Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > whats your worst ever bike.

[FiscusFish]

CB400 Superdream.

Needed a bike quick for work and the "Superdream" (Could have sued Honda for the name alone...) was all I could find in the short space of time. Engine was a pile of crap till I rebuilt it when it became a pile of crap that had cost me a fortune.

We finally had a party and "dismantled" it with some sledgehammers and an axe...

Replaced it with a Honda CM200 that was a million times better....

[Nigel C]

no bad ones just one boring one !! 250 Superdream ran without a problem used naff all petrol and never went fast no matter how hard i thrashed the engine.
60mph all the way from Brands to worthing on less than half a tank of fuel with the throttle to the stop most of the way

[rcgbob44]

I loved my DBD34 but not the close ratio gear box!

[uncle porry]

many moons ago, a yam 650 twin, which i bought in about four boxes, i took them to my top floor flat, laid all the parts out on the living room floor to assemble it (like an mfi wardrobe) there was no seat, headlight and sidestand, managed to get these (apart from the sidestand) from the previous owner (after a good ol` rummage in his garage) put the bike together, then realised i could not get it out of the flat and down the stairs ! took off the wheels, bars and mudguards, and with the help of a couple of mates, got it out into the carpark, kicked it over and bang.....it started for two whole seconds then blew up ! never did get to ride it, sold it for £30 to a hippy....bout a year later, saw it parked outside a shop, painted purple and still with no sidestand, leaning up against a wall.......ahhh, the joys of biking !!

[DAVE HARRIS]

Like john my worst bike was a t110 triumph. It used to leave a trail of bits behind it and an oil slick, the clutch dragged when in and slipped when out, it blew head gaskets with monotonous regularity (possibly because it had had been tuned by a moron) handled like a pig and took half a mile to stop from 30mph.
Mind you due to my impoversihed state when younger I have had an amazing number of sheds, a nsu quickly moped (siezed due to my inability to get to grips with a twist grip gear change 3rd to 1st at max speed), my mothers puch maxi moped (touched the pedal down and rode throu a wood), a triumph t140 which was so highly tuned it used eat barrells every 1500 miles and bottom ends at least once a year, a honda cbx 1000 with 3 gears (rebuilt it with a replacement gearbox and the b*stard snapped its cam chain all 24 valves bent, had the crank reconitioned by a firm in the north at the same time, rebullt it and the shells they supplied had incorrect clearences stripped and rebuilt again and sold on) I could go on and on but I would end up in an asylum.

dave

Has anyone else noticed that ducati owners who have ridden heaps think they are reliable and owners who previously had hondas etc think they are unreliable??

[Neil Murray]

Not the worst bike I've ever ridden[1] but the worst I've ever owned was probably a Honda CB750F1, the first so-called Super Sports model, in 1982. Very smart, ultra-reliable, easy to service, but.....

...dreadful handling, single front disc was heart-stopping in the dry and homicidal in the wet, fuel tank gave a 100-mile range, coils packed up in the wet, chain wore out every 5,000 miles......

So I fitted decent shocks and tyres, twinned the front disc (nowhere near as easy as you might think), fitted those new-fangled sintered pads, sourced a five-gallon alloy tank for holidays and trips to the Bol, and packed the coils in WD-40 soaked plastic bags. Never managed to do anything about the chain.

Sold it and bought a Guzzi Spada, which started the love affair with Italian bikes that persists to this day.


[1] That would be the Neval Minsk 125, no shadow of a doubt.

[yeti]

Suzuki GT750 "kettle", 'kin orrible it was. Only good thing about it was the digital gear indicator.

[Rocker]

Yamaha XS 750 tripple I bought it brand new and it was the most unreliable thing I have ever had the misfortune to own and that includes the MZs and British bikes I used to ride. On one occassion I locked the steering whilst parking at the Belgium GP and as I took the key out of the lock the internals came with it. Oh how we laughed (NOT)

[Nattyboy]

RGV250M....bought in haste..as a daft yoof.


Ran it up the..road..it coughed and spluttered a bit but "hey..its just a bit cold and its a stroker...." I thought...paid my dosh (it was a bit cheap at £2250)...and..it ran like a pig on the way home.

Started to take it apart and I think it was when I found the lockwired oil filler cap and a pair of womens lacy pants (i kid you not) over the airbox when I started to think..hmm this isnt quite right.

Yep..it was an ex racer..and id been fooled..MUPPET. Id been blinded by the mint (obviosuly unused!!) bodywork. Power valves were s****d and fortunatley a mate cobbled it together and I managed to px it against an NC30 the next week at an unsuspecting dealers.

You live and learn and all that !(mines on the left)

Cheers
Nat

[fatduke11111]

Yam XS500B (stood for B*llox) - complete piece of complex diahoerra that I had for two years and was on the road for approx 6 months (after numberous engine rebuilds).

Moved like a tranquilised slug and had all the appeal of rabies.....why I bought it, f**ked if I know....