Least favourite bikes owned previously?

[c_dug]

Spurred on by the other thread, lets go the other way.

Which bike do you think back on with a resounding "meh"?

For me it has to be my VFR800 Vtec.

I owned it for a year or two, did a ton of miles, commuted it daily, took it to Santa Pod, loaded it up with luggage and a pillion and did hundreds of miles painlessly, tore around the Welsh mountains probably faster than I'd have managed on any other bike I've owned.

And still.

Still.

Just meh.

I don't know why we never clicked, I don't know why I didn't like it. On paper and in practice it is a brilliant bike, but something about it just didn't sit right with me. I think it was honestly a bit too good of an all rounder, it sort of had no soul.

So, what's yours?
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[yen_powell]

XS250, in 1983. I may have liked it a little tiny bit if it would start on a cold morning. Probably holds the record for my shortest owned bike, only had it 6 months and then part exed it for a CX500.
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Blackmail is a nasty word........but not as nasty as phlegm!
XT1200Z and a DR350 in bits

[chickenstrip]

CB400N Superdream.

[doggone]

Probably an SV650 which I bought partly to 'economise' but I had seen one of the earlier more rounded one which sounded amazing with different exhaust on.
My pointy one was new style at the time and was harder to fit out, in the end I didn't bother I found it uncomfortable on longer runs and not happy on fast A roads compared to bigger bikes I had before.

[MarJay]

954 FireBlade. It was exciting, but not fun. It didn't suit me. People rave about them but it was hard, unforgiving and ... well... just not fun.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[The Shaggy D.A.]

1979 BMW R100RT.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/bikepics.com/Pics-Web/2004/08/28/bikepics-202568-full.jpg

Of all the bikes I've had, it's the one most likely to be a "no" to the question "Would I have one again?". Nothing particularly wrong, just found it cumbersome.

Some of the other bikes were ones I wanted to get out of my system or served a purpose at the time - glad I had them, but won't need to have another again. GT550, LS650P, CB250 Nighthawk fit that category.
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Chances are quite high you are not in my Monkeysphere, and I don't care about you. Don't take it personally.
Currently : Royal Enfield 350 Meteor
Previously : CB100N > CB250RS > XJ900F > GT550 > GPZ750R/1000RX > AJS M16 > R100RT > Bullet 500 > CB500 > LS650P > Bullet Electra X & YBR125 > Bullet 350 "Superstar" & YBR125 Custom > Royal Enfield Classic 500 Despatch Limited Edition (28 of 200) & CB Two-Fifty Nighthawk > ER5

[bacon]

ZRX1200R

I personally hate modified bikes of any description, but something came over me while I was looking for a ZRX1200 (probably due to the lack of them around at reasonable cash) and I ended up buying a heavily modified one for a reasonable price.

It had a full akra, pod filters, fully setup to run perfectly (I will give it that, it ran sweet as a nut).
ZX9R USD front end, OEM brake calipers fitted onto some rather chunky custom machined aluminum caliper brackets
Fully floating discs which rattled like a bag of nails.
JMC rear swing arm - Beautiful in isolation
All custom spacers etc to ensure fitting of stock wheels into them.
Very wide (too wide for me anyway) and low bars which I changed to some Rethals which was slightly better.
Battery relocated so you could fit a 1 gallon bottle easy under the seat.
Ohlins rear shocks.
Corbin Seat
Who knows how many other modifications, it's hard to remember them all.

Anyway, a flexible steel tubular frame with a stiff USD front end/JMC alloy box section swing arm made it handle like a twitchy sack of potatoes, terrifying tram lining mid corner etc.

My favourite "find" shortly after buying it was the terrifying >70mph head shake on motorways....
Chased the issue down to the front brake line.....under throttle on the motorway the front end was extended and would pull the bars to the right due to some muppet installing a brake line that was too short and routed terribly.
Considering this conversion work was completed at a "proper" motorcycle machineshop/workshop" in wales, who actually used it in their photo gallery as a portfolio of work done, it was quite shocking they allowed the bike to go back to the customer like this. nothing wrong with the actual machining work I should add.

I fixed the brake line issue by re routing it, it was "just" long enough, but I could never get it to handle satisfactorily, I wish I had bought a stock one and been patient.

Lesson learnt which I won't repeat again.


I just found the link actually to the garage that completed the work.
https://www.motorcycledynobridgend.co.uk/.

The bike on the home page was mine, but it seems the gallery has gone. Images that appear to pop up in the background on occasion there are also of the bike.

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

w650, may be? you can have fun on these, but you have to be a bit cruel - being under-square, it doesn't really take too kindly to revving - tbf, it will do it, it's just not its forte...so you potter, and pottering's fine - until you realise how bloody uncomfy that seat is

cb125td - yeah, no - wants to rev like fuck but then starts to give off grenade vibes when you do, with a thin comfort zone somewhere in the middle that often proves illusive - heavy too, for what it is

cb500 - nowt wrong with it, everything right with it...but seems to have been determinedly built around a lack of 'x' factor
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"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[wr6133]

Yamaha V75A , hateful little piece of shit.

[Polarbear]

Suzuki GT500. Horrible long slow handling gutless piece of 2 stroke crap that was everything a 2 stroke shouldn't have been.

After a run of Yammy and Kwack 250 strokers I thought it would be the dog's bollocks. Turned out to be just the bollocks bit.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[Nobby the Bastard]

Suzuki X5. Fucker tried to kill me twice. I still have a scar on my wrist from the first and a crater on my knee from the second.
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[stinkwheel]

[pepperami]

[chickenstrip]

[pepperami]

It took three XS’s before I learnt my lesson
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I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[virus]

Similar to the xs250, I would like to offer up Kawasaki's offering to the gods of fucking disappointment. The Z250 twin. a heat siezing mess of utterly shite proportions. I feel Ill every time I see one now, thankfully most of them have been crushed and turned into something useful by now...
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own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.

[ThatDippyTwat]

GSX600F. It was a giggle, -1 front, +2 rear.

But it was made for a humpbacked midget, not a 6foot3 bloke. Killed me every time I rode the bastarding thing. Then it developed a leccy/fuel problem where it would die when it warmed up (normal, first start of the day warm up, not hot) and refuse to do anything until it got cold. Pushed it more than once. Fucked it off to a breaker... who was likewise defeated after 6+ months.
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'98 VFR800 (touring) - '12 VFR800 Crosrunner (Commuting) - '01 KDX220 (Big Green Antisocial Machine)

[Bhud]

[virus]

[Shaft]

[mentalboy]

[Polarbear]

[arry]

I suppose I'm lucky that I haven't had a glut of poor bikes - probably the benefit of starting out quite a lot later than you guys - but for me, it has to be this thing:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51315679510_44f311e267_c.jpg

I know Nobby loves his but it'll be just another thing we disagree on.

I bought it because I wanted a Speed Triple but needed a one-bike solution for taking the missus around the place and the Speed wasn't going to work for that.

I thought I'd fallen for it because of the engine - which was fabulous - because the pop pop crackle bang on the overrun was addictive and the rush of torque through all of the rev range was extremely useable and effective.

But every other part of the bike I was just meh with.

The brakes were uninspiring and vague. It always felt heavy - heavier than its claimed weight - and very top heavy with it. Long sweepers it was fine but anything technical it just tied itself up in knots super quick.

It didn't know what it was. Sports-Touring bike that did neither particularly convincingly. The underslung exhaust was a PITA for luggage, no bungee points, crap panniers - heavy, leaky, odd shape, very little room, and a riding position that forced your knees up around your ears for no good reason whatsoever. I suppose it did have a decent tank range but that's about all I could commend. Sporty? Nah, not really. It was sporty for a big bike but no sports bike by any stretch. In short, my CBR600F had it all boxed off in every department and I should have kept the CBR, and never have kept the Sprint for 4 years. Never.

Cheap plastics, fasteners, fake metal bits, metal bits that furred up mentally quickly, horrific chain adjuster hub that'd seize you so much as think about moving it.

Nope, no love for it at all.

[chickenstrip]

[arry]