Worst bike you have ever owned

Ragley Big Wig MK1.

I kept breaking it and always miles from the car/ home. Must have been made of cheese.

Not had enough bikes to have truly had a dog but my Heckler was the closest. New shape 26er model. Was great fun on xc trails but I really wanted it for bigger stuff so rebuilt it with big forks and a coil. And it was crap 🙁 just didn’t feel confident on anything anymore.

twonks – Member

the left pedal snapped out of the crank arm as the thread only went in to hald depth before bottoming. Most odd.

Mine had exage cranks 8) And exage hubs that are actually still good today, old shimano was amazing, the altus gears on it lasted basically forever.

Not had enough bikes to have truly had a dog but my Heckler was the closest. New shape 26er model. Was great fun on xc trails but I really wanted it for bigger stuff so rebuilt it with big forks and a coil. And it was crap just didn’t feel confident on anything anymore.

Surely that’s not the bikes fault? Isn’t that what mbr used to do with bikes that weren’t orange 5s? ‘We changed the spec of this bike and it wasn’t very good afterwards, so 2/5…’

Followed by ‘we spent a fortune upgrading this orange 5, now it’s brilliant. 5/5’

Surely that’s not the bikes fault? Isn’t that what mbr used to do with bikes that weren’t orange 5s? ‘We changed the spec of this bike and it wasn’t very good afterwards, so 2/5…’

Followed by ‘we spent a fortune upgrading this orange 5, now it’s brilliant. 5/5’

Thankfully never actually owned one but I took an Orange 5 out for a demo ride (proper ride on proper Lakeland trails – actually I was doing some ride leading for the shop in question so it was easy to just nick shop bikes to try out).

It was without doubt the worst bike I have ever had the misfortune to ride. Handling was atrocious, the single pivot design had severe brake jack and (to me) the angles felt all wrong. It was a 2004 or 2005 model.

The best bike I ever used for that ride-leading was a Cove G-Spot which was just superb – it swallowed all that the trail could throw at me and still remained perfectly calm and way more capable than me!

tomhoward – Member

Surely that’s not the bikes fault? Isn’t that what mbr used to do with bikes that weren’t orange 5s? ‘We changed the spec of this bike and it wasn’t very good afterwards, so 2/5…’

Followed by ‘we spent a fortune upgrading this orange 5, now it’s brilliant. 5/5’

Those were the greatest MBR reviews of all time. “The inbred came with a u-turn fork so we wound it out to 140mm, 10mm longer than the max and 40mm longer than the recommended, and rode it like that all the time. It rode like shit for some reason”.

And “The Five is the most expensive bike in the test and over the budget we set for the test. So we spent another £300 on the maxle upgrade and new brakes. And now we’re giving it bonus marks for the brakes and we’re going to slag the other bikes for not being as stiff. Meanwhile the Lapierre is £300 under budget but it had bad brake pads that would cost £10 to replace, so it gets a point off.”

Specialized Epic. Purely because the proprietary rear shock was terrible and lasted a matter of hours.

My 2004 Epic is still on the original rear shock

The only one that sticks in my mind as something I just didn’t get on with was an Orange P7 from about ’99/00. Everything about the ride was rubbisherer than the low-/mid-level Kona I was supposedly upgrading from. Luckily, it was stolen within a few months and I stuck with my old Kona for many happy years after.

Right now, I’m grudgingly holding onto a cheap, nasty Charge Plug 0 as my commuter. It was dirt-cheap and does the job, but has all the life of a stoned iguana.

1999 GT XCR4000 for me. Bought to get back in to riding after 5 years or so off. Instead, it put me off for another 5 years! Heavy, terrible suspension, terrible geometry. Yak.

If any of you saw my confession of how many bikes I’ve got through in the last decade, you’ll agree I’m bloody lucky I’ve somehow avoided buying any total dogs in the current century.

The Pronghorn owners are winning this thread IMO.

The Pronghorn owners are winning this thread IMO.

True. Marin seems to be well represented, too.

@warpcow – “Orange P7 from about ’99/00. Everything about the ride was rubbisherer than the low-/mid-level Kona I was supposedly upgrading from. “

Yes – exactly the same experience here. Never have owned another Kona, but very happy with my ‘new-to-me’ 1994 Marin Bear Valley SE, tho!

Either Cotic Roadrat, or Surly Krampus.

Roadrat is flexy, but yet dead feeling. Horrible hateful thing that makes me depressed whenever i sling a leg over it (in the classifieds soon!)

Krampus was just horrible – knards were useless, handled like a barge, sliding dropouts (I HATE sliding dropouts, they do not work with disc brakes), and everything seemed to require a bodge to work. Oh, and for whatever reason, chainsuck, an issue from the 90s, was horrific regardless of what chainline/rings/chain etc etc used.

Feels good to get that off my chest 🙂

The only one I’ve not gelled with was a Cove Hummer, just far to harsh at the back and too short in the TT. Looks pretty tho’

I don’t hate it but my PX Kaffennback is the worst I guess. It’s not a bad bike, it’s hugely versatile and is, in theory at least, a perfect winter road bike/year round conmuter (rack, guards, 28mm tyres, disc brakes, etc.). But, it’s so dull to ride. So dull that I often chose not to ride it and go out on wholey inappropriate bikes when it would be perfect. I had a suspicion that the wheels are the main culprit but I’m reluctant to spend money on it when I dislike riding it. It currently resides on my turbo and I suspect that is where it will stay.

Worst bike for me was probably my first one – a Carrera Kraken from Halfords. To be honest it wasn’t desperately bad however the bike I was sold was too big, the cheapo suspension forks were close to useless and it has an 28/38/48 chainset with an 11-28 cassette so was pretty hard work climbing given my lack of fitness at the time. With better forks and a decent chainset it was passable though and even server as my commuter for a while.

What’s interesting is the number of bikes I still own and enjoy that have made it onto other people’s worst bike lists!
– Cotic Roadrat
– Cotic Soul
– Epic
– Enduro SX

My 2004 Epic is still on the original rear shock

A google image search seems to show that your shock is the Fox one. In 2005/2006? (Honestly I forget) Specialized decided in their wisdom to use one of their own design and manufacture which was junk.

swavis – Member
On One Summer season, absolutely horrid! I think it actually was made from scaffolding poles.

Yup, ive had a few not great bikes but the Inbred 456 SummerSeason was by far the worst. Just rode like crap, didnt matter what forks or wheels you put on it.

Roadrat is flexy, but yet dead feeling. Horrible hateful thing that makes me depressed whenever i sling a leg over it (in the classifieds soon!)

Sure to sell quick with that kind of ad copy.

Gary Fisher hardtail from 2005ish was my worst. It was nice in most ways apart from the Rockshox Pilot SL forks. They were based on the old noodly SIDs but with steel uppers.

Absolute garbage fork – they flapped about all over the place to the point of being hazardous. I couldn’t believe the difference when I got a new bike with decent forks, just incredible. I’m gutted I persevered with that thing for long without changing the forks.

A google image search seems to show that your shock is the Fox one. In 2005/2006? (Honestly I forget) Specialized decided in their wisdom to use one of their own design and manufacture which was junk.

Mine is one of the first ones (2004) and does have the fox shock. I’m amazed its lasted this long – it’s one of the few original bits left on the bike. In recent years it’s been a summer only bike but for a long while it got used year round. About the only other original bit, barring the frame, is the LX front mech which will not die.

Oi

Worst bike I had was a Patriot 66

I have a Patriot 7+ and it’s magic. Ok, so it’s been heavily tweaked.. I guess the 66s didn’t have the adjustable shock mount which makes all the difference….

[Orange 5] was without doubt the worst bike I have ever had the misfortune to ride. Handling was atrocious, the single pivot design had severe brake jack

No, the single pivot design didn’t have any brake jack at all. The rear end skips on braking, but that’s not the same thing at all. And it’s not a big deal either, you after a limo or something?

They are great bikes.

(flame suit on)

I consider myself lucky as I’ve never really disliked a bike I’ve owned.

That said there are a few that spring to mind that I wouldn’t have back again!!!

➡ Kona Hei Hei – Retro titanium unicorn, smothered in XTR and ControlTech – Wet noodle to ride

➡ Voodoo D Jab – Again Ti – not light and surprisingly lifeless.

Both Joe Murray designed ….. which as a Kona fanboy kind of sucks

98 Marin mount vision (yep another Marin)
Soon went back to my 97 Explosif which I still have

Whyte 46 even with the Quad link it was dangerous in my hands
DSC00045 by Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

Orange p7

Purchased in ’95 as it climbed like a demon.

But too short and stiff on the rough stuff. On fire roads you’d hear rocks pinging maniacally off the thin prestige tubes as you were trying to hang on to this bucking-bronco of a bike.

Northwind – Member

Mine had exage cranks And exage hubs that are actually still good today, old shimano was amazing, the altus gears on it lasted basically forever.

That’s instantly taken me back. I think I had 300LX or something on mine, with biopace chainrings 😆

Also remember going for it initially as it was light and had a stonking paint splatter paint job.

I’ve also forgotten one bike, and although it wasn’t owned, I rode it for a day. Took out a Whyte PRST-1 from Chevin Cycles in Otley. Struggle to remember the whole event but I remember it being very weird at the front and bucking everywhere.

I had a Zaskar LE hardtail at the time, which was like lightening compared to the Preston, especially when I found the way of wide (for the time) 685mm riser bars instead of narrow flats and bar ends.

Does anyone else remember those really small Shimano chain rings (I think the big ring was 38t which doesn’t seem so bad now)? I had a set of Altus cranks on the HoD from the early-mid 90’s which had been recalled due to a forging problem, except I only found this out 15y after the fact.

Not seen one of these mentioned…

“Oh what a pile of bouncy shite” he said.

Orange p7

Purchased in ’95 as it climbed like a demon.

But too short and stiff on the rough stuff. On fire roads you’d hear rocks pinging maniacally off the thin prestige tubes as you were trying to hang on to this bucking-bronco of a bike.

P7 never had Prestige tubes 🙂

My first proper MTB was a Marin Rocky Ridge. I did some great riding on it and it got me into the sport. The forks were shit though. Elastomer sprung Manitou that were good for a couple of months after a service then just stopped working.

Next bike was going to be the long term one so no holds barred on the spec. Pace fork. (Hmm). Hope O2 brakes (yeh). Handbuilt wheels (yay). Airborne Ti frame. Looked great but I never loved riding it. Too steep, too long, too low – it was an XC race bike and I wasn’t an XC rider. It put me off hardtails for over 10 years (I replaced it with an SC Superlight that felt perfect from the first ride).

My first full susser was a 2006 Mongoose Teocali. It wasn’t a bad bike when it worked. It pedalled really well for a 33lbs bike.

But in the space of eight months I became very familiar with this particular section because it are bearings and snapped bolts like it was going out of fashion.

05 enduro sx utterly crap suspension, I blame the 5th element shock, but it was total gash oh and I owned a solid acer for a while, totally my fault I had gone an basically bought an XC frame when what I needed was more of a trail HT…

On One Summer season, absolutely horrid! I think it actually was made from scaffolding poles

Odd, I’m still riding a 456 SS clearly I’m not such a sensitive flower as some, yeah it’s a little harsh but given the geometry for the time it was made and the price of the damn thing, it’s far from the worst bike I’ve ever ridden…

@chestrockwell

I believe that it was based around prestige tubes.
That might explain how I managed to snap the wafer-thin chainstay.

Never owned one but built up hundreds of “Universal” bikes back in the 90’s when I worked for Charlie Brown’s.

Genuinely felt guilty selling them. Not because of the quality of ride or such pleasantries, they were just so cheaply made I considered them to be dangerous.

Made me appreciate the Raleigh Activators more I can tell you.

I’ve had a few bad ones but definitely a ’99 Marin Rift Zone. I bought the frame 2nd hand and spent quite a bit of cash building it up. It was hideous to ride. Felt like you were about 10ft up in the air. Got put on ebay after 2 rides.

Klein Palomino – basically Klein’s take on the Maverick monolink, but with awful geometry and a link that ran on bushings which lasted about 20 minutes in UK conditions. It had a very pretty paint job, but was otherwise awful. I have no idea what I was thinking when I bought it :-/

@chestrockwell

I believe that it was based around prestige tubes.
That might explain how I managed to snap the wafer-thin chainstay.

Nope. It effectively replaced the Prestige in the Orange line up but was not made from Prestige tubes. It was a different beast, made to be hammered and made from Orange branded tubes.

The Prestige was the lighter version of the Clockwork but with the Aluminium Elite and Vitamin T stealing it’s sales by 1993 it was replaced by a different sort of bike.