Whats the worst bike you've ever owned...

[snakehips]

Bit of a close call , but a very long time ago I bought my first adult bike . a cheap no name jobby from my then LBS. It probably wasn't there to be sold. I think it was one of those things that shops have to lure you in so they can then sell you something at least 50% more exoensive. It was made from the cheapest components sourced from around the world. I remember the spokes came from India , something else came from Hungary etc. Anyway , it did its job , it got me commuting. It didn't fall apart despite sounding like it was going to for a long time , and the extra exercise due to its crappiness did wonders for my thighs and my general fitness level.

Then again it might be the bit of old Chinese steel that somebody gave me as a stop gap when my Dawes gave up the ghost

Siamo tutti farabutti

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Years ago I bought a cheap unbranded one from the back of a Sunday magazine , you got to pay for it in four installments (that's my excuse) - although it was rubbish it did keep going and I got £50 for it when I flogged it.

 

[XmisterIS]

Raleigh Lizard. Horrible, horrible, horrible bike!!!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Raleigh Lizard. Horrible, horrible, horrible bike!!!

Some people speak quite fondly of their Raleigh Lizards!

 

[Davidc]

I have no complaints with any of the bikes I have/had. They've all behaved as intended.

Me too. Some were better than others - they cost more too, but all have been fine.

 

[MajorMantra]

Mine was a full-suss BSO which put an end to any thoughts of resuming cycling when I was about 14 or 15.

On the other hand it was a crappy Emmelle rigid mtb (£15) that got me back into cycling a year ago. Since then I think I've bought 10 bikes!

Matthew

 

[Cheddar George]

In the early eighties i had 10 speed "racer" made in East Germany and imported in kit form, it was very heavy !. However it was metallic silver and had "Rudi Altig" on the frame and as a kid i thought that i looked bloody great on it.

It was my worst bike but it was still pretty good.

 

[Ian H]

My worst ever bike wasn't a bike. It was a Dawes frame to which I attached a Ken Rogers' conversion. Oh boy was that thing fun on twisty descents. It was even better when I ran it for a year as fixed. My knees have never recovered.

 

[palinurus]

My crappest bikes were probably

(1) The Tensor five-speed racer that my dad bought for me from an ad. in the Daily Mirror.

(2) The Peugeot "Robert Millar" racer bought from Marshall Ward catalogue.

However the first one of those was used for plenty of relatively long rides when I was a kid (OK- now I can do those rides in under two hours, back then it'd take most of the day and I'd have an enormous ex. ice-cream tub filled with sandwiches with me).

Somehow I always made it back without it breaking down enough to get me stranded.

And the second one did me for a few years in my late teens then for a year or so as a commute bike without too much hassle. So they weren't that bad.

I wouldn't want to ride them now though.

 

[palinurus]

However it was metallic silver and had "Rudi Altig" on the frame and as a kid i thought that i looked bloody great on it.

My friend had one of those. I thought it was great. He told me it had been custom built by some guy called Rudi Altig. Turns out that was bollocks.

 

[Brains]

A couple of decades ago when living in a shared house we had the 'house bike' it was a right goer if you know what I mean.

It was refered as the "Bwana Bike", as one was was given to all employees of a large South African corporation after 10 years of service and it was obviously designed with rural African roads and bush mechanics in mind rather than the streets of London

The black frame was massive, built out of what felt like solid rods of cast iron.
You had to be a least 6'6" to sit comfortably on the hard elephant hide saddle, it had a double top tube, with space for the family to ride between the saddle and the handle bars which swept back in a C shape. It had a rod and lever front brake and a lethal back paddal rear brake.
It had chrome dynamo driven lights fore and aft the size and weight of a small WWII anti-aircraft spotlight which gave out the light of maybe 2 tea candles (in a brown bottle) and it had a rear rack that would not have been out of place on top of a transit van, all in it weighed more than the average Harley Davidson.

We used it for pub runs, we would push it up to the pub on the top of the hill as it was downhill all the way home and it was possible to ride with upto 4 people on it as long as you didn't have to pedal.

I once made the mistake of during a train strike riding to central London on it, I walked 7 miles home rather than ride it back.

I believe it was eventually stolen from outside the pub, the perpitrator was last seen screaming down the hill frantically looking for the brakes before he did a recreation of the classic "Silver Streak" train crash and took out an entire mainline railway station as the unstoppable force would have taken all before it

 

[Alan Frame]

Daewoo Shuttle.
*ashamed*

Turned my Shuttle into a fixed gear and made a profit on it courtesy of Fleabay.

 

[gbb]

Not had a bad one myself, but Optima BSO MTBs seem to abound round here...bloody awful.
One guy at work brought one and within two weeks came to me because the brakes wouldnt work and the gears were all over.
The noodles split, the cable adjusters were coming out of the levers.
The gear set up wasnt set up ?

He gave up on it eventually....and promptly brought another
Within weeks, the crank was falling off

 

[Titanium]

With regards to worst parts.
It's really crazy and bizarre - I tried those plastic strips that go inside the tyre to prevent prevent punctures, ie anything sharp that penetrates the tyre is supposedly stopped from going into the inner tube.
OK, this is probably old news, but....
It actually bloody well caused a flat tyre itself. The edges gradually rub and chaffe on the inner tube (from the squishing of the tyres during riding) and eventually wears through the tube.
Absolutely nuts. Crazy mad bonkers. Weren't they tried and tested?
Think I used them as instructions said. Anyone else had that happen?

 

[dav1d]

With regards to worst parts.
It's really crazy and bizarre - I tried those plastic strips that go inside the tyre to prevent prevent punctures, ie anything sharp that penetrates the tyre is supposedly stopped from going into the inner tube.
OK, this is probably old news, but....
It actually bloody well caused a flat tyre itself. The edges gradually rub and chaffe on the inner tube (from the squishing of the tyres during riding) and eventually wears through the tube.
Absolutely nuts. Crazy mad bonkers. Weren't they tried and tested?
Think I used them as instructions said. Anyone else had that happen?

Never bought them myself, but was going to until I read a few reviews online stating that they caused punctures! So you're not alone! I'm using Marathon Plus tyres, so hopefully won't get any punctures for a while anyway: was turning the air blue when I put them on and swore I'd never buy them again. But they seem to be good: glass everywhere on the roads (chavs and their glass bottles) and my tyres are still fine, but not had them very long. I may actually buy them again!