My worst bike was called a Barracuda mountain bike . It had plastic v brakes, brake cable snapped, wheel spokes fell out, plastic brake leavers snapped, cheap front and rear suspension. And funny thing is I bought it for £289 from a retailer and a well known website was selling them for £140
What is the worst bike you have ever bought? And be honest!!!
- Thread starter Soup890
- Start date
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MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
some black thing when i was a kid... fell for it in Woolworths, got it for my birthday, hated it once i started riding the bloody thing... it was so heavy an old air raid shelter on my old school field caved in under it's weight, but fortunately I wasn't riding it... good job as the rider ended up with broken ribs, arm and collar bone!
Ern1e
Über Member
- Location
- ROSSENDALE LANCS.
Mine was a thing which I stupidly bought from our local tesco store never could get the gears to work as they should so was quite happy I was made an offer I would never have refused lol.
simon.r
Person
- Location
- Nottingham
A Raleigh Ti mountain bike. Nothing wrong with the bike as such, just the fact that it was absolutely mahoossive...several sizes too big for me. But it was a bargain
TissoT
Guru
- Location
- The Home of British cycling
Chopper ... Bloody Dangerous with the tall handle bars and 12/16 inch front wheel when going down hill at speed
fell off many times and still got scars to prove it !
fell off many times and still got scars to prove it !
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
I dont think I've ever bought a bad bike. The fixie is close to one but its simplicity has touchwood held it together.
summerdays
Cycling in the sun
- Location
- Bristol
One from toys r us - £60 - plastic brake levers, all metal was as soft as cheese so barrel adjusters deformed, brake hanger opened, wheel bearings ground to a paste, full suspension, so heavy. Impossible to adjust for more than an hour and I doubt it did more than 200 miles before I gavel with it...... However it did the necessary, I wanted more of the bike experience so that was my return to cycling.
Lol I have the 2014 model. And it's amazing
- Location
- Shrewsbury, Shropshire
I think all three of my knockabout bikes could be contenders. Since 2000 I've kept a cheap runabout for commuting, trips into town and those wet/winter weather rides I don't want to subject the good bike to. So, the nominations are:
Apollo Meltdown - Bought new for £100 plus the cost of mudguards and a lock. It was heavy, paintwork became tatty in no time flat, seat clamp broke so that it would randomly tip the rider off backwards. It did however survive 3 years of regular commuting and another couple of years of off road trips before it became uneconomical to repair.
Apollo Excel - I visited Halfords to cost up replacement parts to fix the Meltdown. My calculation got it to at least £80 for parts or there was the Excel on offer for £60. No brainer I thought
. Again it was heavy (an anchor might be an alternative use for it), slow (I never got better than 11mph average out of it) it was full suspension (the front was very stiffly sprung while the back bounced around like a happy dog), the geometry made it feel like riding a clown bike and the brakes fell apart (no, really fell apart). It did however last five years before wearing out, including rides in the snow and a number of rides over the Long Mynd.
Hawk Trakatak - I picked this because after the last one I just wanted a basic bike I could have fun tinkering with and upgrading when parts wore out. It's heavy, but the geometry suits me and once the supplied tyres were changed I found it quite nice to ride for a cheap bike.
Unfortunately this one didn't have the build quality of the Apollos: the back wheel started snapping spokes the summer after I got it, the pedals snapped in half lengthways
, the stem broke, the seat clamp broke and ...., well it might be easier to list the parts I haven't replaced yet.
Rather sooner than expected I've had my fun tinkering and upgrading and I've turned it into a fairly decent bike which, on a good day isn't very much slower than my best bike and has taken me on some properly adventurous rides.
And the winner is....... The Apollo Excel, for being the heaviest, most uncomfortable, slowest and bounciest bike I've ever been stubborn enough to keep riding:
Apollo Meltdown - Bought new for £100 plus the cost of mudguards and a lock. It was heavy, paintwork became tatty in no time flat, seat clamp broke so that it would randomly tip the rider off backwards. It did however survive 3 years of regular commuting and another couple of years of off road trips before it became uneconomical to repair.
Apollo Excel - I visited Halfords to cost up replacement parts to fix the Meltdown. My calculation got it to at least £80 for parts or there was the Excel on offer for £60. No brainer I thought
. Again it was heavy (an anchor might be an alternative use for it), slow (I never got better than 11mph average out of it) it was full suspension (the front was very stiffly sprung while the back bounced around like a happy dog), the geometry made it feel like riding a clown bike and the brakes fell apart (no, really fell apart). It did however last five years before wearing out, including rides in the snow and a number of rides over the Long Mynd.Hawk Trakatak - I picked this because after the last one I just wanted a basic bike I could have fun tinkering with and upgrading when parts wore out. It's heavy, but the geometry suits me and once the supplied tyres were changed I found it quite nice to ride for a cheap bike.
Unfortunately this one didn't have the build quality of the Apollos: the back wheel started snapping spokes the summer after I got it, the pedals snapped in half lengthways
, the stem broke, the seat clamp broke and ...., well it might be easier to list the parts I haven't replaced yet.Rather sooner than expected I've had my fun tinkering and upgrading and I've turned it into a fairly decent bike which, on a good day isn't very much slower than my best bike and has taken me on some properly adventurous rides.
And the winner is....... The Apollo Excel, for being the heaviest, most uncomfortable, slowest and bounciest bike I've ever been stubborn enough to keep riding:
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What do you ride now?You have my sympathies
Hope you have private health insurance...2 years of physio, very painful injections and two operations needed
Profpointy
Legendary Member
My worst bike was my first bike. A 20" wheeled folding Raleigh shopping style bike. Weighed double what my friends' "racers" did, 3 speed sturmey archer hub, which caused near-castrations more than once when it slipped. My mates all had 5 or ten speeds. Been very prejudiced against hub gears ever since. Truly awful. My dad though it a good idea so we could fold it up and take it on holiday.
Mind you a friend's dad got the bike shop to remove the front clanger off his bike because "10 speeds are too complicated"
Mind you a friend's dad got the bike shop to remove the front clanger off his bike because "10 speeds are too complicated"
