Other Stuff > Misc / Open

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

<< < (6/22) > >>

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.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page