The Worst Dirt Bikes Ever

[MagicRat]

What has been the worst bike(s) you have ever ridden?

For me it was two three-wheeler ATC's.

I had a Honda ATC 200 that was almost unrideable. It was in excellent condition, but was miserable to ride. It wanted to go in a straight line all the time. Turning it, unless you were in slick mud or snow required you to lean to the outside of the turn but not actually roll it.

If one rear tire was slightly less inflated than the other, it always wanted to turn one way. Usually riding it was exhausting after a few minutes.

It would also love to flip over on hills, throwing you off then landing on top of you. Back in the 80's many riders were hurt or killed by this problem.
It would hit every bump in the road and relied on big soft tires to smooth out the bumps. There was no suspension, so the ride was like big waves on a small boat.

And those soft tires picked up every stick and stone in the trail and were always going flat, when they weren't trying to run over your feet.

I also attempted to ride a Yamaha 200 Tri-Moto, another three wheeler, with all the disadvantages of the Honda PLUS a rear mounted engine. All the engine weight placed near the rear produced endless unexpected wheelies and meant the thing couldn't climb any hills at all.

Look here for more:
http://www.superhunky.com/worstbikes.html

It's a funny read.

[BNaylor]

You can add a Honda ATC90 to that list...lol. I flipped one over on the first ride.

The others are the old Honda CL and SL scrambler/trail models. The Honda SL350 was a real POS.

But I'm quite there are a bunch of others.

[RoostRider]

maybe we should just turn this into.... whats the worst 3 wheeler crash you've ever been invoved in?.... LOL

I have many stories of terror from 3 wheelers...

I always rode dirt bikes... started at age 8 or so riding the old centrifugal clutch mini-bikes... then progressed to 125's etc... you get the idea.... I lived WAY out in the sticks, so riding was open to me whenever I felt like riding...

ANYWAYS.... this was the age of the 3 wheeler and being such, a lot of my friends had 3 wheelers.... mostly really fast 2 stroke 3 wheelers (still not as fast as my bike... )... so, naturally I would end up trading with them here and there and be on a trecherous 3 wheeler (usually going way too fast)...

My GF's brother had a Yamaha 2 stroke something or other... so I took her out for a quick spin... she knew how I rode, so I promised no fancy stuff... just a quick run down the road and back.... c'mon, I swear, nothing crazy... she relented and I had a babe on my bike!!!!...

So I am boping down the road and into the first corner.... still nice and slow and calm (I promised after all)... when I sart to decelerate for the corner, the 3 wheeler pulls a bit to the left and feels all sloggy around the corner... I attribute this to the girl on the back and being overweighted (it was a reace model, NOT made for two)...

Now we are on the long straight section... the girl is comfortable that I'm not going to go maniac.... and we're having fun!!!.... and the 3 wheeler has some GO too!!!... she lets me pick up the pace a bit, so I do... and I'm accelerating, maybe up to 40mph or so, down the straight to the next corner when a car comes around the corner.... not fast, no big deal, just lay off the gas and

WHOOOOOSHHHHHHHH we get sucked to the left harder than the bike will counter steer.... across in front of the oncoming car... over the shoulder, and into the opposite ditch... where we tag a rock and endo over the bars... the bike flips several times... not sure how many because I was too busy doing my own set of flips... the girl friend, having been at the end of the catapault as we went over, is cast further and harder than anyone....

The car stops.... nieghbors after all.... and as soon as I stop rolling, I'm up and running over to my GF... I seriously thought she was probably injured really really bad, if not dead... I liked her, and the thought of her Mom screaming at me "I TOLD YOU SO!!!!" if I were the cause of her demise seemed unbearable.... (did you gather from that, that Mom didn't like me all that much?)...

We, the neighbor and I, ran over to her, and she was laying in the ditch.... she was stunned and alarmed... but she was uninjured... WHEW....

I got the bike back up on its wheels... the neighbor (who naturally thaught she had contributed by driving too fast) was relieved... the GF drove the 3 wheeler back... (it was that or she was going to walk).... It pulled to the left everytime she laid off the gas (which was a LOT...lol)

Being a novice on 3 wheeler, I didn't bother to check the air pressure on the tires... after all, on my bike it was pretty obvious right away when one of your tires is low, and it didn't present an immediate threat to life and limb if it was.... on a 3 wheeler NOT SO!!!.... since then I always check everything whenever I get on any bike... tires, brakes, bounce a few times, accelerate hard, brake hard... look around one more time... then, if all is in order, I'm ready to ride...

[MagicRat]

^^Great story^^

A novie rider friend of mine rode my ATC 200 for the first time, and managed to run over his own foot.
He was going across a gentle slope at a walking pace and thought the thing was going to flip (it probably was) but instead of leaning to one side he PUT HIS FOOT DOWN!.

Of course the rear tire caught his leg and started to suck him off the bike so he held on the the bars and accidentally rolled on more gas.
So the machine accelerated, with his leg stuck between the spinning tire and the gravel hill side.

He went about 100 ft like this and ended up with knobby rash on one side of the leg and rock rash on the other. That was his first and last ride on the thing.