Most embarrassing bike - own up

[RightSaidFred]

Further to 851Neil's idea, let's have them then.

My list to get the ball rolling-

Tomos moped (15 years old so fair enough)
Vespa 50 special (seized/blew up lots)
Vespa T5 (see above)
Yamaha XS 400 twin (slower than snails/sloths)
Honda CJ 250 twin (noisy and slow but with ace bars!)
Suzuki GSX 400/4 (many, many reg/rectifiers + 3 wiring looms!!)
And yes a superdream 250 too, although it never got on the road in the end...


Cool ones though include GPZ900R at 18 years old and a brand new YZF 750 when they first came out in early '93. I was captain cool compared to me mates!

[YMFB]

Age 14- Honda C90 - no fairing, rode it back from a mates 7 miles away wearing a childs plastic policemans helmet.

Honda VT 250 - had it for three months, what a complete waste of money.

everything else has been either good , OK or a Ducati

[Mr C]

Yamaha Townmate

[phillc]

First bike was a Yamaha Virago 250 :-(

Have also owned a Yamaha XJ600. Every fuel stop also required 500mils of oil. If I was travelling out of town I always carried a spare 500mils of oil with me.

[851neil]

this is a cool thread !!
Ok here goes:
1982 - Simpson 50, dad was an MZ dealer & it was free Ok - my mates had my life...especially when I carried out the factory de-restriction which to their mirth was simply to chop 30mm off the exhaust downpipe and slide the silencer forward...my mother bought me a leather jacket with tassles !!! and my gran bought me a barber jacket aaaargh.. I had a really hard year in 82'
1983 - same bike but fitted with ETZ (MZ not yam)125 barrel, piston, head and carb - my mates still ripped the mick something rotten, but it was quick (honest) for what it was.
1984 - MZ ETZ250 - dad was still an MZ dealer - toerag made me get this for a few months, and I had to pay for it !! total embarassment
1984 - Superdream 250 - chopped the MZ at the local Honda dealer coz I just couldn't take the ribbing anymore, this really pi**ed my dad off, toured France on this bike - ultra reliable...
after that I've had a variety of jap and italian stuff, I'm currently running an RSV1000 Factory and an 851...

[stuart hill]

Some horror's and some class (in chronological order);

Yamaha RXS100 (first bike - wrote it off better than a 50cc thought when on your provisional)
Kwak KR1 (very cool when you're 18 and now if it hasn't disintegrated itself but a complete shed)
VFR400 NC30 (superb!)
Yamaha FZR600 (foxeye)
Yamaha R6 (:D)
Ducati 749

[phil_h]

most embarrassing bike jacket ...
Originally posted by 851neil
this is a cool thread !!
Ok here goes:
1982 - Simpson 50, dad was an MZ dealer & it was free Ok - my mates had my life...especially when I carried out the factory de-restriction which to their mirth was simply to chop 30mm off the exhaust downpipe and slide the silencer forward...my mother bought me a leather jacket with tassles !!! and my gran bought me a barber jacket aaaargh.. I had a really hard year in 82'
1983 - same bike but fitted with ETZ (MZ not yam)125 barrel, piston, head and carb - my mates still ripped the mick something rotten, but it was quick (honest) for what it was.
1984 - MZ ETZ250 - dad was still an MZ dealer - toerag made me get this for a few months, and I had to pay for it !! total embarassment
1984 - Superdream 250 - chopped the MZ at the local Honda dealer coz I just couldn't take the ribbing anymore, this really pi**ed my dad off, toured France on this bike - ultra reliable...
after that I've had a variety of jap and italian stuff, I'm currently running an RSV1000 Factory and an 851...

Respect:cool:
It takes great inner strength to admit that kind of thing
:lol::lol::lol:

[Edited on 24-8-2005 by phil_h]

[Derek]

Back in the late seventies our club ran an RAC/ACU training scheme. We were given two brand new Raleigh mopeds which needed running in. Guess who got the job! I ran one of them everywhere for a fortnight - something like 500 miles on this bright orange thing with white legsheilds. But it cost me next to nothing in petrol so I didn't really care.

[851neil]

yeah cheers Phil, what I didn't mention was that they only stayed on a couple of weeks before the scissors came out :lol::lol:

[paynep]

Most embarrassing bike.....

How about a Kwak Z1000 Custom ?
US-spec with fat rear and skinny front crossply tyres, bought as a box of bits and when I found the cost of replacing one warped disc it then ran as a single disc!!

But then I part exchanged it for a Laverda... :lol:

[Nattyboy]

Inherited my grandads C90 at 14....I'll let the pic speak for itself...:o:lol:

Then sold it for an MBX50. Did 30mph when I got it. Spent all my money on boyesen reeds, allspeed exhaust, and K&N..and it did 25mph...:lol:

Nat



[Edited on 24-8-2005 by Nattyboy]

[Gizmo]

GSX6F in purple/black needed a cheap reliable bike which it was but I hated looking at it :)

[Nattyboy]

Pepsi RGV (though it was a factory ltd edition with Kevins autograph on the tank!!) and matching leathers was all a bit 'gayboy' in hindsight..

Nat

[domski]

Originally posted by Nattyboy
Pepsi RGV (though it was a factory ltd edition with Kevins autograph on the tank!!) and matching leathers was all a bit 'gayboy' in hindsight..

Nat

I think it looks pretty cool actually.

Although you'd look better sat on a GP grid ;)

I had a Lucky Strike rep, ran like a bag of crap but I loved it. Actually sold that to get my 900SS.

I've never owned anything embarrassing, I'm the leader of fashion (or blind to it) :D

[sparkin]

Natty,my missus said"Is he a power ranger in his spare time?"
:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

[Nattyboy]

Originally posted by sparkin
Natty,my missus said"Is he a power ranger in his spare time?"
:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Note to mrs Sparkin...BUGGER OFF !!! :lol:

Nat

[sparkin]

Originally posted by Nattyboy
Originally posted by sparkin
Natty,my missus said"Is he a power ranger in his spare time?"
:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Note to mrs Sparkin...BUGGER OFF !!! :lol:

Nat

What`s with the muppet avatar Nat?You haven`t come off have you:puzzled:

[Nattyboy]

Very nearly at Lydden last saturday..BIIIIIGGG slide !! Left a cracking black line though :D

Just saw this earlier and had to have it...beakers assistant - pure class...!!

Nat

[888heaven]

I rode a french thing a motobecane I think with pedals it was so slow and hideous and so uncool that I dumped it and said it was stolen.
Bought a GT 185 Suk and kept it the shed Mum Hid the keys but not well enough so i got a set cut and rode it when she went to work only to be grassed up by the next door nieghbour.
waited 7 months booked my test for my 17th birthday and passed no more uncool mopeds.:roll:

[psychlist]

Blew the engine up trying to keep up with my mates on their FS1E's until I'd saved enough dosh to buy a second hand CG125. Then all my mates went out and bought RD/GT250's :lol: I showed them tho, passed my test a month after my 17th birthday and swapped (literally!) the CG for a KH500 :devil:

[philthy]

Aaaah, that takes me back!

KH series - killing machines. I had a few KH250 bikes- one of them had a cheng sin front tyre and an avon skidmaster rear tyre. I could slide the front until it howled like an american car on crossplies while making sparks off the rear stand and exhausts.

Put the willies up other riders at night when I slid past on the inside of them on left hand bends I can tell you!

Was behind a mate who did a very passable impression of a red arrow when he lost the front end at 60mph while riding his KH400 and promptly looped the loop trailing blue smoke.

Another mate did the same with a brand new demo KH500 ....VERY expensive 5 minute test ride that was!

Those were the days:lol:

[bitchinSP4]

Sorry Nat I have to agree, not a bad bike but extreme "gayboy" leathers!!

[Nattyboy]

Originally posted by bitchinSP4
Sorry Nat I have to agree, not a bad bike but extreme "gayboy" leathers!!

..Free entry to the blue oyster club mind you mate..

Nat:lol:

[851neil]

suppose I'll have to try and dig out some pics of me on my fzr complete with 'wriggly worm' leathers & boots + laser lid = 1 helluva dodgy looking pic...well Ok maybe I won't dig out any pics afte all :D

[Jools]

175 BSA Bantam of indeterminate age that I had in 1975. It was my road bike on which I hoped to pass my test.

My other bike was an Ossa 250 MAR which I bought new and cost me nearly £600 in the days when a Jap 250 road bike would cost about £350. The Ossa was road registered and had a set of lights that worked off the magneto (yes, magneto) but since I also did trials on it the lights had usually been smeared over the nearest hillside during the weekend, or the handlebars would be bent to buggery after dropping it or flipping it. Not the sort of bike you'd impress an examiner with if it had bits dropping off and bent bits after a trial.

Hence the Bantam. A dirt cheap road bike that would be good enough to do my test on. Never managed to get the pre-mix right and it would start to nip up if it didn't have loads of oil (seem to remember 16:1) and this was in the days before synthetic so I would be going down the road with 2 stroke smoke belching out of the exhaust - until the exhaust spat it's baffles out which happened every 10-15 miles - once in front of a police car. The electrics on it were a nightmare as well and the brake light (which was the main reason I wanted the bike so the examiner could see me braking properly) would play up - in fact the whole rear light was hit and miss.

On the morning of the test, it wouldn't start, so I did the test on the Ossa after all - needless to say the Ossa's lights weren't working so I did my whole test on hand signals. This was in the days of the examiner just watching you ride around the block and nipping through alleyways to keep you in sight. The 'low speed control' test was fun on a trials bike though all you had to do was ride alongside the examiner at walking pace, and with the Ossa in first gear he had to keep stopping for me to catch up :lol:

[Screwy]

Jawa Jupiter and sidecar :( God that was one ugly bike , Bought it for the comute to work , think i paid a tenner for it :D On my third trip out on it the sidecar lifted on a tight lefthander and put me into a wall :( funnily enough ive never ridden an outfit since :D

[Martin Dower]

Puch Maxi when I was 14 :( - bought it off a mate who had fitted a Raleigh Chopper seat to it. It was awful, I had it 3 days and the magneto went. Crap, just crap.