Worst bike?

[Eric SmithMember]

I’d lay good money you all have a bike you just hated at some stage.

Mine was a 1986(?) RM125 which I bought for a bargain price of $600 in about 1996. The damn thing was a rocket on the pipe but had nothing below about 16,000,000 revs. I think, knowing what I know now, that the headstock bearings were shot as well, but at the time I knew no better. The expansion chamber (such as they were in those days) was fairly dinged up and regularly cracked with the vibes of the thing, to be repaired with the oxy.

While riding one day I managed to cook it so it was rebuilt… only to discover that I hadn’t cooked it at all, it was the power valve(?) in the exhaust that had broken, slid down into the piston and knocked chunks out of it! I had a mate working at Qantas who had a replacement made up from aircraft grade alloy, strapped it back together and rode it.

We went out to the Harvey Ranges, now Goobang National Park. We were about 15km in to a ride when it stopped again… in January… and no way could we get a car in there! This was in the days before I rode with a camelback. It was a bloody long push I can tell you.

The problem? The other power valve had snapped and stuffed another piston.

Did the same as before, but this time didn’t ride it, just put it up for sale. Eventually I got $1200 for it.

Damn that was a POS bike. Never liked 2-strokes since then.

Share the love blokes! Post up your most hated bike!

[Bruce CurtisMember]

IT175F 1980- an absolute pig of a bike, chewed plugs, didn’t like to start hot handled like a wet soggy potato with extra soggy added and kept breaking down
YZ80H 1980-liked eating bottom ends one after the other, in hindsight may have been more of a case issue.
KLX250-1981 model, nose down evil handling all bottom end grunt evil evil bike wanted to flip on hillclimbs all the time, had no brakes even in the day when bikes had no brakes, was tall top heavy and hated me.

Mr Blue

[Anonymous]

I’ve only ever owned my KTM (as far as enduro bikes go) so can’t comment on bikes I’ve owned, I’ll will comment on bikes I have ridden instead.

The worst bike so far I have to say was a DRZ400 Sorry ECKS, I know you used to have one. It was ok as a bike for open flowing trails (what it was designed for), but it was terrible for anything a bit more ‘spirited’. Plus it was heavy and the electric start died half way through the ride. The pain of having to push it so many times to get it going may have tainted my views towards them somewhat.

[Eric SmithMember]

Nah moto, all good mate! I know what you are saying and it is one reason I’m kind of glad things turned out the way they did for me and I now have the WR.

Bruce, did you have a bad run with bikes for a while there?

[Bruce CurtisMember]

Nah just had a lot of bikes, used to get 2 a year for a while when my family thought I could be the next Pelle’ Granquist, Jammin’ Jimmy or Stephen Gall, poor sad deluded people my family were, tok me and my lack of ability to teach them to ditch those rose coloured glasses.

Also special dishonorable mentions should also go to
SRX250 for open road Yeech, excellent in twisties though
XT225 for anything other than getting your ‘Ls” on
XT500 for everything and anything, why people bought these when you could get the TT is beyond me
XT/TT600 I was built like a gorilla then and they were still heavy to ride
Kawasaki KR250 roadkill why Mr kawasaki why, you could’ve done so much better?
Honda MVX250 triple, again Mr Honda you had better before and after WTF were these for?

Best is yet to come but the 1990/91 Cr250, 2003/4 YZ250wr and 1984 RM125D deserve honourable mentions from my stables

Bluebloke

[BillMember]

I have only ever owned 3 bikes to ride regularly the first one was an 87 XR600 rear drum brake 2nd gear that kept jumping out of engagement and piston rings and timing chain cracks in cylinder head what a heap of shit all I ever seemed to do was work on it 1500km all dirt 3 rebuilds and I haven’t got to riding the heavy dinosaur yet brakes inadequate for power front forks to small for anyone over 60kg at 1000km I was on a ride with some mates and noticed something hitting the inside of my boot it was a piece of frame still connected to rear shock canister the cracks in the frame got to much and killed the bike not long after this possible the worst bike I have ever ridden without the claimed reliabilty of the bullet proof XR

[Mick DMember]

Crap bikes
1982 Suzuki DR500…Big heavy non starting heap of excrement.
1984 Suzuki TS250X…rooted when I got it,went up the road like a crab.
Best bikes…
2006 Kawasaki KX65 and KX85 hours of trouble free racing.
Kawasaki GPZ1100B1 awesome bike till the Fuel injection shat
itself.
And of coarse my Hondas
2000 XR630 that I still ride and my much loved 03CRF450R which I sold to finance more bikes for my kids.
I had a few YZ250F’s that were worthy of a mention too as good bikes.

[Anonymous]

What about Ant’s Kato Mick, that must have been in your ‘good bikes’?

[DeanMember]

I have had a few bikes in the 38 years of riding.:dry:

The worst nastiest most evil bike of them all would have to have been my first 250 motocrosser it was a Yamaha MX250C It had an engine like an 80 on Viagara,it handled like a wheel barrow full of walruses,it didnt stop real well and scared the shite out of me. Although I use to love it because A. it was the first bike that I had paid for by myself (14 at the time)and B.the neighbours always use to complain about it :unsure: I was a rebel.It was sad to see it go,I sold it to a mate who grafted it into a YZ frame and he loved it,he used it to round up the cows:laugh:

ollie

[Mick DMember]

Moto wrote:

Quote:

What about Ant’s Kato Mick, that must have been in your ‘good bikes’?

It was a awesome bike,although it required more spanner work than all the other bikes combined in my shed at the time.
I also had a 2002 KTM250SX 2 banger that I loved but it used to hurt me all the time.:blush:

[BillMember]

micknmeld wrote:

Quote:

Moto wrote:

Quote:

What about Ant’s Kato Mick, that must have been in your ‘good bikes’?

It was a awesome bike,although it required more spanner work than all the other bikes combined in my shed at the time.
I also had a 2002 KTM250SX 2 banger that I loved but it used to hurt me all the time.:blush:

What did you have to do to the 530, i suppose it takes a lot of time to straighten bark busters all the time:lol:

[Mick DMember]

KTM Bull wrote:

Quote:

micknmeld wrote:

Quote:

Moto wrote:

Quote:

What about Ant’s Kato Mick, that must have been in your ‘good bikes’?

It was a awesome bike,although it required more spanner work than all the other bikes combined in my shed at the time.
I also had a 2002 KTM250SX 2 banger that I loved but it used to hurt me all the time.:blush:

What did you have to do to the 530, i suppose it takes a lot of time to straighten bark busters all the time:lol:

Bits used to fall off all the time and with only 600ml of oil in the engine I was paranoid about oil changes which required removing the bashplate and that was a bastard job. Yeah the barkbusters did require regular “adjusting”.

[Anonymous]

So it was mostly your own paranoia that got you on the tools. Were you running an aftermarket bash plate (I’m sure we covered this before) as mine couldn’t be easier to take off. It must take about 4 seconds….

[DavidMember]

Yeah guys the worst bike I have ever owned is the KTM , I mean how boring it gets blowing all opposition away, the huge kms I get out of them is the biggest drag, you know you have to ride this sucker for ages before they need anything done to them, and the jumping,braking and turning, how the hell am I supposed to feel when I cant get anyway past half throttle, cant jump it anywhere near what its capable of, the braking is terrible, you just rest one finger on the bugger and it stops, oh and that damm Hydraulic clutch, I was used to arm pump from those cables and boy I miss lubing them continually, and the way your riding buddies cant keep up, it gets real lonely waiting for them. Parts, where can I start, it really shits me that the parts are the same for all models and because of that they are cheaper, I dont know how the hell I am supposed to support the industry if the bikes models all have interchangeable bits that save money…..I just cant stand it any longer I am going to change to a Honda, at least then I can feel like the rest of the sheep, rather than this feeling like I was in a group of beginners, now I can fit in and be a beginner, what Honda do you recommend Mick…or TB, I am open to suggestions.

You know the ktm machines also shit me the way they totally dominate the 50 cc market, there is not a machine out there that answers it in any other way than from way behind(waaaay behind), how am I supposed to deal with the sadness of the little tacker when he goes to a 65 or 85 of any other breed, KTM have stuffed their riding career’s haven’t they, the poor little mongrels are never happy on anything ever again, KTM that is not fair to make the bike so much better than the other 50’s,the least they could do is slow them down so the expectations aren’t so high for the next bike, I am on to them, they just want the customer to get the next sized up in their range, I dont know where is the world of s*#t bikes going, Bikes are getting better and better god damm you KTM

I just Hate them….HATE HATE HATE them

Bill did you see me bump my head yesterday?

[Anonymous]

Ktmrat wrote:

Quote:

Bill did you see me bump my head yesterday?

It must have been a bigger stack than I first credited you for! :laugh:

[Author]

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