What is the worst bike you have ever bought? And be honest!!!

[raleighnut]

I bought a second-hand Carlton bike for £25 in the late 70s. It lived outside on the balcony for about 20 years, until the red frame faded to light pink on one side from the sunlight in the mornings. It weighed about twice what any other bike I've had since does. However, the damn thing thrived on neglect for 20 years and never let me down. And, even with a cheap lock on it, nobody ever wanted to nick it. Definitely the worst bike I've ever had. And I probably rode 30,000 miles on it.

That was the point with inexpensive Carlton models they're just bombproof, the high end (531) models are lighter more responsive but in the late sixties/early seventies most people cycled to work (or school like me) and needed summat ultra reliable.

 

[fossyant]

I've never had a bike I'd have called crap.

Started with a Raleigh Budgie that got a hammering, then progressed to a black Chopper MkII which I loved, but wasn't quite as cool as the Grifter that came out after. The chopper had a new saddle after the mounts snapped, but if did over five miles a day on it with a paper round. Progressed to a racer, a Coventry Eagle Stratus that lasted me till I was 16 when I went all posh.

Raleigh 531c Road Ace with Shimano 600 SIS.... Great bike

 

[MontyVeda]

One from toys r us - £60 - plastic brake levers, all metal was as soft as cheese so barrel adjusters deformed, brake hanger opened, wheel bearings ground to a paste, full suspension, so heavy. Impossible to adjust for more than an hour and I doubt it did more than 200 miles before I gavel with it...... However it did the necessary, I wanted more of the bike experience so that was my return to cycling.

that sounds like the bike a mate of mine bought... only his was £80 with an unavoidable BOGOF offer... so he got one for himself and one for his son. The son's was promptly stolen, although i expect he threw it in the river. The dad's sat in the backyard, unriden, unwanted and rusting.

 

[PatrickPending]

Claud Butler Vuelta - bag of s***, started to fall to bits after 3 weeks, the distributors Falcon, didn't want to know, gave it away though with new wheels as the ones supplied fell to bits.....

 

[Cyclist33]

i have managed to buy half decent bikes all the way, although have sold most of them for one reason or another. i suppose the worst was a Norco vfr4 disc, which was a nice enough bike in itself but there was a fault with the fork dropouts so i returned it after a week and got a mountain bike instead. lucky escape as really the Norco was too similar to my then main bike to justify having it.

worst bike purchase i know of, and the most infuriating, was when my sister, despite being well aware of my addiction to bikes and bike shopping, chose not to involve me at all when considering her first bike, and then rang me proudly to boast of having bought a muddyfox for £130 at costco. it lasted about four months before bits started falling off. i made sure she took me with her next time.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

A 1970-ish Raleigh Traveller. £30 from a second-hand shop in 1989 with no bike knowledge at all - SA 3-speed with the typical "neutral" 2nd gear, quill stem set too high on the verge of the wedge, stem twisted and threw me off on a busy dual carriageway - rotten steel mudguards, bridge gave way, mudguard hit tyre and rotated round, bike slid along road on top of guard throwing sparks off the tarmac...

Bizarrely this was also the best bike I ever bought, in that I never went anywhere without full toolkit and learned a LOT about fixing bikes through necessity

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

The worst NEW bike...not bought personally, parents bought it - a Raleigh Lizard "mountain bike" with a 23" - yes TWENTY THREE INCH MTB frame for a 5'10" rider!

The bike wasn't bad for the time...I had a 19" Mustang (same bike different paint and decals) later that I ended up fitting drop bars and front panniers to for a great "long-haul" tourer. Just that the frame size....I killed it within 2 months, 2 crashes all because I couldn't handle the size of it off-road, bent the frame

 

[BORIS397]

I had a small Orange Chopper called a Chipper I think. It was a dog. No funky stick shifter or anything. Does anyone remember them?

 

[jdtate101]

Worst bike, without doubt my old Raleigh Firefly MTB.
Hewn out of solid pig iron, this bike was heavy enough to create it's own gravitational field, the brakes were like two blocks of cheese (with the same stopping power). Huge saddle but hard as a rock & gears that never really worked correctly. Bought for £100 to ride to and from my girlfriends house (now wife) when I lived in Bristol.

 

[uphillstruggler]

I must hold my hand up and confess to an Apollo Code, the good lady saw it and wanted one she wouldn't change her mind unfortunately. it doesn't matter how much you adjust anything on it, it just goes out of adjustment again.

fair play though, the good lady did complete L2B and L2W on it and it is ok-ish for very short rides around the Milton Keynes red ways but she does need a full team of support for anything any longer.

I have been trying to get rid for ages but she wont have it.

 

[terry_gardener]

mine would be the verenti rhigos 03 in extra small as there was a major flaw in the design. got a refund.
http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/first-service-not-very-good-news.84146/

 

[Schmilliemoo]

My mum bought me and my sister Raleigh grifters one year for Christmas in amazing red. My mum was a tad overprotective however and banned us from riding them on the road. Also in the fight against batteries she fitted them with dynamo lights (which since we weren't allowed on the road in the day never mind at night were somewhat redundant) which made them difficult to pedal and sound like really crap motorbikes.
Needless to add, after a year of riding them around the pavement on the cul de sac, we sold them.
After them I've had Marin, trek and now cannondale. All good stuff.

 

[TheLondonCyclist]

Seeing as I've only purchased one bike so far in my life which is a BMC SR01 Streetracer. I can't say, as I'm in love with my bike.

 

[Ootini]

I'd have to say a Raleigh Mantis.
Heavy as ****!

 

[Fnaar]

A home-made bike I bought off my then schoolmate Franco for £8 (he threw in a transistor radio too ). It was single speed (when gears equalled good) and hand painted, and put together from bits. I bargained him down from a tenner. It merits mention here because, although I used it regularly for 2 years, my dad was livid, as 5 yrs earlier they'd bought me a 'racer' as a prezzie for getting into a 'good' school (all my primary classmates went to a more local, 'dodgy' school), and I let that bike go to rack 'n' ruin. I have no idea what happened in the end to "Franco's" bike.