# The worst bike ever made or that you have owned



## johnnyb47 (14 Sep 2016)

Hi to all. 
Hope you've all had a good day today. 
This question may of been asked numerous times before so please accept my apologies if it has. 
My dad had a cheap and nasty road bike from Woolworths I cant remember for the life of me what it was called. Probably some brand that was exclusive to Woolies. This bike was horrendous in every way. The components where made from chocolate and the frame literally turned to rust after six months. After a year it was only fit for the scrap heap. The wheels were now reduced to rust , the crank was shot and the components where worn. 
The bike was from the early 80s and cost around £65 in memory serves me correct. 
On another note, two school friends back in the early 80s both had the same make and model bikes for Christmas. The bikes were Sun Solo road bikes and were most probably a catalogue purchase from Empire stores or Janet Frazer. ( ha remember them lol ). Every day , through rain sun or snow there would be a large group of us who would bike and race each other to school covering around 12 miles a day. I always remember after around six months of ownership of these two Sun Solo bikes , the.paint work started to discolour on the crossbar near the head set. The discolouration was only about the size of a thumb but the blue paint work slowly got lighter in colour until one day whilst biking home from school the lads frame made a loud crack noise and sure enough the frame had cracked across the discoloured paint. Three weeks later the others lads bike succumbed to the same fate. They did manage to get replacement bikes though from the company. 
So do you have any horror stories of a cheap and nasty bike that may of owned. 
I would love to hear about them.
Many thanks 
Johnny


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## MontyVeda (14 Sep 2016)

I think it was a Black Eagle (possibly Hawk). A big black chuck of metal, also bought from Woolworths around 1978. It replaced my beloved tomahawk. It looked better in the shop when I chose it, looked like big shitty chunk of iron every day after that (it rode like one too).

The bike that replaced this (early 80s) was a Sun Solo (of all things!). Took me a while to get used to it's numerous gears (10) but it was still going in the late nineties. (I think half of Lancaster has owned it at some point, passed around for no more than a tenner)


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## Dogtrousers (14 Sep 2016)

Never had a bad one.


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## MichaelW2 (14 Sep 2016)

I've one Apollo steel ladies bike made out of 2 skip finds. It is actually not too bad as a pub/station/loaner bike.


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## midlife (14 Sep 2016)

The original Grifter and the early Bickerton.........

Shaun


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## cisamcgu (14 Sep 2016)

I had a RJ Quinn hand built frame, with shimano 600, etc..circa 1980. I loved it, it was my pride and joy. Sometime in about 1991 I was thrown into a skip by an over-enthusiastic landlord . I know this is not what the thread is about, but it has become my most hated bike memory, if not in fact, my most hated bike


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## Cuchilo (14 Sep 2016)

I swapped my new chopper for an old grifter . My mum went mental . Looking back i was proper tucked up but i didnt care as i had a big boys bike .


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## GrumpyGregry (14 Sep 2016)

Strida


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## shouldbeinbed (14 Sep 2016)

I had an Asda MTB for a brief time


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## GrumpyGregry (14 Sep 2016)

Oh yeah, and the secondhand Viscount Aerospace that the late aged P worked overtime to buy for me in the late seventies; tried to kill me during a TT on the A264.


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## fossyant (14 Sep 2016)

Dogtrousers said:


> Never had a bad one.



Same here.

Started with a Raleigh Budgie and that did me well till I had a Chopper. Did some miles on it, and eventually got a 'racer' - Coventry Eagle Stratos. That did me until I was 16 when I bought a Raleigh Road Ace (531 - Shimano 600). The old Coventry Eagle served as a heavy winter bike for a year or two.


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## User6179 (14 Sep 2016)

Grifter closely followed by Iron Horse , best bike was a Super Tuff Burner which was indestructible .


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## CanucksTraveller (14 Sep 2016)

Grifters weighed a ton and weren't too nimble, but I loved my two, I imagined that they felt something like an off road motorbike would feel. And I pretended that's exactly what it was. With its big tractor tyres it was a forerunner of the MTB, and despite the weight I could get it airborne off home made ramps. Joy.

My worst bike was a cheap (about 80 pounds equivalent) MTB bought in Germany in 1991, the wheels went out of true quickly and it started to rust within weeks. I abandoned it in a bike shed after a year and left it to rot.

I've enjoyed all my other bikes, I've had Raleigh Grifters and Burners (BMX), a tiny no name road bike, a Peugeot racer (all in my youth) then Claud Butler town bikes, a mid 90s Giant Peloton road bike, a reconditioned 1950s skip find, all sorts. All great fun.


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## NorthernDave (14 Sep 2016)

I had an original Chopper, which rose tinted glasses and sentiment say was a great bike. 
But it wasn't. It was crap and got replaced by a 10-speed racer as soon as I could persuade my dad that my younger brother was big enough to ride it.
It's sole virtue was that it was the first (and almost certainly last) bike MPV, in that you could get 3 people on one, just.
Although I wish I still had it now so I could flog it to some retro-hipster on Gumtree. 

Which leads me to the worst bike ever (although I haven't owned one), which must be the "new" Chopper - an unashamed attempt to cash in on the misplaced popularity of the original one, yet missing the important stuff that actually made it "cool" - the proper laid back seat and the top bar gear change lever. Shockingly poor.


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## Roxy641 (14 Sep 2016)

Dogtrousers said:


> Never had a bad one.



Can't remember having any bad bikes. But enjoying reading all the comments.


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## G3CWI (14 Sep 2016)

Dawes Ranger. Early Mountain Bike. Dreadful.


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## MontyVeda (14 Sep 2016)

CanucksTraveller said:


> Grifters weighed a ton and weren't too nimble, but I loved my two, I imagined that they felt something like an off road motorbike would feel. And I pretended that's exactly what it was. With its big tractor tyres it was a forerunner of the MTB, and *despite the weight I could get it airborne off home made ramps*. Joy.
> 
> ...



My brother jumped seven primary school children on his. I was one of them. We all argued endlessly over who'd be at the end, furthest from the ramp.


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## chriswoody (14 Sep 2016)

Dahon Vybe folding bike, utter piece of *****. I mistakenly thought Dahon was a good make and it cant really be that bad! In one year of commuting I broke countless spokes, the front brakes and the pedals. The tyres were so thin, they kept puncturing and needed replacing and overall it was just awful. I'm sure there was more as well.

Flogged it after one year of shocking reliability and bought a Tern, one year later I've not had to replace or renew a single part on the Tern.


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## Gez73 (14 Sep 2016)

Universal Polaris, got it free with the purchase of a much lighter and easier to move fridge-freezer. Horrendous, gave it away after two days. It was gone almost before the freezer was ready to use! Dual suspension too. Grim. Gez


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## CanucksTraveller (14 Sep 2016)

NorthernDave said:


> ...It was crap and got replaced by a 10-speed racer....



A question in passing, what year did "racers" become "road bikes"? I don't remember the transition between the terms, or when it occurred.


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## midlife (14 Sep 2016)

CanucksTraveller said:


> Grifters weighed a ton and weren't too nimble, but I loved my two, I imagined that they felt something like an off road motorbike would feel. And I pretended that's exactly what it was. With its big tractor tyres it was a forerunner of the MTB, and despite the weight I could get it airborne off home made ramps. Joy.
> 
> My worst bike was a cheap (about 80 pounds equivalent) MTB bought in Germany in 1991, the wheels went out of true quickly and it started to rust within weeks. I abandoned it in a bike shed after a year and left it to rot.
> 
> I've enjoyed all my other bikes, I've had Raleigh Grifters and Burners (BMX), a tiny no name road bike, a Peugeot racer (all in my youth) then Claud Butler town bikes, a mid 90s Giant Peloton road bike, a reconditioned 1950s skip find, all sorts. All great fun.



The big problem with the Grifter was the speed Raleigh must have taken to get it from there first drawings to the production line....a matter of weeks maybe? nothing fitted and took a lot of work at PDI to get them into the sales floor. Couple that with the legendary build quality of the 70's  feckers sold like hot cakes lol

Almost went out of the shop as fast as the Raleigh 20!

Shaun


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## CanucksTraveller (14 Sep 2016)

You say that about Grifters Shaun, but mine got dog's abuse for some years, all year round, and they never saw a bike shop. The most TLC they ever saw was a puncture repair by Dad. Yet I never remember them needing attention. 
(Maybe it's nostalgia clouding my judgement and maybe my dad was working on fixing it every night when I was in bed!)


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## NorthernDave (14 Sep 2016)

CanucksTraveller said:


> A question in passing, what year did "racers" become "road bikes"? I don't remember the transition between the terms, or when it occurred.



I can narrow it down to some time after 1993 (when I stopped riding bikes), but before early last year (when I started riding bikes again).


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## Paul Walters (14 Sep 2016)

Raleigh Commando... at once the worst bike I ever owned, and the best..... worst because it had Sturmey Archer 3 spd hub gear that slipped constantly so I cracked knees on handlebars, and best because it replaced the blue one I had before it..... but only because Santa had noticed I nearly died on the blue one when the forks collapsed after a particularly hard landing after a ramp-jump.

Didn't have another bike of my own until I somehow acquired an Apollo MTB just before I went to Uni... had every intention of using it for transport, but it got more use as a clothes airer, spending 3 years propped against my bedroom radiator! It really was cr4p.


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## bladesman73 (14 Sep 2016)

any bike ever purchased at east anglian chain cycle king! i also once bought a cheap bike from tesco, falling apart after a few months of commuting, then some idiot nicked it lolz did me a favour


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## Dogtrousers (14 Sep 2016)

CanucksTraveller said:


> A question in passing, what year did "racers" become "road bikes"? I don't remember the transition between the terms, or when it occurred.


Probably about the time "bikes" became "hybrids". I blame mountain bikes. So I'd guess during the 80s I'd guess.


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## Banjo (14 Sep 2016)

I had an appollo "hybrid" once. Taught me lots about fixing bikes.


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## Accy cyclist (14 Sep 2016)

An Apollo mountain bike from Halfords is my worst bike of my modern day cycling era. It served a purpose though, as it got me back into cycling after 20 years and it got me back and forth to work. I remember taking it back to Halfords for a "free service" and hearing them in the back room saying "He's taken the f..k..g stickers(decals)off does it still count as ours". A bit snobby but i took them off because i was embarrassed to own an Apollo.


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## bonsaibilly (14 Sep 2016)

I have probably bought two bikes I've regretted. Neither were particularly bad but I didn't try them out first so I had no idea that when they arrived they would a) not have the x factor I was looking for, and b) didn't really look like the web based press photos. One of them had a saddle that destroyed my arse as well.

Thankfully I have gained some sort of reputation at work for helping people find good bikes that suit them when they are looking to buy, but the only "hatred" tale involves my sister, who, much as I love her, like all my family totally disregards my levels of experience in the window-shopping of bikes, tech, computers and cameras, wilfully refuses to ask for my advice in advance, and invariably they all spend a fortune on heaps of shite that they didn't want, need or understand how rubbish the kit was in the first place.

In this vein my sister rang me once several years ago to rave enthusiastically about her new Muddy Fox bike that she'd bought from Costco for about £125 on the advice of a distant cousin of ours. (a COUSIN, ffs) And then she got offended when a) I didn't share her enthusiasm and b) pointed out that she had a twin brother whose entire free time was spent looking up new and used bikes of all different types, reading bike and parts reviews and generally fantasising about bike stuff all day long.

Suffice it to say, within six months and not a lot of rides, it started to fall apart, with the result that well within a year, she ditched it. Heavy, poorly built piece of crap with equally heavy and pointless front suspension, anyway.

Next time around she took me with her and actually listened, and brought home a nice Giant Liv Escape without a meaningless front spring in sight. Although she still runs the tyres woefully low because I can't get through to her that a road bike is more comfortable when you actually inflate the tyres to provide a cushion. And she bought the size too big against my advice because the shop didn't have the Small in stock and she thinks she's taller than she is. And now three years later I've brought the saddle forward and she's still talking about getting a shorter stem and Dutch handlebar.

Phew!

bb


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## RoubaixCube (14 Sep 2016)

Apollo XC 26S - Pretty much the first bike that was bought for me to get me back on the road. It was a heavy beast and even doing the 6 miles on it was hell, It was heavy and the gears were all out of whack and would quite regularly 'slip' off the rear sprockets and make a loud crunching noise. didnt trust it enough to use it on the road very much. Its been sitting in the shed collecting dust for a rather long time.


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## User6179 (14 Sep 2016)

CanucksTraveller said:


> You say that about Grifters Shaun, but mine got dog's abuse for some years, all year round, and they never saw a bike shop. The most TLC they ever saw was a puncture repair by Dad. Yet I never remember them needing attention.
> 
> You never snapped the linkage for the gears or had the saddle disintegrate ?
> 
> You sure it was a Grifter?


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## Biff600 (15 Sep 2016)

I had something similar to this when I was about 12 or 13. Weighed as much as a small planet but handy for all my fishing gear, plus it was indestructible


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## BorderReiver (15 Sep 2016)

Puch Sports 10 in the early '80s. The 10 part was right (a huge 10 gears!) but the sports part wasn't. Came from Makro Cash and Carry. It's only redeeming features were that it was red (and we all know red bikes are at least 10% faster than other colours) and had twice as many gears as the Puch Prince which it replaced. It was made out of gas pipe and had gear leavers on the stem- not indexed of course- which were in just the right place to cause maximum pain if you had an off. Also those weird little six inch long mudguards that were all the rage in the late '70s. Even they were made of steel for maximum weight. With steel rims and brake calipers made of toffee it was a "challenging" ride around the hills of the Lake District. Interestingly, even with a bottom gear of 42x21 and a weight of about 30 Lbs, I don't remember my 12 year old self walking up any hills. But that could just be my memory going....


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## DCLane (15 Sep 2016)

A Viking Targa DD24 which I bought for £10 but had hardly been used beforehand. It was heavy, slow and basically a piece of cheap junk apart from they disc brakes. Which it didn't need because the bike never got over 10mph unless downhill. It steered vaguely, clunked along slowly and the saddle was a very weird shape. For some reason I did over 100 miles before dismantling it.






I tried giving the frameset and wheels away on here but understandably no-one wanted it.


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## Lozz360 (15 Sep 2016)

chriswoody said:


> Flogged it after one year of shocking reliability and bought a Tern, one year later I've not had to replace or renew a single part on the Tern.


As they say, one good Tern deserves another!


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## Blue Hills (15 Sep 2016)

midlife said:


> The original Grifter and the early Bickerton.........
> 
> Shaun


Ah, interesting. What was wrong with the early Bickertons. Did they manage to sort whatever the issue/s were?


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## Profpointy (15 Sep 2016)

Biff600 said:


> View attachment 144002
> I had something similar to this when I was about 12 or 13. Weighed as much as a small planet but handy for all my fishing gear, plus it was indestructible



And unstealable ! The rule is "every bike weighs 50lbs". Thus a 20lbs bike needs a 30lbs lock a 30lbs bike can get by with a 20lb lock. A 50lb bike doesn't need a lock


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## midlife (15 Sep 2016)

CanucksTraveller said:


> You say that about Grifters Shaun, but mine got dog's abuse for some years, all year round, and they never saw a bike shop. The most TLC they ever saw was a puncture repair by Dad. Yet I never remember them needing attention.
> (Maybe it's nostalgia clouding my judgement and maybe my dad was working on fixing it every night when I was in bed!)



I went to the launch of the Grifter, Raleigh reps riding about the stage on them in suits..........blimey they looked peed off 

It was the very early Grifters that were thrown together, not sure the people on the production line had been told how to put them together 

Shaun


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## CanucksTraveller (15 Sep 2016)

@midlife 
My first would have been in about 1979 so maybe the quality improved. I think I probably had a mk2 as it was silver, and I believe that the early ones only came in red or blue? Not sure. I remember a black special edition in about 1982 which was nice. To me it was anyway!


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## doginabag (15 Sep 2016)

Ok, so i didn't actually own it. But still, the worst £2 I have ever spent.






The worst I owned was a Raleigh mountain bike when I was a kid, around '92 I think. Apparently it was the first Raleigh with front suspension fork, not sure how much truth there was in that, the adjustment did sod all and the frame looked like it had been painted with hamerite.


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## Biff600 (15 Sep 2016)

Profpointy said:


> And unstealable ! The rule is "every bike weighs 50lbs". Thus a 20lbs bike needs a 30lbs lock a 30lbs bike can get by with a 20lb lock. A 50lb bike doesn't need a lock



It got stolen !!


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## dave r (16 Sep 2016)

Biff600 said:


> View attachment 144002
> I had something similar to this when I was about 12 or 13. Weighed as much as a small planet but handy for all my fishing gear, plus it was indestructible



When I left school I worked at the local fruit and veg shop, part of the job involved delivering and collecting fruit and veg on a bike like that. I had some great fun on it. At one point I upset the shop manageress, I nearly crashed it on a steep downhill through a series of bends because the brakes had stopped working, I rode it straight to the LBS to have the brakes fixed then walked into the shop and told her the bike was being fixed.


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## dave r (16 Sep 2016)

Its strange how this works, the worse bike I had was actually a good bike. As a young fella with a growing family and a hefty mortgage I either built my bikes from bits or brought them from newspaper adds/ shop window adds. At one point I did a lot of overtime and saved enough to build up a bike on a new frame, 12 speed on a 531 frame, it looked lovely, but I couldn't get on with it. I never worked out why but It was never right for me and I struggled on it for the two years I rode it.. eventually a club mate of mine was selling a Dawes frame and I brought it then swapped the components off the Bromidge onto the Dawes and rode the Dawes for years and had some great rides on it. The local plumber had the Bromidge frame in part payment for a central heating repair.


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## Globalti (16 Sep 2016)

Not mine but a buddy once bought his GF a supermarket special for £99, "just for her to mess around on, you know...." then asked me to sort out the brakes. I've been bodging bikes for about 50 years but I was unable to adjust the brake blocks to meet the rims correctly; the components were so shoot that you just couldn't get it right and I was forced to give it up as a bad job.


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## Gravity Aided (16 Sep 2016)

Giant Cypress-weighed too much, rode like crap. Test riding didn't show off the bad characteristics, but it was a dud for sure. I was offered good money for it, and I took it to pay the bills during the financial meltdown/great depression/economic crisis. Once you own a really good bicycle, a lot of the others seem like crap bicycles.


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## rugby bloke (16 Sep 2016)

I needed a bike to commute between St Pancras station and the office and as it would be living at the station did not want to spend too much money. Bought a bike for £20 of a mate and whilst the initial test ride indicated it might be a bit of a "fixer upper" it was only when I started using it in London I realized how utterly crap it was. The gears were shot and would jump off the cog at any gear change, the whole thing rattled alarmingly and bits started to drop off. After fiddling and fettling I gave up and started to use a Boris Bike ... which actually speeded up my commute time !


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## BrumJim (8 Oct 2021)

Thread resurrection time:

Just seen this:
https://divagift.com/products/mtwolf-26-wheels-road-bike-24-gear-speed-white?variant=31163397079143

Just so wrong on many, many, many levels.


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## Dogtrousers (8 Oct 2021)

BrumJim said:


> Thread resurrection time:
> 
> Just seen this:
> https://divagift.com/products/mtwolf-26-wheels-road-bike-24-gear-speed-white?variant=31163397079143
> ...


How frequently?


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## dave r (8 Oct 2021)

BrumJim said:


> Thread resurrection time:
> 
> Just seen this:
> https://divagift.com/products/mtwolf-26-wheels-road-bike-24-gear-speed-white?variant=31163397079143
> ...



Struth! My eyes, thats one fugly bike, only 15 kg in weight, and when did 3 x 7 make 24?


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## BrumJim (8 Oct 2021)

dave r said:


> Struth! My eyes, thats one fugly bike, only 15 kg in weight, and when did 3 x 7 make 24?



Yes, but 26" wheels! Be still my beating heart.


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## CanucksTraveller (8 Oct 2021)

That has to be the only steel bike I've ever known that's trying to _look like_ a carbon bike. So all the ugliness of a carbon frame, and all the weight of steel... truly, the zenith of stupidity in bike design. 

I mean, look at that downtube! I'd have thought that weighed 15kg on it's own! 

15kg might even be a bit "chinny reckon" itself. Like those huge fat men you know who say they're a "L" in T shirts, "or sometimes an XL depending on the shop", when really you know they shop exclusively at Jacamo because they do the XXXL sizes you can't get in human shops. 

Hang on, just noticed... how many flippin spokes has it got!?!


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## Dolorous Edd (8 Oct 2021)

BrumJim said:


> Thread resurrection time:
> 
> Just seen this:
> https://divagift.com/products/mtwolf-26-wheels-road-bike-24-gear-speed-white?variant=31163397079143
> ...



What does "60cm Thick steel frame handle bar" mean?

That the steel the handlebars are made from is 60cm thick? That would explain the bike weight I suppose.
That the handlebars are 60cm wide? Perhaps designed for a gorilla.


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## dave r (8 Oct 2021)

BrumJim said:


> Yes, but 26" wheels! Be still my beating heart.



If you read down the bottom it says "7- speed Rear Derailleur", if you look at the picture of the handle bars the changer says 8 speed.


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## Punkawallah (8 Oct 2021)

CanucksTraveller said:


> That has to be the only steel bike I've ever known that's trying to _look like_ a carbon bike. So all the ugliness of a carbon frame, and all the weight of steel... truly, the zenith of stupidity in bike design.
> 
> Hang on, just noticed... how many flippin spokes has it got!?!



All of them - got to keep the weight up :-)

Worst bike I ever owned? Raleigh Chopper. Could not hate it, though, due to the rigmarole mum had to go through to get it!


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## rogerzilla (8 Oct 2021)

A 1980s Sun Solo, a 14th birthday present. One brake lever exploded on the first ride, the headset could never be tightened properly and the steel rims splayed on potholes, to the point where they could no longer retain a tyre.

Eventually it got alloy rims, the head tube was faced (fixing the headset issue for good) and it was repainted three more times. So it turned out ok in the end.


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## BrumJim (8 Oct 2021)

dave r said:


> If you read down the bottom it says "7- speed Rear Derailleur", if you look at the picture of the handle bars the changer says 8 speed.


Can only count 7 sprockets on the back, though.


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## Drago (8 Oct 2021)

Raleigh Chopper. A machine gun loaded with dynamite would have been less dangerous, albeit nowhere near as cool.


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## southcoast (8 Oct 2021)




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## Dogtrousers (8 Oct 2021)

I've owned relatively few bikes, compared to many on here at least.

They've all been good.


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## Dolorous Edd (8 Oct 2021)

Not owned, but I did once hire a bike for a day from a French campsite. It had cranks made out of plastic...


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## Arrowfoot (8 Oct 2021)

Just wanted an entry level MTB bike for grocery runs. So in 2019, bought online an entry level Raleigh MTB with Shimano tourney and thumb shifters. Worst bike ever. Did everything possible to make it better. I actually picked the Raleigh brand thinking there will be standards. How wrong I was. 

The gears, the wheels, the seat, the cables etc. On close examination, I realise that every component was bad quality. I know when you pay peanuts you get monkeys but this was beyond ridiculous. Even the application of lubricant / grease was sparing. I could not believe as late as 2019, they can sell something that was so bad. 

I bought a cheap ass entry level Decathlon MTB in 2012 that was brilliant and it was cheaper. Until it was stolen.


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## Ming the Merciless (8 Oct 2021)

Dogtrousers said:


> How frequently?
> 
> View attachment 612574



Maybe see how many different frequently together suggestions we can get.


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## ebikeerwidnes (8 Oct 2021)

Can't believe I have not posted this before

But when I was about 11 my Mum and Dad decided that I needed a proper bike capable of going on the roads
conditions
1) I had to pass the cycling proficiency test before I was allowed on a road
2) I always had to have lights - if the batteries ran out (2 U2s) then my Dad promised he would always pay for new ones

Ok - so we went to a LBS that I knew because they also sold 'N' gauge railways which I loved (weird combo - but whatever) and I was kinda between sizes for the frame
But it was OK because there was a new Raleigh frame called the Elite - where the crossbar bent down slightly just before the saddle thus making it a bigger frame but being able to lower the saddle a bit more

My Dad has ridden all over Liverpool and area around several RAF bases on proper bikes - so Sturmey Archer 3 speed gears where the height of luxury to him - none of this fancy derailleur stuff!

would have been OK except I soon realised that any hill of any kind that was more than 100 yards long involved getting off and walking - I assumed it was because I was fat and unfit (actually bad body image but anyway!)
The thing was very inefficient and weighed about the same as a main battle tank - but with more rolling resistance!

Only kept it a few years and we came to a deal where it was sold and the money from that - plus my Christmas and Birthday presents - went to a better bike
ended up in the mid 70s with a 10 speed Peugeot - flew up hill easily - often didn;t need to change gear on hills I had previously had to walk up!

so - TLDR - Raleigh Elite - horrible thing


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## Gillstay (8 Oct 2021)

Biff600 said:


> View attachment 144002
> I had something similar to this when I was about 12 or 13. Weighed as much as a small planet but handy for all my fishing gear, plus it was indestructible


My Mum's worse bike was one of those. It was during the war, her mum ran a butchers shop so it meant she had to do the meat deliveries and she was just a slip of a girl . Getting a new bike meant the opposite of what we think now, she hated it with a vengence.


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## NorthernDave (8 Oct 2021)

Raleigh Chopper - the coolest bike to have, but frankly bloody awful.

Closely followed by a Raleigh Grifter - looked a bit like one of those fancy new BMX bikes but weighed about the same as the moon.

I only realised how bad they were when I got my first "racer"


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## IanSmithCSE (8 Oct 2021)

Good afternoon.

Quite recently GCN did a commentary on a similar but not identical bike 
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MurHt7Sxhyk
and a bit later a hill climb 
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoFWEvvi9VM&ab_channel=GlobalCyclingNetwork

Given that channel's bias towards discussing the advantages of latex inner tubes over butyl ones the Eurobike comes off quite well.

Halfords have something called the Apollo Paradox https://www.halfords.com/bikes/road...road-bike---48cm-51cm-54cm-frames-601204.html again once you get past laughing you have to wonder about a whole bike that is cheaper than a Di2 rear mech.

I get that it is fun to mock cheap bikes but there are also a lot of great deals out there if you are willing to see past the label, there is a fan base here for the Raleigh Royal, butted 531 frame lightweight aluminium alloy parts etc, but the Raleigh catalogue advertises it as a fraction over 30lbs whereas the half hearted "racer", the Record Sprint 501 main tubes and non alloy steel for the other tubes/forks comes in at around 25lbs,

For me where these bikes fail is in the gear shifters, the selling price is too low for even a Shimano Tourney STI shifter, the frames are made without down tube bosses and the down tube shape is so odd that band on shifters can't easily be fitted. So they end up with butterfly or mountain bike shifters on drop bars and these are probably a compromise too far, have you ever watched how close your knees come to bars when riding out of the saddle?

Bye

Ian


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## Oldhippy (8 Oct 2021)

By far the worst ones were the ones I 'customised'. Chrome dress rails hammered on to pre straightend forks (with a hammer) and axle slots cut out. Da da! Easy rider chopper. Bloody awful to ride but at 14 I was the coolest/stupidest kid on the block. 😁


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## ebikeerwidnes (8 Oct 2021)

NorthernDave said:


> Raleigh Chopper - the coolest bike to have, but frankly bloody awful.
> 
> Closely followed by a Raleigh Grifter - looked a bit like one of those fancy new BMX bikes but weighed about the same as the moon.
> 
> I only realised how bad they were when I got my first "racer"


WHen the Raleigh Chopper was all the rage my friend got something similar

bright yellow thing called a Dragster
110% of the total weight was over the back wheel so it would wheelie at the drop of a hat
and the 3 speed hub was changed by a lever that startedlevel with the saddle and had a pivot about 18 inches belore the handle - connected to the cable 1 inch further down
i.e. at a massive mechanical advantage - put that into the hands of a rugby playing teenage boy and it tended to break.

mind you I believe that his success at several sports (especially rugby) was partly due to refusing to admit defeat and insiting on riding all over the Wirral on that damn thing stuck in 3rd gear - did wonders for his fitness!!


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## Biker man (8 Oct 2021)

johnnyb47 said:


> Hi to all.
> Hope you've all had a good day today.
> This question may of been asked numerous times before so please accept my apologies if it has.
> My dad had a cheap and nasty road bike from Woolworths I cant remember for the life of me what it was called. Probably some brand that was exclusive to Woolies. This bike was horrendous in every way. The components where made from chocolate and the frame literally turned to rust after six months. After a year it was only fit for the scrap heap. The wheels were now reduced to rust , the crank was shot and the components where worn.
> ...


Hi I had a Byocycle FDXL the battery went wrong in first two days every sort of problem with it .Buy cheap buy twice.


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## bladesman73 (8 Oct 2021)

Here in east anglia, any bike sold by Cycle King, usually the Salcano brand. Fall apart faster than Roglic on an uphill time trial.


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## FrothNinja (8 Oct 2021)

Raleigh Chopper and Malvern Star Dragster, especially the ones with the cross bar shifter, just thinking about them makes my eyes water.


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## palinurus (8 Oct 2021)

It was a Tensor 5-speed that my dad bought mail order from an ad in the Daily Mirror.

It wasn't bad though- I loved it, rode it around all over the place. Did my first longish rides on it. They are well-known for being terrible but mine kept going, no fork legs falling out or anything like that!

So- even my worst bike was excellent.


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## TheDoctor (8 Oct 2021)

Not bikes I've owned, but I have ridden.
Itera plastic bike. Awful, but not as bad as
Strida. Utterly dreadful, but not as bad as
Sinclair A-bike. Id rather walk barefoot.


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## AndyRM (8 Oct 2021)

A Raleigh Activator. Damaged myself pretty badly when I came off that.

Also had a bike branded Tioli as a child, it was very, very heavy.


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## Chris S (8 Oct 2021)

I bought a Havoc Sabre for £12. The gears changed themselves at random and it was impossible to get rid of all the free play in the bottom bracket without it binding. After a week I palmed it off on somebody else for £10.


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## Ming the Merciless (8 Oct 2021)

palinurus said:


> It was a Tensor 5-speed that my dad bought mail order from an ad in the Daily Mirror.
> 
> It wasn't bad though- I loved it, rode it around all over the place. Did my first longish rides on it. They are well-known for being terrible but mine kept going, no fork legs falling out or anything like that!
> 
> ...



Looks like Dunstable Downs. Though I’m sure it’s not.


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## palinurus (8 Oct 2021)

IanSmithCSE said:


> and a bit later a hill climb
> View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoFWEvvi9VM&ab_channel=GlobalCyclingNetwork




Conor used to regularly ride the same evening 10 as me a good few years back, interesting to see what he's up to now.


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## palinurus (8 Oct 2021)

Ming the Merciless said:


> Looks like Dunstable Downs. Though I’m sure it’s not.



It is! about 15 miles from where I lived back then.


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## johnnyb47 (8 Oct 2021)

When I was a teenager BMX bikes were all the rage. I never was interested in them and much preferred my Peugeot road bike but that's another story. Any self respecting BMX, er back in its day wouldn't be seen dead on anything else unless if it was a Raleigh Burner or a Mongoose. Unfortunately not all kids were blessed with rich parents, and the lad in particular was living in hard times. I remember his mum. She was a lovely person, and worked hard on low pay wages scrimping by. Obviously the lad was besotted in wanting a BMX, but it was just out of his mums reach to afford one. 
One day though his dream came true. His mum managed scrimp enough money to buy one, but it wasn't a Raleigh burner or the likes. It was called a Baur (i think that's how it spelt) , and it was truly awful quality. Everything was made of cheese on this bike and he was just not accepted by the group for his inferior bike. I really felt sorry for him being treated like the laughing stock by these cruel kids. Never the less he was proud of his bike and looked after it, but as the quality was awful it didn't take long before it fell apart.. Sometimes i still see him about, and he's still a keen cyclist who loves the old "school" Road bikes like me.


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## Spiderweb (8 Oct 2021)

This was an eBay buy for £26 several years ago, I rode it once, it was awful so it sat in the garage for years. I cleaned it up and sold it on eBay during lockdown for £96!


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## Blue Hills (8 Oct 2021)

Spiderweb said:


> View attachment 612594


it's damn clean though, I'll give it that.


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## simongt (8 Oct 2021)

johnnyb47 said:


> Sun Solo


The dad of a school pal of mine bought him and his younger brother a Sun Snipe Plus each in around 1967. I was green with envy as I'd recently 'inherited' my older brother's Rudge Clubman with a four speed SA. I was perfectly happy with it but seeing my pal with a new ten speed road bike, it was just green cheese - !


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## Grant Fondo (8 Oct 2021)

Spiderweb said:


> View attachment 612594
> 
> This was an eBay buy for £26 several years ago, I rode it once, it was awful so it sat in the garage for years. I cleaned it up and sold it on eBay during lockdown for £96!


Does it weigh the same as a minibus?


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## Grant Fondo (8 Oct 2021)

Bit of a weird one this, it 'should' have been a great bike but i just never got on with it, Synapse Carbon Ultegra from 10 years ago.




I really enjoyed the test ride, but after a few months it really narked me off. I think the seat stays were to blame. When you put your foot down it had a boggy feel to the back end almost felt like a full suss MTB. Shifted it on. Lesson learnt.


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## Spiderweb (8 Oct 2021)

Grant Fondo said:


> Does it weigh the same as a minibus?


That was the main issue, it was made from girders!


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## DCLane (8 Oct 2021)

I posted previously in the thread a Viking Targa. But I'll go with this instead which came my way after the Viking:

It was free by the side of a road, presumably because the previous owner had given up. Wheels were bent, brakes didn't work, saddle was painful, bottom bracket wobbled, cranks were creaky and the gears had a mind of their own.

And that's despite what appeared to be no use. Everything was pristine.






I sold it on eBay to someone for a lad's beer weekend away for £20.


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## Jenkins (8 Oct 2021)

CanucksTraveller said:


> <Snip>
> Hang on, just noticed... how many flippin spokes has it got!?!


OK, someone had to do it - I've counted 36 visible spokes on the front wheel and there must be at least 2 more hidden by the fork!


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## TheDoctor (8 Oct 2021)

bladesman73 said:


> Here in east anglia, any bike sold by Cycle King


Lordy. I got a bike from them when I was about 18. 15 speed Santana MTB, friction thumbshifters and canti brakes. Had its own gravitational field and quite possibly an Oort cloud. Could carry 36 liters of beer and 6 bottles of wine, as long as you weren't fussy about the handling. Or acceleration. Or braking, for that matter. I'll swear the Hovercraft was sitting wonky on the way back from Calais.


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## AndyRM (8 Oct 2021)

Spiderweb said:


> That was the main issue, it was made from girders!



Had Irn-Bru made it?


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## fatjel (11 Oct 2021)

2014 Giant Defy 3 with Ali frame bought online
Day one left hand pedal worked itself loose and wrecked the thread on the crank arm . Didn’t want to wait so bought a new crankset .

Day Three gears jumping about so hammered the mech hanger straight and it broke . Bought new one as it was my fault ( I fitted the pedals too

Day four and five punctures bought new tyres

First 200km ride after 100km couldn’t use left hand shifter

First 300km ride it felt like all my joints had been hit with a hammer.

the following week bb started squeaking and two spokes broke on the back wheel

Still have it

It’s for sale if anyone’s interested


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## Gunk (11 Oct 2021)

Raleigh Hustler was the worst bike I ever owned, looked like a racing bike but weighed a ton and had a 3 speed hub. Loathsome thing.


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## Saluki (11 Oct 2021)

I had a, much hated, Raleigh Twenty. To be fair, it wasn’t a terrible bike but I had saved my pocket money for a year and worked weekends in my Dad’s bike shop for a Puch Pacemaker. He presented me with the Raleigh. Not happy.

The actual worst bike was a freebie, with a gym membership. Apollo XC-26 Mountain BSO. Just bloody horrible.


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## Blue Hills (12 Oct 2021)

Saluki said:


> I had a, much hated, Raleigh Twenty. To be fair, it wasn’t a terrible bike but I had saved my pocket money for a year and worked weekends in my Dad’s bike shop for a Puch Pacemaker. He presented me with the Raleigh. Not happy.


Sounds like child exploitation to me.
These days you could have exposed him on social media - had him run out of town.


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## Saluki (12 Oct 2021)

Blue Hills said:


> Sounds like child exploitation to me.
> These days you could have exposed him on social media - had him run out of town.


I was pretty peeved off. The difference between pocket money & ‘shop earnings’ was to be my 11th birthday present bike. I had to do my cycling proficiency on that thing. Still scarred, to this day. Horrible, ugly, dark brown thing.


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## mustang1 (12 Oct 2021)

Circa 1994 my parents bought me a oyster coloured road/touring bike from Halfords. I would love to find out the name of it but alas that has eluded me but I'm Dawes Gold Wing rings a bell. Checking Dawes' history however has revealed nothing with a bike of that name so it might be Halfords' own brand: Halfords Gold Wing. Alas, I cannot find information about that either and whenever I'm inclined to search for it, I always get many ages about a Honda....

Anyway, this bike had downtube friction shifters and full mudguards. I used to ride in a group of 3 including me. The other two guys had racing style road bike whereas I was on a touring/relaxed style model with full size mudguards. I used to always beat them up a steep hill. I remember putting it into 4th gear and mashing the pedals until I the cadence was high enough to start spinning.

I once met a hot girl who was riding along so went up beside her (ha, no shame in my teens!) and started chatting to her. She told me her and her boyfriend were cycling the world and even many years later I did not believe anyone would do such a thing on a bike until I got back into cycling again. I rode with them for an hour until I decided the girl would not leave the guy for a dweeby teen like me (aka I was getting bored and wanted to go my own way).

The end of the bike came when I was riding one day and things just felt too soft and I just knew that squirting oil at different places on the bike was not going to fix this. When I next road the bike, it still felt soft and then I realized the frame had snapped at the driveside chainstay/seatstay junction. Then I got a MTB....


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## AndyRM (13 Oct 2021)

Saluki said:


> I had a, much hated, Raleigh Twenty. To be fair, it wasn’t a terrible bike but I had saved my pocket money for a year and worked weekends in my Dad’s bike shop for a Puch Pacemaker. He presented me with the Raleigh. Not happy.
> 
> The actual worst bike was a freebie, with a gym membership. Apollo XC-26 Mountain BSO. Just bloody horrible.



I forgot about my Apollo XC-26. It was all I could afford at the time and served its purpose I suppose, but I was riding home from university one day and the bars/headset just stopped functioning and nearly put me under a bus. I walked it home and couldn't for the life of me work out how to fix it.


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## Chris S (13 Oct 2021)

Somebody stole the combination lock off my Raleigh Cyclone but left the bike.


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## recumbentpanda (15 Oct 2021)

Bickerton folder. Like herding a collection of spare parts down the road. You had to consciously keep the image of the shape it was supposed to be firmly in mind at all times. If you didn’t it would try and morph into something else such as a push chair, a pedal powered cultivator or a rowing machine. I have seen much cooler looking Zimmer frames. Nice brochure tho.

Closely followed by the plastic Itera. At the time it came out plastic five spoke wheels were a thing in the bmx world and having some success. A deep web between the spokes kept the rims round. The Itera designers thought that spokes tapering to an elegant point where they met the unreinforced rim would be just fine. Fine for producing a remarkable vibro-massage effect. Also the only bike in history with delayed action steering. You applied torque to the system through the handlebars and as time went by, it worked it’s way down to the wheel which eventually turned. Also pigging heavy. ABS plastic might be ‘light’ as a component on a car, but not as the majority constituent of a bike. An object lesson in what happens when you let car engineers design a bicycle: nothing good.

Two bikes of unknown provenance bought by sister & bro in law from a mail order catalogue. When trying to set them up I discovered all the aluminium components were made of raw, un-heat treated metal. Eg brake levers made out of silver cheese. Beaten flat with a hammer they might have been useful as turkey foil.


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## Rusty Nails (15 Oct 2021)

GrumpyGregry said:


> Oh yeah, and the secondhand Viscount Aerospace that the late aged P worked overtime to buy for me in the late seventies; tried to kill me during a TT on the A264.



The dreaded forks?


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