What was the Worst Bike you've ever owned

Never had a worse bike, per se.

The worse starting, thou, was the Bultacos.

The mags were weak and wouldn't fire unless temps were just right and all the stars were aligned. :evil:

But once you got it running ... :woohoo:

In the '70s I bought a 1976 HD ElectraGlide dresser. This was when AMF owned the company. It was a total POS. Always something breaking or quitting on it. Last time I rode it I rode to some flat track races in Louisville, Ky with some friends on 2 Z1s and 1 CB750. I was so impressed with the Kaws, I sold the HD and bought a '77 KZ1000 the next year. It was such a relief to have a bike to travel on without fear of breaking down. I put many trouble free miles on KZ1000s before I went to Goldwings for daily rider. I do like the new HD Road Kings and might try one someday but it won't be my daily rider.

trianglelaguna wrote:

yeah yeah...a guy sold me a vision 550 yami for 100.00 20 years ago..water cooled 5 valve v twin?, v four? shaft uni shock turd puncher????? i think...anyway it was siezed prob and i took it off his trash pile and moved it to mine for 100.00..nice guy aye....never did anything with it and walked by it everyday for about 6 months,and left it sitting on the side of the house when i moved......i have a feeling it aint running today either....Locozuna wrote:

That one comes in at the second worst for me. I didn't own one, but I worked on one. Be glad you didn't waste a lot of time on it and only $100. Those POS love to break cams, camchains, valves etc.

The worst bike I ever had to work on was a Honda vt500 Ascot FT. There's enough tubing on the damn thing to plumb a house. It refused to run for anything or anyone except on starter fluid.

Wow! That is a pretty Vision. I don't remember them being that easy to eyeball. I know they were regarded as junk. But I thought ugly junk.
Always wanted an Ascot too. Looks like the Gods Crom and Mitra were watching out for me and my foolish wants. yeah right...they did steer me into that CB360. But... I guess 1 out of about 20 is not too bad.

Abbie's first bike was a VT500 Ascot. I loved that bike! It was light, nimble, lots of torque and had a neat sound if you pulled out the baffle! It was a great bike for $600, but we sold it to my cousin and then I tried to help him clean the carbs....WOW! I would buy another one, but the shop would do the carb work!

As for the looks of the Vision, it reminds me of the KZ1000's Mystery Ship that Craig Vetter put bodies on.

home.ama-cycle.org/membersonly/museum/im...5/junclassic_600.jpg

i thought the ascotts were a cool idea and would be a fun hack project,i have seen one that a kid was campaining in entry level flat tracking.....the vision ...in it's defense...while a failed attempt...had new production ideas from yamaha all packed into an early platform.......stuff that was not around so much for a yami at its release.....water cooled...wierd heads for the era..fuel sytem...shaft..uni shock...v design....the picture i cut and pasted was a nicer pic of one....in reality they were cheapo finished plastics and pot metal......a mechanic once noted all the tech stuff for it's day to me...and finished by still saying it was p.o.s

Well, basically Mellvis nailed it. They were the carbs from hell. It was a nightmare just to get to the carbs, then the job gets more difficult.

Maybe they're ok to ride, but I never got that far. The ignition was also shot on the one I wrenched on. Then the owner didn't want to dump any more money into it.

The Ascot was super lightweight if you fall over while standing still too... Trust me, I know.

the ascot motor is as tough as hell we ice raced one up here at 2 24 hour ice races and it never broke anything as a matter of fact it is still being used as a street bike but your right about the carbs almost as bad as wing carb's or magna or sabre carb's to work on notice a theme here all honda's.

I've ridden the VT500 Ascott twice. Once I just started through the gears and found myself at 100mph and my t-shirt above my shoulder blades before I knew it and the other was finding that you really can accelerate on a bike when I went 0-60 in less than 1/8 mile and had to brake before running into the car that went by before I pulled onto the highway. Never worked on one, but have always thought it would be fun to own one.

No such thing as POS bikes, just more involved projects. Virago's are a bitch about starters, but decent power and reliability are good once a 4 brush starter is installed. Never had Vision, but i have heard they are a real pain, Suzuki Re5 the same. The worse bike i had to work on was my '74 Z1, never could get it to run right for me, but learned a lot about carb syncing, rebuilding and cam timing or non timing, 4 broken valves when i timed it wrong), but it was fun. The Virago's (750 and 920) were great bikes, just had to learn a lot about starter rebuilding 101. My current 650 SR started off as someone elses POS project, but with a bit of work and cash infusion it is the sweetest bike i have owned short of my '92 EX500, now that was cremepuff. 55 mpg, 12.7 1/4 mile and handled like nothing else. Should have kept it... One bike that somes to mind as my worst POS was my first bike at age 11, a 1974 Kawasaki KV75. The ignition had capacitor issue and the dealership said it would cost more to fix it than it would cost to replace the whole bike. Bought a 1971 Honda SL70 and rode the piss out of it for the next 4 years. The KV went to the junkyard.

kawasaki 454 ltd, had electrical failures constantly. i have a kz900a5 that im restoring, never sure whats correct on this thing. it frustrates me that nobody has a good site or information on them, but thats not the bikes fault