What was the Worst Bike you've ever owned

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wildwilly30 wrote:

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

which parts are you unsure about?

wildwilly30 wrote:

... 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

KHI used left over 1976 KZ900-A4 parts to build a few 1977 KZ900-A5 models, which are for all practical purposes identical to the 1976 KZ900-A4 models.

This isn't particularly well-published information, which could explain why information exclusively related to 1977 KZ900-A5 is rather scarce.

Any technical information about 1976 KZ900-A4 will apply equally to 1977 KZ900-A5.

Good Luck!

Well chalk up another vote in the "No" column for the Virago! I had a 1981 750 version. I can't say there was really anything wrong with the bike, but there is always that damn starter! It rode O.K., but for some reason I never "bonded" with it. I sold it about 4 years ago and was bikeless until I was offered the KZ. Once I got that going (it had been in storage for over 10 years), I fell in love with biking all over again - I still have a massive grin everytime I ride it!

Just bought a 2000 ZG1000 - and it definately has the KZ genes - a really great sport/tour/commute motorcycle!

I'm a powersports technician that works at a shop that has all 4 brands under one roof, honda, suzuki, kawasaki, and yamaha, 24 years experience, I can honestly say that i hate yamahas with a passion, especially the newer bikes, Yamaha has a tendency to put things on a bike that are in the hardest places to get at, and for that reason i have so many custom made one of a kind tools around to make my life easier when working on them, even though i never owned a yamaha personally, i would give the nod to viragos and newer v twins from yamaha

I owned a '72 Sportster and a '78 Superglide that both left me broken down many miles from home. Absolute-ly the biggest POS machines... but they still had two wheels and I loved them. I'm glad to be rid of them, but really have no hard feelings here. Just another experience to remember..

the biggest problem with the virago starter set-up was the actual cover it self the bendix would start to move around a bit in the cover and then cause it to bind then when it bound up it caused the starter to work harder then over heatalso it was binding and not engauging with the ring gear properly so it would get chewwed up and in order to replace it you had to replace the rotor assemblybecause yamaha didn't sell them seperately so in order to fix it properly you had to replace thestarter motor the bendix the rotor assembly and either bush or replace the cover and since yamaha never admitted there was a problem the prices didn't become resonable a starter was over 400.00 same for the rotor the bendix at one time was about 150then the cover or repairs and a gasket plus labor so in order to fix it properly it was up around 1500.00 and when the bike was only worth that it didn't make a lot of sense if that motor had a kicker it would have been a great engine. because the engine itself was bullet proof.

I got a KZ1300 recently enough. I had a problem getting it to run well, so I gave to a garage. There are sediment and metal in the sump, oil strainer three quarters blocked, big end bearings probably also gone. By way of contrast, my KZ750 looks almost like new inside the engine. Oh well.

i've been pretty lucky in this regard, all my bikes have been pretty good...the GR650 has the laziest starter known to man but has never left me stranded...as far as money pit factor goes, its the KZ by far unfortunately...all these years later and still not 100%...good fun though.

I had a Bridgestone 350 GTR once. It was a two stroke pos by the time I got it. I tried to make a "cafe" out of it. It was kinda fast and handled pretty good for the time, except for just dieing from time to time (Like every 10 to 20 miles). It is the only bike I ever had that I wanted to push off a tall building.

This is a great topic! I'll probably have to post a couple times because I'll remember "oh, I had one of those".

First bike that comes to mind was my 81 440LTD...not because it was underpowered, but b/c it was as far from the sporting edge as a butter-knife. Can't bitch about it too bad, it never failed me.

Wife had a Buell Blast (and I taught and managed an MSF based rider safety course with that bike exclusively)...didn't handle bad for what it was...but what a pure crap motor...all 26bHp of it. Returned the "paint shaker" theme to the HD/Buell line-up.

My TT600 and SRX600 had this single carb w/ dual throttle-body set-up...I swear...Yamaha...they always have to do something different don't they...I mean they ruined some potentially decent bikes with their addiction to 'shaft drive' (XS11, XJ750, XJ900, Vision) and the 5-valve cyl-head...I mean WTF!!!??? Anyway, those carbs SUCKED, too!

Hmmm, I'm sure others will come...I'll chime back in...

Yamaha 650 Vision... that was the biggest POS.. The start relay would go out every few months for no real reason.. Bulbs would blow at random.. I spent hours looking for a short.. never found one... I hated that bike with a passion... I was glad the day it died...