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

[Hover Fly]

I had a Graham Weigh 653 with 1995 Campagnolo Chorus and Record. Light and responsive it was a pleasure to ride. But I had to get rid of it for the simple reason it wouldn't take mudguards.

 

[yenrod]

Raleigh Mustang, of late 1980s vintage. It had chromed wheels, so whenever it rained, the brakes would be completely (and I mean completely) non-functional, then would grip suddenly and throw you over the bars. It also had a splatter pink/ purple paint job.

I traded it in for a 1992 GT Tequesta and my love for mountain biking began.

..and caused myself to crash spectacularly once on the way into work many many years ago...

 

[TheDoctor]

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

A fixie daewoo? You sick, sick person.

I might just do that myself...

 

[purplepolly]

Not owned, but when I was studying in germany for a semester I borrowed one from the university. It was a ladies bike but built for a lady of amazonian proportions, even with the seatpost right down it was way too big for me at 5'4". Starting and stopping was a bit of an experience.

 

[Baggy]

My worst was my 3-speed Puch shopper, which I wrote off in a bike path collision, aged 11 .

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

My brother used a Lizard as his messenger bike for about 2 years. It did him sterling service until the frame cracked!

 

[fossyant]

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,

Same here, they were rubbish - there the two ends met, or didn't meet, they caused punctures, and they made the tyres ride horribly.....

Some half decent Vitoria "Open" Tyres - high performance hp tyres (when they first came out) - tread lifted off casing, and they were dangerous cornering moving from the twin tread compound....never used Vittoria tyres since.

Never had a 'bad' bike....had a Raleigh Budgie, then a Chopper, then a Coventry Eagle racer, all fine, then progressed to a proper bike...... 531c Raleigh Road Ace with Shimano 600/Ultegra...at the young age of 16.

 

[Yellow Fang]

It was probably a bike I bought when I was 20 after my racer was nicked outside college. I decided to go for a three-speed sit up and beg type bike. I thought it would be more practical. It wasn't exactly cool though. Once I was standing on the pedals accelerating right out of a T-junction. I decided to change gear, which occurred with such a loud clunk two pretty girls who were watching broke out laughing. I sold it to my dad for £50 I think. My step-grandfather said he didn't know how I could sell him a bike in that condition. It wasn't too bad except that one of the cranks tended to slide backwards when pushing down on the other.

The bike I replaced it with wasn't too great neither in retrospect. It was just too cheap. The wheels buckled like butter against any sort of pothole or kerb, and I strongly suspected the frame wasn't straight. I often felt I was riding down the road side on as I was commuting to and from work. The biggest improvement was replacing the wheels with exotic sounding alloy wheels with quick release levers. Spending £30 on a pair of wheels felt like a real extravagance to me then.

 

[fossyant]

Found a pic of my first proper bike - here from the brochure

 

[feckless]

Probably the purple and piss-yellow Halfords Satellite I was given for my 10th birthday.

There was nothing much wrong with it (other than the fact that it was so heavy it had its own gravity field), but I was crushingly disappointed that my parents had saved a fiver getting the version that didn't have gears.

f

 

[dellzeqq]

Found a pic of my first proper bike - here from the brochure

I had a Raleigh 12 speed 531C for about nine months in (I think) 1986/7. Wrote it off. Great bke. Very, very twitchy - went round corners like a startled rat.

Worst bike? Kirk Precision. In the attic.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Worst bike? Kirk Precision. In the attic.

Mmmm magnesium! - great name though!