oil filter so top ends went.

[florence]

My worst bike was a CX500, 1979.  Admittedly, it was worn out by the time I had it; always seemed to have problems with leaking coolant, there's a weird ceramic seal on the water pump that just doesn't work properly.  Also, it had no kick start and the battery would never charge properly.  Trying to bump start the thing was very difficult, I used to try to park it on a hill if possible.

However, once it was going it was surprisingly nimble for such a top heavy lump and handled really well, would happily go round bends with everything scraping.  The best part about it was the twin disks which would stop it on a sixpence.

Overall, bad design, but perversely great fun to ride.  I would not buy another one.