Motorbike and scooter owners.

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Deleted member 26715

Guest
No one admit to owning a Harley? A mate had a Heritage Soft Tail Classic, he loved it but God what a heap. Going on a run with him was excruciating, it accelerated like a milk float and cornered like an aircraft carrier that was taking on water. I don't know what people see in them, you can get a far superior Japanese cruiser for half the price and they don't sound like an explosion in a ball bearing factory.
Never had one, tried to buy one earlier in the year only to buy & sell on but the guys stepson got in before me, only time I've ridden anything like it was in Florida, a friends friend had an Iron Horse Chopper, 1800cc V-Twin lent it me for a week, I can see the point over there but not here, arms bloody ached at the end of each day though.
 

keithmac

Guru
I've had a lot of Suzuki's, from the GS1000 i had in the early 80's, through to the V Strom i had only a few years ago. Can't remember any real reliability issues with any of them, probably been as good reliability wise as any bikes i've had from the other 3 main Japanese manufacturers. The only quality issue i've had with Suzuki's has been the paint, its often thin in places, especially on the wheels, forks and engine, where the ally will often oxidise underneath .
Honda always used to be top of the tree quality wise, and were always the most expensive, but they're all much of a muchness now. They're all competing on price and corners get cut in quality.
Most unreliable bike i've had was a Triumph Tiger 955i that i bought brand new back in 2005, i had numerous issues with it where it had to go back in for warranty work. On many of these faults Triumph would argue whether it was a warranty issue and try to get out of doing the work. Subsequently, i wont do business with Triumph again.

The 995i with early Sagem fuel injection were awful!.

Just had this through today, I've serviced it from 3,000 miles and its on 61,000 now!. Another 1050.

They are very reliable engines when serviced properly.

20191022_153612.jpg
 
@keithmac, what do you reckon of the current generation of Chinese bikes? A dealer not far from me specialises in them and they look nice on the eye if you like something simple with a bit of retro style. When they first arrived on these shores they quickly developed a poor reputation.
 

Smudge

Veteran
Location
Somerset
The 995i with early Sagem fuel injection were awful!.

Just had this through today, I've serviced it from 3,000 miles and its on 61,000 now!. Another 1050.

They are very reliable engines when serviced properly.

View attachment 490086

Yeah, i had fuel injection probs, which were never totally resolved, although i never had any issues with the mechanics of the engine. A lot of the issues were design or assembly faults. Sidestand bracket bent due to being weak part, throttle cable routed wrongly, heated grips would cause throttle to stick and hard panniers leaked like a sieve. Three times they tried to fix them, then told me Triumph has never claimed they were waterproof.... Huh ! they're hard panniers ! . I also had bad corrosion on wheels & engine, which Triumph used their often used excuse of you must have been riding on salted roads and never cleaned it properly. Triumph were slated on a R4 consumer program for this lame excuse.
After just under 2 years, i got rid and was glad to see the back of it.
 

keithmac

Guru
@keithmac, what do you reckon of the current generation of Chinese bikes? A dealer not far from me specialises in them and they look nice on the eye if you like something simple with a bit of retro style. When they first arrived on these shores they quickly developed a poor reputation.

We've taken Lexmoto on this Summer after having a couple of their bikes in for evaluation.

We have now sold nigh on 40 bikes!.

They have come on leaps and bounds, 5 years ago we wouldn't have touched them.

Not seen any issues so far, not quite the build quality of a £6000 Vespa GTS but they are a good solid bike.

The Tempest 125 is an excellent geared motorcycle, full stainless exhaust and Delphi fuel injection. The frame welding is nice and neat and all good quality fasteners.

They do some good scooters as well, some great 125's.

Any warranty issues are dealt with swiftly, normally next day delivery on parts which is excellent really.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
I know a chap with a Hardly Road King. Beautifully finished, although none of the painted items are exactly the same shade of red as their neighbours. Noisy, slow, uncomfortable, and he feels it necessary to dress up like a patch club neanderthal before going for a ride, even though he's a computer programmer and not a gun running desperado
 

Levo-Lon

Guru
Quite sobering that I've probably worked on the vast majority of these modles mentioned in here over the years!.

Got a 1979 Suzuki GT250 x7 on the bench tomorrow just after I've finished a Triumph Sprint 1050 service.

Carb tuning is becoming a lost art nowadays, keep up the good work!.

Ive just given 2 sets of carb balancers away.
Carb tune and the 4dial type.
 

Levo-Lon

Guru
Hmm ive had 43 bikes..

I'll list my favourites

Puch maxi my first
Yam RS100
Kh 250s
Then it got serious

Cbr600fk 89 model wow
Cbr 1000 fk civilised rocket ship 2 of them
My first real love Gsxr1100H fook me what a bike.
Fz750 genny 20valve

Blackbird
Zzr11
Zx12r A1 holy crap  loved that thing
Hyabusa
Honda vtr SP2 stunning beautiful bike
Aprilia RSV 1000 superb handling
Gsxr 1000 K2 fabulous :becool:
Triumph sprint st 950
Srad 600 track bike and road several
Tiger blade
Vfr800 a bike everyone should own once
 
OP
OP
Cavalol

Cavalol

Legendary Member
Location
Chester
Funnily enough I've seen a hell of a lot of very cheap Lexmotos recently going cheap due to faults, some quite new, too.

My mate's got a Harley, certainly looks the part (bike, not him) but I just don't 'get' them. Chinese bikes on the whole though seem to be coming on very well. Have genuinely predicted for a while that they will become like Japanese cars of the 1970's, i.e everyone laughing and calling them crap until one day they were amongst the best for reliability.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
I've not had that many bikes.

DT50
C50
KMX125, which had a 200 engine.
GSXR1100 H in special ediction Skoal Bandit livery
Kwak GT550 (a deliberate attempt to slow me down after the Gixxer)
KH250
S1 250
CB500T, thankfully in orange and not brown
R80 G/S
Super Tenere 750. Great bike, dreadfully uncomfortable seat.
FZR600 3HE7, one of only 20 made with Kocinski livery, believed the last complete example in captivity (still got)
GSX400F
Full horse Mad Max (still got)
GL500 silver wing interstate (only very briefly)
CX500
GPz900R
 

SteveF

Guest
Not a huge list but did enjoy all in one way or another....

Honda SS50
Yamaha FS1E
Suzuki X7
Yamaha RD350lc
Kawasaki Z500
Triumph Street Triple
Triumph Sprint ST1050
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
The 995i with early Sagem fuel injection were awful!.

Just had this through today, I've serviced it from 3,000 miles and its on 61,000 now!. Another 1050.

They are very reliable engines when serviced properly.

View attachment 490086

I've got one of them; same colour too. It is a fine machine, though much heavier than the 600 I had (20 years) previously. Apart from the weight it is very civilised to ride - poottling round town, or cruising int he country, but if you want to go fast, it's not lacking being capable of 60 in 1st gear, and 90 in 2nd, and doubtless quite a lot more in the other gears too

When I bought it I let a colleague know I'd just bought a bike, and his text messaged questions was simply "how many cylinders?". I replied "three" to which he commented "very wise"
 

Smudge

Veteran
Location
Somerset
I would have to think really hard to remember all the bikes i've had, but i've had em from every sector over the decades. Peds, naked street bikes, sports tourers, tourers, race reps, dirt bikes, the big adventure bikes, even one cruiser. Big cc and big power were once only what interested me. Now i have three main criteria that a motorcycle must have..... It must be comfortable, it must have a light clutch for my hand arthritis and must be lighter than 200kg wet weight. I usually own two or more bikes at a time and like them to be completely different from each other.
 

Electric_Andy

Heavy Metal Fan
Location
Plymouth
@Cavalol I also have a GT550 that I'm rebuilding in my garage.

My daily rider is an SV650. Previous bikes have been:

Honda 400 Hondamatic
Yamaha FZ6
Suzuki Bandit 600
Honda CBF125
Superbyke RMS 125
Yamaha TY175
Honda XS 185
Honda ATC110 (Trike)
 
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