Your worst bike ever,

[Big Block]

This is a photo of the worst bike I ever owned. It was an 83 V65 Honda (you know Honda the best ever right?). This thing handled horrible with a high center of gravity and poor suspension. When you hammered it the shaft lift felt like about 1 foot. Cams went out so the dealer had to change them. Finally I rode a VMAX and it felt like a Porsche in comparison. Happiest day of my riding life was when I sold it and went down to the Yamaha dealer and ordered a new 87 VMAX. I'm sure we've all had a favorite.I've owned 40 year old Suzukis that rode better than this thing. I passed over a new 1150EF to buy this Honda and I sure wish I hadn't done that. v65.jpg

[trevor]

I was 16 and bought my first street bike...a one year old 1982 550 Katana....what a pig

[marvinsc]

Worst ever, my first off road bike, an early 70's clapped out Yamaha DT 250. All it was good at was trying to kill me. LOL

[oldGSfan]

This 79 CB750 limited edition was given to me in a trade. It sat behind the guy's house and he threw it in, I didn't complain but didn't factor it in either (Fiat 124 Sport Coupe I miss a lot, it was a show winner with zero rust etc). I found a brand-new in-crate engine and put it in there. I thought it would be good. It looked OK, but it confirmed my long-standing view that anything even approaching 'cruiser', 'custom', or 'LTD' is out of my playbook. I felt it had nothing over my '76 SOHC CB750 except better paint.

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Worst ever, my first off road bike, an early 70's clapped out Yamaha DT 250. All it was good at was trying to kill me. LOL

Hah, I had one of those too. This is not my bike, not my pic, but same model and color, in much better shape than mine was:


And it also tried to kill me, many times. But the way I rode it, I was kinda asking for it. Yeah, it was the worst, but it was also the best because I was 12, and it was my first motorcycle.

[Nessism]

I never had a bad motorcycle. No such thing!

[Big Block]

I had a 250 Yamaha enduro too. I had no complaints but man it was heavy. Of course most of them were back then.

[KiwiAlfa156]

My worst bike was a 1974 Kawasaki S3-400. Here a pic, not mine (I never bothered to take a photo of it), but it was this colour.



The thing never stayed in tune. Three sets of points, and clamp style carbs that rotated from vertical on their manifolds so that the carb balancing was impossible. Gas consumption was so bad it was like there was hole in the gas tank (there wasn't). And it rattled like a demented schoolboy shaking a half-filled tin can of ball bearing.... Today I'd kill to have it back in the garage.

[Rob S.]

I never had a bad motorcycle. No such thing!

Exactly. Any 14 year old on a bicycle watching men with motorcycles will tell you that.
I've owned only four, and at least 2 or 3 are genuine classics:

1971 Honda CB350
1973 Kaw Z1
1982 Suzi 11E
2016 Sportster Superlow

[Sandy]

Too funny Big Block mine was also an '83 Honda V4. It was an '83 Honda 750 Interceptor which was too bad because I really liked the motor, the handling and it was really comfortable for long days in the saddle. The bad got to me though. At 11,000 kms had to have the cams done under warranty over the winter. They didn't give any problems but I decided to have a look at them before putting it away for the winter and the warranty ran out. Sure enough there was some pitting although minor and they covered it under warranty. Supposedly if you rode it like you stole it (which I did) they didn't give much trouble, guess it was an oil pressure thing. Once changed I could live with that. The really bad was going though multiple sets of fork seals per season, come back from a couple of good hard rides and they would be leaking again. Evidently I wasn't the only one with that problem. Tried Gold Wing seals with an extra wiper and that helped a bit and yes the fork tubes were spotless. Then it was the rear suspension, some idiot decided to use nylon bushing instead if caged rollers in the linkage. Well they would pack down so you would have 1/4" to 1/2" free play in the rear suspension which made for some weird handling. Then there was the gas tank which when it was 2/3 full or less would blast gas out through the gas cap seal and all over me when I went from full throttle in the middle gears and then on the brakes hard. Definitely needed some baffling in the tank or locate the filler further back. Kept it for just over a year then traded it for a '79 GS1000 (not my current one) and some cash.

[alke46]

Mine is sitting in the garage. I can't wait to get it sold, but not getting any interest yet from the buying public.

[Baatfam]

1999 BMW R1100S - Beautiful bike - Hated riding it.
Hated the handling, hated the motor. Really tried to like it. Made some upgrades, didn't help.
I just never got used to the R motor, or the telelever front suspension.
Bought it in July, 2013, sold it the following spring. Was glad to see it go.

My first boxer! by R John Thieda, on Flickr

[LAB3]

1982 Virago 920. Butt ugly and shook like a dog *pooping* razor blades at any speed above 55 mph. The starter was a known issue that was never resolved, sounded like a washing machine full of rocks every time you hit the button. Do have to admit though, it sounded great with a set of Jardine slip on mufflers.

[argonsagas]

My first Suzuki GS was an 1100G. Electrical problems from day one. I had the stator rewound and bought a
R/R from Electrex which was a sponsor of GSR at the time.

I learned that was pretty much normal for GS bikes, but what followed was not.

When it ran it was good, lots of acceleration and it would show 220km/135mph on the clock..
I rode it through winter and had no real problems except on ice when a crosswind would blow it sideways..

The hardest thing to accept about the bike was its phantom concerns. It was like having real phantoms in the bike.

Several times I wanted to ride it to work but it would not start. It would not even turn on the lights. The electrical system was totally dead. .
The first time I tried and tried, used booster cables from the car and the VOM showed it was all OK....but it would not light up or turn over.

I gave up and drove the car to work.


It sat untouched until I could look it over thoroughly, and then I disassembled everything, including the ignition switch itself.
There was absolutely nothing wrong anywhere, so why did it not start?

After all the effort to inspect and check every electrical part, I turned the ignition on and it started immediately.

The bike did the same thing two more times, but the first experience had convinced me there was something odd about the bike, so when they happened I just accepted it, removed the key, closed the garage door, and went to work.
.

Every time this happened, the bike sat untouched for the day or longer, and then all that was needed was insert the key and it started immediately.

[GS1150Pilot]

'92 GS500e, Gutless wonder with no personality.