What's the worst bike you've ever ridden?

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

XJ600. Horrific thing with no good points

Had a test ride on one of these, handled like a thrupenny bit which I can only put done to it being a shaft drive, nasty thing.

Aren't XJ600s chain drive?

[Flux]

RF600, it was a hire bike as my gix750 was being repaired (first brand new bike and some tool ran into the back of me at a roundabout). Not only did I think it was pig ugly, the 600 had no get up and go and worst of all I realised the footpegs weren't straight/level which really didn't help, I took it back after 1 day and they admitted it had been recently crashed and swapped it for a zxr750, far more the style.

[v8-powered]

As much as I hate to say it as it was very good at doing what it did, my old NT700 Deauville.

Vibey, slow, ponderous and devoid of any character. Far detached from the NTV650 I rode back in the day and enjoyed...

[Whysub]

BSA B25 Starfire. Absolute shite. Imagine BSA taking a pretty much gutless 1950's engine, and thinking they could tune it up to compete (ha ha ha) against the new Japanese bikes (Yamaha RD250's, Honda CB250K's, etc.). Heavy and ponderous handling, rubbish twin leading shoe brake (no matter how carefully you set it up), and a vibratory and gutless engine. Only good point was that you could rebuild the engine with a hammer, screwdriver and an adjustable spanner. Just how they built them at the factory then.

I've had a few XJ600's, which the half faired ones i found ideal for commuting (could pick them up dirt cheap 15 years ago). The 900 wasn't bad either-took mine on a trackday at Cadwell and was passing much "better" bikes everylap. Wanted to bungee my topbox on for the last session.

I have noted that bikes mentioned so far (with a few exceptions) are at least 20 years old. Are bikes built now so infinately better?

[Hairybiker84]

16 years old and too young to legally ride it but an older friend had a CZ175 and we used to go all over the place, often he would ride there and I'd ride back, knew all his details off by heart if we ever got stopped (which we didn't). Hateful thing to ride, especially 2-up. Floppy gear change/kick starter, massive jump between 1st and 2nd, no brakes but I suppose it stood me in good stead for riding anything!

[David]

I had the B25ss, the tuned version of the starfire. I loved it. But fragile......i actually had the inlet valve hit my leg as it escaped after a missed gearchange ( the gearbox was "interesting") but it finished the kourney albeit very slowly. Wouldnt start, oddly enough.
I managed 95mph out of it, but often not 95 miles between rebuilds.
But i loved that bike.

[porter_jamie]

i had a cbx550. it was terrible

[Taipan]

KTM 640 LC4 or whatever it was called. I have never known such a badly vibrating bike. It actually blurred your vision at some revs! I even took it into Brackens the KTM dealers in southLondon to get it checked. Mechanic rode it and looked at me like I was mad saying there all like that Mate!? Hideous bike!

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

i had a cbx550. it was terrible

I thought they were pretty good to ride, weird brakes and reliability issues didn't make them unpleasant to ride.

[mangocrazy]

i had a cbx550. it was terrible

Were they the ones with a disc brake that looked like a drum brake because Honda thought it was a good idea to enclose the disc? Typical Honda, over-engineer something that doesn't need fixing (see also anti-dive)...

[porter_jamie]

Yes I guess it was OK to ride but this particular one was an utter shed. I suppose that wasn't all the bikes fault.

[Rockburner]

KTM 640 LC4 or whatever it was called. I have never known such a badly vibrating bike. It actually blurred your vision at some revs! I even took it into Brackens the KTM dealers in southLondon to get it checked. Mechanic rode it and looked at me like I was mad saying there all like that Mate!? Hideous bike!

I once rode a CCM Spitfire (IIRC) and it was the worst vibratory experience I have ever had, it was like riding a road-drill, if they'd been paying me to ride it, health and safety wouldn't have allowed any journey over a couple of miles. Never mind vibration white finger, I had vibration white body! I genuinely couldn't see any positive thing about the bike at all, it made any 'classic' 500cc single seem like a silky-smooth powerhouse.

Worst handling bike I've ever ridden was probably my Yamaha YB100, the suspension was so soft I regularly got sea-sick riding it.

Worst designed bike was probably the BMW R1150RS-SE I had as a loaner for a few days, the rubber mounted bars (adjustable) reduced the already subtle Telelever feedback to nothing, and the fairing seemed to be specifically designed to direct airflow (and rain) straight to your hands.

[Whysub]

Worst designed bike was probably the BMW R1150RS-SE I had as a loaner for a few days, the rubber mounted bars (adjustable) reduced the already subtle Telelever feedback to nothing, and the fairing seemed to be specifically designed to direct airflow (and rain) straight to your hands.

You reminded me that we had a couple of the R1150RS's at work. Slow (for our use) and uncomfortable for anymore than an hour or so. Weather protection from the faing was pointles, and I could never get the screen into a position that didn't cause buffering at speeds over 60mph. I suspect that this also contributed to its inability to handle sidewinds with confidence. Both sold at around 5 years old with neither doing more than 4000 miles, because no one wanted to ride them.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

i had a cbx550. it was terrible

Were they the ones with a disc brake that looked like a drum brake because Honda thought it was a good idea to enclose the disc? Typical Honda, over-engineer something that doesn't need fixing (see also anti-dive)...

Yes, VF400s had the same brakes, made the pads a pig to change

[Pirahna]

I've ridden some proper shite over the years, worst by a long way is one of the KTM Supermoto's from the early 00's, I think it was a 525. It was a dealer demo bike but fuck me was it rough, I was back at the dealer within 10 minutes. The vibes from the motor were so bad I was struggling to hold the bars, the seat was definitely designed never to be sat on, a total pig of a bike. At the time I owned a 200EXC which I loved and later owned a 990SM, so I'm not anti KTM.

To give some kind of comparison of how rough the KTM was, a mate owns a 1943 BSA M20. With it's rigid rear end and sprung seat it's light years ahead of the KTM in terms of comfort and vibration damping from the engine.

[mangocrazy]

This isn't a contender for worst bike I've ever ridden, but a couple of years ago I rode a mate's CBR600, the very last of the carbed models. It felt like nothing so much as a big wooly blancmange. The motor had no real steps or 'feel', it just went faster the more revs you used, accompanied by a whizzing sound. Perhaps I just didn't rev it hard enough.

The handling and brakes worked, but there was no sense of connection or feedback, it all just (sort of) worked but in a particularly vague and fluffy way. I've been on at him to get the forks sorted, to buy a decent shock, stick some better pads in it and fit some good sticky tyres, but he hasn't. Then he moans about how he can't keep up with bigger bikes (like my Falco). If he sorted his CBR he'd have no problem keeping up with me. He'd probably be quicker in fact.

Rant over.

[Demannu]

Not certain of the full H-D monicker or model, don't actually care either, but it was when H-D did those highly advertised test rides about 8-10years ago.
It wasn't a full dress tourer, but pretty close.
The handle bars were so big and rubber mounted that there was a delay in steering input. Pulled into a petrol station, skrissssshhhhhh. Pulled out of the station, skrissssshhhhhh, went around a roundabout, skriiiissssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Ride through a small town, the rumble of American iron made small children clutch their mothers, single women moistened up, grown men got misty eyed, I looked at my reflection in the shop windows and thought 'you badass mofo'.
Actually I didn't, I thought you look like a complete Muppet sat on a tarts boudoir of a bike, horrible horrible thing!

[Taipan]

KTM 640 LC4 or whatever it was called. I have never known such a badly vibrating bike. It actually blurred your vision at some revs! I even took it into Brackens the KTM dealers in southLondon to get it checked. Mechanic rode it and looked at me like I was mad saying there all like that Mate!? Hideous bike!

I once rode a CCM Spitfire (IIRC) and it was the worst vibratory experience I have ever had, it was like riding a road-drill, if they'd been paying me to ride it, health and safety wouldn't have allowed any journey over a couple of miles. Never mind vibration white finger, I had vibration white body! I genuinely couldn't see any positive thing about the bike at all, it made any 'classic' 500cc single seem like a silky-smooth powerhouse.

Don't they had DR400 engines in? Do they vibrate as bad in the Suzuki chassis?

[Bigyin]

XJ600. Horrific thing with no good points

Had a test ride on one of these, handled like a thrupenny bit which I can only put done to it being a shaft drive, nasty thing.

Aren't XJ600s chain drive?

Yup, the 900’s were shaft drive, the 600’s chain drive

[Mr Moofo]

K1000 of 1985 vintage - just horrible.
An Aprilia 250 dirt bike style thing with a bleeding huge front wheel that just wanted to wash out all the time.
Harley Sportster - genuinely unpleasant to ride