The worst bike ever made or that you have owned

[G3CWI]

Dawes Ranger. Early Mountain Bike. Dreadful.

 

[MontyVeda]

Grifters weighed a ton and weren't too nimble, but I loved my two, I imagined that they felt something like an off road motorbike would feel. And I pretended that's exactly what it was. With its big tractor tyres it was a forerunner of the MTB, and despite the weight I could get it airborne off home made ramps. Joy.

...

My brother jumped seven primary school children on his. I was one of them. We all argued endlessly over who'd be at the end, furthest from the ramp.

 

[chriswoody]

Dahon Vybe folding bike, utter piece of *****. I mistakenly thought Dahon was a good make and it cant really be that bad! In one year of commuting I broke countless spokes, the front brakes and the pedals. The tyres were so thin, they kept puncturing and needed replacing and overall it was just awful. I'm sure there was more as well.

Flogged it after one year of shocking reliability and bought a Tern, one year later I've not had to replace or renew a single part on the Tern.

 

[Gez73]

Universal Polaris, got it free with the purchase of a much lighter and easier to move fridge-freezer. Horrendous, gave it away after two days. It was gone almost before the freezer was ready to use! Dual suspension too. Grim. Gez

 

[CanucksTraveller]

...It was crap and got replaced by a 10-speed racer....

A question in passing, what year did "racers" become "road bikes"? I don't remember the transition between the terms, or when it occurred.

 

[midlife]

Grifters weighed a ton and weren't too nimble, but I loved my two, I imagined that they felt something like an off road motorbike would feel. And I pretended that's exactly what it was. With its big tractor tyres it was a forerunner of the MTB, and despite the weight I could get it airborne off home made ramps. Joy.

My worst bike was a cheap (about 80 pounds equivalent) MTB bought in Germany in 1991, the wheels went out of true quickly and it started to rust within weeks. I abandoned it in a bike shed after a year and left it to rot.

I've enjoyed all my other bikes, I've had Raleigh Grifters and Burners (BMX), a tiny no name road bike, a Peugeot racer (all in my youth) then Claud Butler town bikes, a mid 90s Giant Peloton road bike, a reconditioned 1950s skip find, all sorts. All great fun.

The big problem with the Grifter was the speed Raleigh must have taken to get it from there first drawings to the production line....a matter of weeks maybe? nothing fitted and took a lot of work at PDI to get them into the sales floor. Couple that with the legendary build quality of the 70's feckers sold like hot cakes lol

Almost went out of the shop as fast as the Raleigh 20!

Shaun

 

[CanucksTraveller]

You say that about Grifters Shaun, but mine got dog's abuse for some years, all year round, and they never saw a bike shop. The most TLC they ever saw was a puncture repair by Dad. Yet I never remember them needing attention.
(Maybe it's nostalgia clouding my judgement and maybe my dad was working on fixing it every night when I was in bed!)

 

[NorthernDave]

A question in passing, what year did "racers" become "road bikes"? I don't remember the transition between the terms, or when it occurred.

I can narrow it down to some time after 1993 (when I stopped riding bikes), but before early last year (when I started riding bikes again).

 

[Paul Walters]

Raleigh Commando... at once the worst bike I ever owned, and the best..... worst because it had Sturmey Archer 3 spd hub gear that slipped constantly so I cracked knees on handlebars, and best because it replaced the blue one I had before it..... but only because Santa had noticed I nearly died on the blue one when the forks collapsed after a particularly hard landing after a ramp-jump.

Didn't have another bike of my own until I somehow acquired an Apollo MTB just before I went to Uni... had every intention of using it for transport, but it got more use as a clothes airer, spending 3 years propped against my bedroom radiator! It really was cr4p.

 

[bladesman73]

any bike ever purchased at east anglian chain cycle king! i also once bought a cheap bike from tesco, falling apart after a few months of commuting, then some idiot nicked it lolz did me a favour

 

[Dogtrousers]

A question in passing, what year did "racers" become "road bikes"? I don't remember the transition between the terms, or when it occurred.

Probably about the time "bikes" became "hybrids". I blame mountain bikes. So I'd guess during the 80s I'd guess.

 

[Banjo]

I had an appollo "hybrid" once. Taught me lots about fixing bikes.

 

[Accy cyclist]

An Apollo mountain bike from Halfords is my worst bike of my modern day cycling era. It served a purpose though, as it got me back into cycling after 20 years and it got me back and forth to work. I remember taking it back to Halfords for a "free service" and hearing them in the back room saying "He's taken the f..k..g stickers(decals)off does it still count as ours". A bit snobby but i took them off because i was embarrassed to own an Apollo.

 

[bonsaibilly]

I have probably bought two bikes I've regretted. Neither were particularly bad but I didn't try them out first so I had no idea that when they arrived they would a) not have the x factor I was looking for, and b) didn't really look like the web based press photos. One of them had a saddle that destroyed my arse as well.

Thankfully I have gained some sort of reputation at work for helping people find good bikes that suit them when they are looking to buy, but the only "hatred" tale involves my sister, who, much as I love her, like all my family totally disregards my levels of experience in the window-shopping of bikes, tech, computers and cameras, wilfully refuses to ask for my advice in advance, and invariably they all spend a fortune on heaps of shite that they didn't want, need or understand how rubbish the kit was in the first place.

In this vein my sister rang me once several years ago to rave enthusiastically about her new Muddy Fox bike that she'd bought from Costco for about £125 on the advice of a distant cousin of ours. (a COUSIN, ffs) And then she got offended when a) I didn't share her enthusiasm and b) pointed out that she had a twin brother whose entire free time was spent looking up new and used bikes of all different types, reading bike and parts reviews and generally fantasising about bike stuff all day long.

Suffice it to say, within six months and not a lot of rides, it started to fall apart, with the result that well within a year, she ditched it. Heavy, poorly built piece of crap with equally heavy and pointless front suspension, anyway.

Next time around she took me with her and actually listened, and brought home a nice Giant Liv Escape without a meaningless front spring in sight. Although she still runs the tyres woefully low because I can't get through to her that a road bike is more comfortable when you actually inflate the tyres to provide a cushion. And she bought the size too big against my advice because the shop didn't have the Small in stock and she thinks she's taller than she is. And now three years later I've brought the saddle forward and she's still talking about getting a shorter stem and Dutch handlebar.

Phew!

bb

 

[RoubaixCube]

Apollo XC 26S - Pretty much the first bike that was bought for me to get me back on the road. It was a heavy beast and even doing the 6 miles on it was hell, It was heavy and the gears were all out of whack and would quite regularly 'slip' off the rear sprockets and make a loud crunching noise. didnt trust it enough to use it on the road very much. Its been sitting in the shed collecting dust for a rather long time.