The worst bike ever made

In that case the Suzuki GT500 - sit at lights pull the clutch in and wait while the oil pump stops. The oil pump was run from the clutch gear, nastiness in itself.

Gentlemen, I give you the horror that was (for there are probably no running ones left) the Honda CB250 G5.

In its short lifespan this model managed to accumulate a total of 23 camchain tensioner modifications, none of which worked. For each modification a centre punch mark was added next to the engine number. I recall seeing one that had 21 centre punch marks, and it rattled like marbles in a tin can... it had less than 10,000 miles on the clock.

On top of its disgustingly slow, unreliable and gutless engine, it didn't handle and had abysmal brakes. The 250 Dream that followed it was a pile of gopping tut, but it was light years better than the G5.

Quite how Honda managed to make such a pig's ear of the successor to the wonderful CB250 K4 is beyond me.

[northwind]

The Buell Blast was pretty horrendous for a modern bike... Not as bad as many that went before, but then all the mistakes that made it rubbish had been made before so there was no excuse.

Originally Posted by GastonJ

In that case the Suzuki GT500 - sit at lights pull the clutch in and wait while the oil pump stops. The oil pump was run from the clutch gear, nastiness in itself.

Heh heh... I used to have a T500; smoked like a chimney but good fun if the oil flowed correctly

Most of the worst bikes have already been mentioned, but I would gladly nominate the worst car that had a bike sized engine (600cc) - I give you the slowest cage ever, the 2CV

My displeasure with them stems from having changed an engine 3 times and each one had the big end go Junked it in the end

Originally Posted by Steelman

Heh heh... I used to have a T500; smoked like a chimney but good fun if the oil flowed correctly

Most of the worst bikes have already been mentioned, but I would gladly nominate the worst car that had a bike sized engine (600cc) - I give you the slowest cage ever, the 2CV

My displeasure with them stems from having changed an engine 3 times and each one had the big end go Junked it in the end

I borrowed an air-cooled Honda 600 car thing from my uncle once. One of these and the same colour too:



The engine looked like a CB500 lump, and I mean the early 70s pile of snot CB500, not the modern one, it was so sloooow. The gearchange was a laugh, engaging reverse gear meant I scraped my knuckles on the floor because the lever moved so far. It fried the main fuseable link in its electrics on a trip from Trowbridge to Bedford and I completed the 12 miles from Milton Keynes to my mum's gaff with a set of jump leads running from a spare battery down by my feet, out of the driver's window and under the bonnet to the car's battery, and the bonnet was bungeed down to stop it flying up. Once at my mum's I soldered a thick piece of copper in where the link had been and drove it back to Trowbridge. It never played up again.

[timwilky]

I cannot believe that as a kid, unlike my mates I would letch after a Munch Mammoth when my mates would instinctively reach towards crotch at the mention of commandos, rocket 3, tritons and even bonnies. Now a douglas/rudge/vincent/ajs/ would be guaranteed to generate 5 minutes of sticky passion in them. For me it was always the unobtainable Munch Mammoth.

Looking at them today. Boy were they ugly.

[Stu]

Apologies for dredging back to the beginning of this thread (did not see it before) but that list of ugly bikes, they are just embarrassing themselves. Buell = Beautiful. MotoSelect in Farnham had a Honda Rune at their open day and it was fantastic I still have photos of it in my phone I think.
And that comment on the SV could someone please explain how you are supposed to see more of the engine than you can on an SV (excluding Ducatis that have spilt their guts all over the road).

As for the SV650 in White is that an official 2008 colour? I think that's fantastic that Suzuki are keeping up with fashion following the 848.

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Stu

And that comment on the SV could someone please explain how you are supposed to see more of the engine than you can on an SV

The photo he used for the article had the chin fairing on. That's the optional chin fairing for the hard of thinking