I'll nominate two bikes from my own bitter experience.
1) The Triumph TSS which was developed from the Bonneville and used an 8 valve head. It was never properly developed and its quality control was non-existent. The Meriden co-operative deserved to go to the wall for producing such junk.
2) The Aprilia Falco - over-hyped, under-powered, fussy to ride, poor dealer support and full of niggling electrical faults.
The TSS was the worst bike I've ever ridden so I would give it the number 1 spot, while the Falco the most disappointing and I would rate it about 30th worst since there were some real abominations out there like the Honda FT500.
havent had enough bikes to really give an opinion but was once lent a gp100, omg what a nasty little thing that was, put the brakes on and locked one or both wheels and kept going for what seemed like miles down a busy high st, was only about 17, i wasn`t too impressed!
Never owned a bike myself, only pillied so can't give an opinion, though if I do ever own one it will be a lowered 600 Fazer, the seat is so comfy and would be perfect for my posterior
I'm surprised you mentioned the Falco Cat, mine was an absolute joy and no bother. It was however crippling on longer journeys.
My worse bikes were a Kawasaki GT550 that refused to respond to maintenance and remained a mardy arse The other would be a Harley 883 sportster which shook itself to bits on more than one occasion. It was however quite reliable engine wise.
The most unreliable bike I has was one of my VFR400s, an NC24 which blew a rectifier and could drain a battery inside 20 miles. Despite replacing the rectifier the problem persisted and never got cured. Did not stop me having a few more VFR400's though.
Biggest shed was a Suzuki RF900 which to be fair the last owner knew only the very basic maintenance. Despite me stripping it and giving it the good once over it would just die every now and again, Could have made a nice bike but my patience ran out.
Lets not forget that ANY bike can be a worse bike as you may end up with the Friday afternoon bike, the same as cars.
XV750 borrowed it from a mate for a year as I was skint. Pu it in a ditch as it wouldnt go round bends
Most disapointing BMW K1200R Sport £12,000 of premium Motorcycle
Paint flaked off engine at less than year old and rust on anything steel. Then it would cut out for no reason and wouldnt restart unless in neutral. Not that im bitter by there so called customer support
I think Pillies can vote or at least mention the comfort of the riding position/seat etc.
My worse pilly seat was VTR 1000f the seat was so uncomfortable and my knees under my chin. Give me the ZX9r seat and ride anyday
Must say my Ex loved his Falco but had massive expensive problems like the engine crank case splitting cos the gearing shot off its sprockets. he had it from new nd looked after it the case had to be welded or the bike was a right off so he could never sell it on again after knowing this.
moonstone wrote: Give me the ZX9r seat and ride anyday
ZX9r's a gorgeous bike to be on, agreed, I've pilled one several times, leg positions good, but can't agree on the seat for the pilly - it was a case of, which cheek has the 'perch' first !!!
The less than amazing Honda CB500T. You have it in either embarassing orange or shitty brown. Vibrated like an old brit twin and could manage 90mph downhill. It was touted as a tourer - yeah, If you owned one you could tour England on a bus trying to find spare parts! Still it did get me to Knebworth in ྊ to see Led Zep....It was not quite stairway to heaven, more of a black dog.
(see what I did there, clever eh?)
"havent had enough bikes to really give an opinion but was once lent a gp100, omg what a nasty little thing that was"
I don't know what you mean Julie, I had two GP100s when I was learning (two cos I crashed the first) and neither one of them broke down once.
I think actually the first one broke down seven times and the second five, although one of those breakdowns was a biggie so it probably counts as at least two!! At the time I simply presumed this was part of biking, then I passed my test, bought a Honda and everything's been fine since lol!!!
Worst bikes erm ... anything British up to 1970 ... anything Italian up to 1980 ...discount everything from the Eastern Block ... o yeah the Spanish except for Bultaco ...cant really slag off the Germans because most of its good ...and...o yeah don't touch anything American ...that leaves us with the japs ...thank god we stopped the yanks from dropping any more Atomic bombs on them.
Could you imagine a world full of MZ's, Harley's and leaking Triumphs.
Er...not that I'm touchy or anything , BUT I've had me Buell for four years, 32,000 miles and it's never broken down or let me down. Ok so I do change the oil and filters every 1000 miles, tighten everything up after every ride, it is kept in a heated garage and washed/wiped after every outing, hardly gets used in winter, all main servicing done by Buell specialist...and££££....and££££...and..££££
I had an FT500 and was an import to boot, some a## hole had litterally dug the fork seals out with a screwdriver resulting in badley grooved forks, I owned it for 1 month got me to London and back no problem was promptly stolen from out side my house inside 10 mins of arriving back in Hull. So I cannot see it in the bottom 100 sighs. Worse bike I ever rode was a Ducatti GT1000 power delivery was just a bit too brutal more like an on off switch, top gear unusable (legaly as needed to be reved to high due to disscomfort at lower revs resulting in speeds in excess of the motorway limits) no grab rail for a pilly and a tiny seat too was greatful when it developed an electrical fault so I could return it!(the fault was the electronic ignition/fuel injection decided not to allow the revs to stay constant at constant throttal settings almost spat me off on a greasy roundabout in winter because it wanted to rev higher) so very low in the 100 certainly tenth or lower