The worst bike ive ever owned was a 350 [mz/cz i forget which] and side car,I was leaving collage and needed something to carry me and all my stuff to a new job.Having never ridden a bike/car before I tried to familiarize myself --interesting,take a left hander too quick and the car comes of the ground ahhh, brake and the car wants to carry on past the bike.I was overtaking a car when i hit a pot hole,went into a massive wobble,rammed the side of the car and ended up in a hedge.After various other of road excursionsI put a half hundred weight block in the car to keep it down but after bouncing down country lanes it fell through the fibre glass bottom of the car! The only thing it was good for was when going to tesco's you could bung all the shopping in the car.Getting to a mates house in Reading I unbolted the car and left it on the side of the road,then I went to Enfield for a job interview and on the way the damn thing broke down-so i left that on the side of the road to.Never again!
My best bike is my current ride [fazer 1000] its just so competent and a great bike to live with as i do all my own maintenance.Its not focused to excel in any one area and is comfortable as you like.It can do slow relaxed tootling or can go ballistic if you need an adrenaline hit.Tours,scratches,commutes -love it.
The worst bike for reliability would be a Suzuki TS250c. Whoever had it before me had hacked the electrics about, shame, when it was going (not for long) it was really good fun, shouldn't blame the bike i suppose!
The best has to be my present bike. My beautiful HD Heritage Classic. Not everybody's cup of tea, but it sure flicks my switch!
Best bike has to be my first road bike, A brand spanking new kawasaki AR125B7 in Black and red, purely because I had made the decision to get it because I was fed up of running £250 old banger cars around.......Best move I made.
Of the others, which Are the ones I can remember I have owned:
Honda NS125R
Suzuki RM125
Suzuki GSXR750 Slabside
Suzuki GSXR1100 Slabside
Suzuki RF900R
Honda VT500E
Honda VFR400 NC24 and one NC30
Honda CBR750 Hurricane (still got that one!)
Yamaha Melody ped....with wood finish!
Yamaha XV535 Virago
Kawasaki ZXR400L4
Kawasaki ZZR1100D1
Kawasaki ZZR600E1
Ducati 916 (salvaged from mallory park for pennies!)
Kawasaki GT550...less said about that the better!
Yamaha DT125
Aprilia Falco
Kawasaki ZX-9R B1
Harley Davidson 883/1200 sporty
And I wonder why I have no money!
Best of the above is all of em because they all did the job they were asked...apart from the GT550 which was shite!
only owned six bikes an each one was the best at the time of ownin, i hate to say this but the only one that broke down[twice] was the Harley, but to be fair it was the longest owned[an worst treated an maintained!] an did the most milage!!but no other bike could have given me the pleusure i had ownin that sporty!!no other bike came close!cept my Triumph!!!which will probably be my last bike!
My best bike was also my worst bike, a Honda CM which was 24 yrs old when I sold it about 18 mths ago. I rode it in all weathers for 4 yrs, and it broke down more times than it went but when it was running it was great cos it meant I had my little bit of independance. The grin factor was worth the embarrassment of waiting at the side of the road for the tow truck.
My other bike is a Kwak Eliminator stored in a mate's garage for the past 4 yrs, a lovely bike goin to waste cos no one wants to buy it. Had a few folk say they were interested but some were scammers and the others just time wasters so I'm thinking of donating it to the bike museum. Seems a shame to let it rot in a garage, especially as it isn't in too bad a condition.
This subject got me reminiscing and one bike i remember with real affection is the Yamaha FSIE.It was one of the coolest things to own as a spotty teenager only beaten in the street cred stakes by the Garelli Tiger,Suzuki AP50 and the holy grail of teen fantasies the Fantic chopper [gawd].I fell off 6 times in my first year-on snow,on ice,manhole cover,wet road,once lost it going through the school gates showing off.Jeez it was fun though-anyone from this era will remember the sound of a group of approaching mopeds like a swarm of demented wasps,heads on tanks trying to hit the ballistic velocity of 50 mph.The learning curve was steep but prepared everyone for the next step-RD,s GT,s KH,s and the ring,a,ding of the 2 strokes!
One of the best was definitely my first.. at the tender age of 17 and still ridining on a provisional licence was the fantastic BSA Starfire 250. Many followed but of late was the Yam FJR 1300 which took me on a 16000mile tour of Europe and North Africa without a single problem. The current bikes again the Yamaha Roadstar 1700 purchased last year in California and rewarded me with a 11000mile trip across USA again no problems, which I have now shipped back here and is currently at SMC having a well deserved overhall. Happy days spent on many bikes over the years
Worst has to be a 250 superdream that I had as a winter bike in the days before mobiles,bloody thing stranded me at 12pm in the middle of nowhere just as the weather closed in & started snowing.Theres plenty of other things it did but it'd take all day to list 'em.Best is a choice of three,a T595,a 1200 Daytona that I took took the cruiseliner fairing off & streetfightered. & an RD500.
That one was just silly fun but nearly cost me my license a few times
Aggghhh superdreams I forgot about them,I had one as a winter hack [sacrificial lamb i called it],if ever a bike deserved a match in the petrol tank it was the superdream.Horrible gutless revvy engine,wooden brakes, it was a wonder it didnt self immolate as it didnt seem to have the will to live.
RD500 -I would love to ride one,had a go on a 350 YPVS and that was wicked,doubt if theres many left now-all thrashed,crashed and wheelied into oblivion.
I got given it when it had 125,000 miles on the clock. From the day I got it to the day I gave it away I thrashed it mercilessly, and it kept on coming back for more. At one point I was commuting a 100 mile round trip every day round the M25 to Slough from Bedford, and the thing was pinned to the stop all the way. In 2 1/2 years I took the mileage up to 192,000 then parked it up.
Worst bike - 1990 Kawasaki KR-1 G987 WDU
What a snot gobbling piece of crap. It was supposedly low mileage, and the chassis parts certainly bore this out, but the engine was "a bit suspect" as the previous owner admitted. I gave him 300 quid for it and took it home in the van. Rebuilt the engine completely before riding it, ran it in and it blew up again, rebuilt it again completely, ran it in and it blew up again. After the third blow up I came to the realisation that it wasn't my spannering skills that were lacking, I'd followed every Kawasaki nut's advice about how to rebuild one perfectly, but the engines were just plain shit and would blow up regardless.
One day my mate came round to help me start the strip-down. I removed the engine in 20 minutes (you get quite practised at it on a KR-1) asked him to open the wheelie bin and threw the whole thing in there complete. Then we set about fitting the RD350 YPVS F2 engine I had under the bench. Only when that was finished did it become a fantastic and extremely reliable bike.
the worst bike i ever had was that bloody cagiva mito... nice to look at... but what a temperamental piece of italian shite... as most of you know it spent most of its life with its engine in bits in a cardboard box in the kitchen. piece of crud, lol.
best is obviously my FZR.. blah blah purple, blah blah 19,000 miles from new.. blah blah, lol
Haven't had as many bikes as GH (the Imelda Marcos of the bike World lol), but got to agree with the GT550....first bike I ever fell off and I was wearing my best suit at the time lol
Must be biased in my choice and say Big Blue is by far my fave bike at the moment. You can get loads of miles under your belt on it and still get off feeling ready to run a marathon (well, run a bath at any rate lol)
Would still consider changing him for a Rocket 3 or a Triumph America though, or better still getting a 2nd bike and keeping him!!
Aggghhh superdreams I forgot about them,I had one as a winter hack [sacrificial lamb i called it],if ever a bike deserved a match in the petrol tank it was the superdream.Horrible gutless revvy engine,wooden brakes, it was a wonder it didnt self immolate as it didnt seem to have the will to live.
400 Superdreams are OK as hack bikes but the 250s are pretty gutless like you say. Trouble is, I've got one in the back garden!
I would list my previous collection, but as some of you are on dial up and Matt has to pay by bandwidth used it wouldn't be fair. Let's just say that there have been:
29 RD400s
(C, D, E and F models in every colour made for the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region></st1:place> market)
15 RD250s (air-cooled and LC inc 1 YDS3, 1 YDS6 and 4 YDS7's)
19 RD350s (air-cooled and LC/YPVS incl 3 YR5's)
OK so I'm a perv for RDs, I can't resist buying them.
That's just for starters, there's at least another 78 bikes to add to the list...plus all those I bought and sold when I was trading. I only count the ones I actually used as having been mine, and I've forgotten some I owned years ago.
Right now I own 3 SV650s (an N X racebike, S K5 and S K6), 2 TS50 trailies, CBR600 trackbike, SR250 Flat-trakka and a GSXR750L.
Sorry Wills-I hope you have some colour coordinated garden gnomes to put on it!
I'm not sure if a pointy red hat with a bell on top is appropriate protective head gear within the meaning of the act.
I'm not sure if a pointy red hat with a bell on top is appropriate protective head gear within the meaning of the act.
That's ok Wills, it's not compulsory for you to wear it
Dunno...you should see that characters on an average charity run, tho they've usually got a proper lid on underneath.
The Toytown highway code may be a little different. PC Plod never seems to give Noddy and Big Ears tickets for not using their seat belts
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