revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Reading the opposite to this post got me thinking about the bike I was glad to be rid of.

My 1200xc Harley Davidson. Bought new from Warrs south of the water and as I drove home I'm already thinking "I will like this. I have to like this"
I added some farkels to make it my own. Road it often and attempted to become a Harley owner, but after a bit past 1100 miles, too many problems and a roasted right leg, enough was enough.

Sold in part exchange for a CBR 650 R.

My daughter also had an 883. Endless problems.

Never again.

XS250 slow, dangerous lack of ground clearance, zero character. It was a blessing when I buried it in the side of a Skoda driven by a myopic muppet who threw a U turn out of nowhere on a dual carriageway. Still got the scars but it was worth it.

CB 125 TDJ twin.
It always felt like it needed to be more on the power when cornering, it didn't have any more power so the front end never felt right.
Plus it drank oil.

Ducati 750 monster. Slightly customised. Bought cheaply as a non runner and fixed cheaply with new battery and plugs. Beautiful to look at.

Dead boring.

Kawasaki Z650,in fairness the bike had more than 10 previous owners but it was easter & I needed a bike.I managed a trip to Assen on it with no drama's but it cost me more in oil than petrol riding it back from Barcelona a couple of years later,prior to that it tried to self combust in the middle of Barcelona when the fuel tap sprung a leak & pissed petrol all over the cylinder head .Seeing as I managed to ride the bike home I rebuilt it,a failed valve stem oil seal caused the oil leak,then a few months later one of the spark plugs went loose & it needed a helicoil.At that point I gave it away to one of my mates.
I look at it as a learning experience,the main lesson being 'don't buy a bike that's obviously been neglected' I was glad to see the back of that one.

The Honda Africa Twin that I had for a few weeks as a courtesy bike. Truth be told, I was quite looking forward to it but it turned out to be surprisingly gutless and vibratory low down (I was really expecting more flexibility from an 1100). It was slightly more refined at higher revs but even at motorway speeds it was never exactly smooth.

It was also too wide for effective filtering in town and the splayed bars made my shoulders ache. The footrests seemed perfectly placed to catch my shins when paddling the bike into parking spaces where, being side-stand only, it took up far too much room. It seemed to be utterly shit for any purpose and all in all, it started to feel as if every aspect of the bike was specifically designed to annoy me.

I couldn't wait to hand it back.

My Husky 610, what started as a love affair with a sweet handling, fun bike ended as being glad to see the back of the slow, self destructing lump.

600 Bandit, 900 Hornet, CB1000R, I really don't like naked inline fours.

CBR600, I don't like 600 fours.

The only one I can think of was a loaner: A R1200C Montauk (IIRC) that I had for a couple of days while one of my Rocksters (1 or 2) was in for a dealer-service.

The bike itself was ok, but the riding position was absolutely crippling, I barely made it the half-hour journey home and ignored it for two days until I could give it back (I used something else to commute on in the meantime). Hateful thing, how anyone rides in that position for more than ten minutes I will never understand.

My second TDM850 4TX. My first one was superb, the second was the complete opposite. Left stranded multiple times because of faulty alarm, dodgy ignition coils, plug leads and constant arcing to the frame in wet weather, the shock snapped, an exhaust valve burned out, final straw was the fuel pump failing and the engine almost hydro-locking.

It's still on the road as far as I'm aware.

Aprilia 750 Shiver.

Just the worst build quality of anything I have ever owned.

I had an Aprilia Caponord 1000 which pretty much went wrong all the time. I got rid of it.

MyLittleStudPony wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 7:07 pm I had an Aprilia Caponord 1000 which pretty much went wrong all the time. I got rid of it.

Was it a 1st gen or 2nd gen out of interest?

I've had a 2nd gen late-2007 model since March 2019, been utterly reliable since I got it until a month ago when the reg/rec failed (causing the bike to die in the Blackwall Tunnel), the dash failed due to a worn out capacitor and now one of the rear ignition coils has failed. I think/hope I've just been unlucky to have all three happen at the same time.

KTM 640 LC4. An absolute piece of shit with no redeeming features at all. Worse bike i've ever owned.

Beancounter wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2024 4:29 pm

MyLittleStudPony wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2024 7:07 pm I had an Aprilia Caponord 1000 which pretty much went wrong all the time. I got rid of it.

Was it a 1st gen or 2nd gen out of interest?

I've had a 2nd gen late-2007 model since March 2019, been utterly reliable since I got it until a month ago when the reg/rec failed (causing the bike to die in the Blackwall Tunnel), the dash failed due to a worn out capacitor and now one of the rear ignition coils has failed. I think/hope I've just been unlucky to have all three happen at the same time.

1st generation.

Don't think I've had any bikes I've been glad to see the back of. Fingers crossed it stays that way!

Both my TZR 125 and 250 had issues but I still liked the bikes at the time I sold them.

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Sun Sep 29, 2024 9:26 pm My Husky 610, what started as a love affair with a sweet handling, fun bike ended as being glad to see the back of the slow, self destructing lump.

Ditto

Nothing really against the bike but my ZZR1100.

I moved house and it got stuck round the back under a cover. It was a royal PITA to get it out so basically didn't move for about 3 years.

I made a vain attempt to put it back on the road, even putting in a new radiator. I got the brakes freed off but not quite good enough for my liking so I stuck it on the ZZR Facebook page for 500 quid. I could have got more for it if I could have been bothered to get it MOT'd, it even had full luggage but I just wanted shot.

I had bought it to replace my written off previous one which had a lot of goodies on intending to transfer all of them over. Well that never got done, I really shouldn't have bought it in the first place.

1994 BMW 650 Funduro... as I was the newly minted instructor, I got the bike lurking at the back of the lock-up.

I'd heard a lot of good things about it (from bike mags I realised later). It was horrible. Far too tall - I had to find high kerbs to get on and off, and I'm 5'9 so fairly average height. It vibrated. And the limited rev range - it wouldn't pull below 3k and ran out of revs at 6 - couldn't cope with a five speed box. There was one gear choice only for any particular road speed and trying to maintain an indicated 40 mph was either revving the nuts off it in 2nd or just out the bottom of the engine's ability to pull cleanly in 3rd.

There was also a 750 Trident at the site and that was only marginally better.

As soon as it was available, I grabbed a GPZ500 - lovely to ride by comparison.

I had a Funduro as a loan bike from Brackens KTM whilst they were fixing the engine on my LC4. I think I actually disliked it more than the LC4 at the time! I recall it as a horrible, slow turning, gutless slug of a thing! Its only redeeming feature was it made me briefly like the LC4!