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Done the best, now the worst.
I'd probably have to say my old Heckler. Might be that I bought if off hora but I rode it twice and got rid. Just couldn't get used to it. Felt as if it was broken! Was fun going down though... maybe too much fun as the first descent I did on it I ended up binning it!
A close second would be my Pashley 26MHz. A beautiful looking thing but flexy as anything and rubbish build quality to be honest. Still looking for a NOS one in ivory to hang on the wall though!
Intense Tracer VP. Just couldn't get on with it. It's was a straight one, but no matter what I did to it it didn't feel right. And I came from a 5.5 before....
Mine has got to be my Patriot 66. Utter bag of poo.
I bought it to become my one bike after selling my Chameleon and Flair, both of which I loved. The Patriot just didn't do anything we'll. I hated it so much that it put me off riding for a bit! I was glad to see the back of that bike.
Other than that, I've liked the bikes that I've bought.
Nicolai Helius CC, maybe I just had a bad one, expected a lot but it just disappointed me a lot..
Toss up between a Giant Reign '10 and a Specialized Enduro '11. Hated them both. All setup correctly but the FS just felt awful. The 160mm just flattened everything and took the fun out of it. Couldn't pop off anything. They were only good on some DH tracks.
From a pain inflicting point of view.
The piranha bmx I owned back in the 80's still have the scars today from that blood producing bike, loved it at the time though 😉
Alpinestars Cro-mega DX.
Steel done wrong.
a 98 rockhopper comp, bought to replace my much loved 92 eldridge grade after it got stolen.
it just felt so ordinary compared to the marin.
6 months later, the marin was recovered and the spesh got sold sharpish.
I had a Klein Palamino for a year. Nice paintwork... And that was about the only positive thing about it.
Having owned one of the first Orange MsIsles back in '98 and ragged that for a good few years, when I decided to start riding more 'XC' in about 2004 I thought the 18" MsIsle I found on eBay would be a good move.
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Unfortunately I've never had such an instant dislike to a bike - way too stiff, bottom bracket too high - felt like I was perched on top of the bike almost to the point of being unsafe. Think I rode it twice before selling the frame and using the parts to build up my Dialled PA.
2011 Scott Spark 35, truely awful.
Probably my Grifter as a kid, although I still had a lot of fun on it. Weighed a ton, crap geometry, silly saddle and I hadn't yet learned how to avoid shin/calf pedal strikes so it was often a painful experience riding it :p
It's got to be a sunn cro mo converted to ss. It was my first ss and did a great job of being a cheap bike to experiment on.
However in the 2001 world champs at afan (penheed trail, spelt wrong) where I never actually crashed, it sustained:
Cracked drop out,
Blown forks
Bent bars
Droopy cranks
Bent seatpost
And a failing hub.
An exercise in buying stuff that was too cheap for my bulk. This was the bike that directed me towards quality components, and not cutting corners... So it served a purpose.
Intense 6.6
Couldn't get on with it.
Puch Pholcus
Looked like this:
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but orange, not green.
Honestly, Orange 5. For the cash, it was near impossible to keep it in a straight line up the hills, combined with the pedal bob, and the turdish single pivot characteristics....
Trek remedy - boring to ride.
Marin Bear Valley, 1991 I think, like this one:
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=173513
Alu was fashionable so as far as I can tell they just made the steel tubes fatter so it looked like an alu bike, weighed a ton and horrible ride.
I was also sold a 19" by the shop with old skool roadie logic (biggest frame you can get on) and never actually got tall enough to want more than a 17
Never owned a bad bike as an adult... My old Carrera would be the worst, but only because it's about 20 years older than most of the others. My newer carrera would be the second worst as it was £300. But they've all been decent.
Suppose the worst one would be my C456, nice enough bike to ride but the build quality was piss poor and the warranty nonexistant. So nearly good.
Some horrible Giant hybrid (which admittedly kicked off my MTB career). Vile thing, put me off Giant for all time.
Specialized s works epic with a terralogic fork , I'd just started ridding and it felt very twitchy and nervous.
Specialized FSR thing. Utter ****ing dog of a bike.
Not owned but hired.
Norco Atomik. Just wrong, wrong, wrong.
Chumba XCL.
Really stiff, really well finished and bulletproof, but I felt like I was perched on a ladder when riding it!
I think it was a wee bit too big for me, but I really could not get it to work.
Nicolai Helius CC, maybe I just had a bad one, expected a lot but it just disappointed me a lot.
I'd put my CC as the best I've owned. It's so much better with an RP23 than the original DT Swiss shock.
For me it's the perfect all rounder.
My worst is the 09 Mongoose Teocali Super. The geometry felt completely wrong. I didn't like the weird moving bottom bracke, it was plain strange. I hated it.
Fat Chance Yo Eddy.
Gutted as it cost a fortune.. full m900 and syncros kit and just felt wrong..
Evil Sovereign, only rode it once, felt like it was trying to kill me.
Oops- actually I was wrong, it was my Camber. Really didn't like it, it wasn't a great xc bike or a particularily good allrounder, and it was a fairly bad trail bike- as hard work up the hills as a stumpy and ridiculously less good coming back down. Felt about 5 degrees too steep and probably about 50mm too short too.
Marin Rift Zone (around 2005)...goodish component spec but disliked immensely after first few rides so frame was sold on, components kept to be hung on a nice ti Litespeed frame
..was my 1st mtb bikes, a Claude Butler Ravana, probably wasn't a bad bike but the shop sold me a size too large.
Full suspension Giant, AC2 I think it was, utter bag of poop for me, hated everything about. Sluggish, felt heavy and the susoension felt toilet.
Fisher Ferrous - BB moved, super flexible, just a bit noodly and horrible. And it rusted and I think it has a crack
Probably my Grifter as a kid
Agreed - it can't have been much lighter than the QE2 can it...
I've normally never gotten this wrong, however I did have a couple of stand outs:
Bought a Rock Springs in 2009 and was told I needed the medium and not a large. The bike was actually amazing, it felt like a big BMX and turned Welsh rocky descents into an arcade game. I felt invincible on that bike. However, the top tube was too short and I kept hitting my knees on the bars on steep climbs, I just couldn't get the damn thing to hold any momentum going uphill.
So I gave the frame to my missus and bought a Wolf Ridge in a large. I took it away to the Peaks the very weekend I bought it and didn't get on with it at all...there was marginal extra length in the top tube and the frame was far too tall and lanky - the reverse of what I'd hoped for. I eventually fitted a set of Wotans to it and I wound up with a bike that felt nervous, twitchy and lacked feedback at the front end and was spitty and bob prone at the rear no matter how I tuned the shock.
It has a happy ending though. I swapped the oil in the fork to a slightly heavier weight, which gave more support and enabled me to run less air pressure, when accompanied with a soft compound front tyre made the bike feel grippy and communicative at last. The high top tube means that I have to run the bars higher than ideal as I'd end up smacking the shifters and brakes on the tube, but it's splitting hairs really.
Instead of sinking a pile of cash into an El Guapo, I swapped the shock for a Kashima CTD which has transformed it. It's no longer spitty or wallowy and the rear end feels absolutely nailed down despite me running lower pressures in the shock can. The Stinger chain guide has helped with the pedal bob too so the bike is pretty much how I'd originally envisaged. It's also become a very decent climber along the way too.
The moral of my story is to always borrow a test ride for the weekend before you buy and to never take the advice of a bike shop as gospel.
No such thing as a bad bike....they're all brilliant 😀
Raleigh Chopper, (from the 70's) completely unstable front end, two trips to the hospital for my efforts!
+1 on the Grifter for the weight.
My nickel plated Orange P7 was my first 'real' MTB with pace elastomer forks and it was only when I bought my Kona Kilauea that I realised the P7 was nothing really special.
Bought an Offroad Pro-Flex 750 in 92/93 ish... What a shocking bike that was.
Binned it after 6 months and bought a Cannondale M800 with Pace RC35's.
Original GT I drive. Weird feeling riding it and I was having to service the I Drive every 2 rides in the Lakes. Put me off full suspension for 5 years.
GT i-drive from around 2001, crazy bb thing and all the pivots just became a rattling mess after only a few long rides.... sold it easy though on ebay back then
Santa Cruz Blur, it was too tall and too short. The medium felt like a 19" seat tube mated to a 15" models top tube. It needed someone with longer legs than me I think.
had a 96 marin eldridge grade which was a beautiful bike and i loved it dearly...then some thieving git nicked it....having spent all my hard earned on the marin i had nothing left to show for it as the insurance refused to pay up....also at the time i was a hard up student so i had to start again from the bottom of the range....
i bought a gt palomar.....oh how i hated that bike....truly horrendous ride, handling and spec....i did what i could re upgrading parts that i could but it was still horrible....got rid of it about 9 months later...for a diamond back frame and forks....was a way much better bike to ride....since then all the other bikes i've had have been good...
also had a raleigh shaftivator....too embarrassed to say how bad it was... 😳
Dawes. Edge. Pro. Dull, dull, dull. Did everything sort of ok, but did nothing well. Horrible, boring, fugly thing.I was glad when it fell off my bike rack and died.
Falcon Sierra "ATB" from Halfords about 1986.
Heavy steel frame, wheel rims made of soft cheese, running gear made of cardboard. Had lots of fun on that. And lots of trips ot the bike shop for repairs.
Worst ownership experience though was a (Decathlon) Rockrider - lovely bike but woeful after-sales support, pretty critical for an "own brand" where you're tied to them for parts (e.g. mech hangers).
Easy. An off-the-peg Cannondale F600.
Beautiful paintjob/frame finishing, but nasty 80mm headshok and poor geometry. Rode horribly.
I've built pub-bikes-of-doom from spares in the shed that have ridden better.