What’s The Most Boring/crap Bike You Have Owned?

I can honestly say no bike I’ve owned has been boring or shite. I’ve always seemed to get the best out of them and them the best out of me. I guess since I’ve never owned a Harley is why.

 

I have had many bikes that would be considered 'duff' but I never found any of them boring when I rode them. These included a Honda CB250RS which I came off on black ice at three different places on the one day although sadly the last fall ended with a car smashing the bike to bits and a Honda MBX125 that I managed to hi-side at about 40mph on a very tight bend on a cold, icy day and I ended up doing a good impression of Superman, headfirst but facing skywards, for a good number of yards before coming gently down to earth and sliding for a good few yards more straight down the road and without leaving my lane.

I have to say that the most boring bike I ever rode (didn't own it) was a Yamaha R1 (1998 I think). It just did everything so perfectly that I found it dull. Speeding was just something you did and it didn't scare the pants off you and the same went for popping wheelies and getting the knee down. The owner had a shot on my steed of the time (1986 Suzuki GSX750ES) and was pale and shaking by the time we stopped even though I don't think he went over 100mph.

 

Kawasaki KLR650 2 years old very clean well maintained bike it couldn't keep up with a slug, heavy, wouldn 't handle they were supposed to be a trail bike. kept it about a month and got rid of the piece of rubbish. the other was a Triumph 750 1974 vintage. Kept it about 2 months Blow a head gasket then a base gasket gearbox seal it never got more than 10 miles without some thing falling of exhaust. carb bowl and various other bits wash my bikes every week and run a spanner round them. I liked the bike to ride but it was a piece of c**p

 

my art teacher had a cb250 wet dream. With engine bars.
He also had arm patches on his suit jacket.
Says it all really.

 

Brother's hand me down. Always got his knackered dross. Raleigh with two pedals, warped front wheel, puncture repair kit case hanging on back of saddle with no contents but a friendly spider, frame mounted hand pump that jumped off the frame if you so much as rode over a nemetode, rear wheel dynamo that had successfully mined it's way to the inner cloth of the tyre and a grolly bruising habit of gear dropping just when you were standing up to gain purchse. Our family surname therefore dies out with me. Apparently, it is Bastid. Maybe that's a good thing. Is that what you meant?

 

See all those folk pining for “good ol’ carbs?”

well they probably never owned a 400 Bandit. Beautiful little thing but fuelled like a pig. Was never right.
Anyway, finally got rid as the missus (whose bike it was) and it went their separate ways on the A85 near Dalmally.

 

Most boring was a Kawasaki GT750 shaft-drive naked touring bike I had for less than a year in the early 1990s.
It had a rubbish starter-clutch, poor brakes, and poor handling. Heavy and boring to ride with none of the advantages or character I hoped it might share with a previously owned Yamaha XJ900 shaftie.
I wasn't sad to sell the Kwaka when I decided to move overseas and unlike other bikes I've owned, I've never reminisced fondly about any rides I went on with it.

 

The most crap bike I ever owned was also one of the most fun . . . a 1978 Honda 50 Supercub that a neighbour abandoned in my garage when he moved away.
The little Honda was seriously beat up and unreliable, but it was also so simple that fixing it was always easy and could often be done in a minute or two at the roadside with a Leatherman tool. And because it cost me nothing to, little to run, and had less than 10HP, I was fearless in how I rode it.
Over three years it chewed through three engines (cheap and easy to buy clones from an auction site), a couple of rear tires, exhaust silencer, brake pads, some bulbs, fibre-glass to patch the leg shields, duct tape for seat repairs, and surprisingly little oil or fuel.

 

That last sentence sounds potentially very sad.....,.hope it doesn't mean what I think it might have meant Stram?

 

Kawasaki GT750
I’ve had two of them
Thought they were pretty good

 

Sorry Thripster, should have been more clear! Missus recovered! The 400Bindit not.

 

Phew........

 

Each to his own, I guess. For me, the Kawasaki compared poorly against a couple of shaft drive Yamaha I previously owned. The Kawasaki just had no character or soul in comparison. At least it looked more classically like a bike, but looks weren't enough for me.

 

They weren’t great bikes admittedly
And I have to be honest I got both of them for a good deal each even getting one from a breakers yard to put back on the road
I was a good bit younger at the time and couldn’t afford the latest stuff

 

I’ve had some right laughs when I was younger on cheap bikes that I suppose could be described as abit boring but get a mate on the back and take them up the local woods and I’ve had some great times on shit bikes,I was given a stolen recovered Suzuki gt250 during the miners strike from a mate which I put a nobbly on the back and used it to pull logs back for fire wood what a laugh that was,After the 250 learner law was changed you could get 250s for next to nothing I remember swapping an air rifle for an Suzuki x7 250,me and a mate bought two Honda cg125s which are dull but went everywhere on them having a great time.

 

I agree, I have never been on a boring bike...just the wrong road. Or as above, actual road.

 

Not really boring , but crap quality. Suzuki 750 GSXF, bought new, sold with a little 13 000 km. Carburetors issues, direction bearing dead, lost a mirror because of vibration... I loved the engine, but that was not enough to accept all quality issues.

 

The thing about bikes like the R1 is that, if you are really pushing them to their design limits on the roads then you are operating in the 'death zone' because things that scare the pants off you at thirty miles an hour on an old boneshaker are being done at speeds where you are essentially a soft and squishy missile. I quite like a bike that is terrifying and let's you know you are alive even before you start it up. Keeps you honest and really is a challenge just to nip down to the shops on Up to it's top speed I can actually throw my 790 Bonnie around with more confidence that I can my 955i Sprint. I just seem to have more 'feel' for the machine and am totally in my element in the saddle.

Sure the Sprint can rocket off up the road with my eyes getting squashed back in their sockets but I don't get the same sense of what's going on where the rubber meets the road.