What's the hardest bike to work on you ever had?

Stacyc rear wheels are an absolute nightmare to take off and put on. The engineers must have really hated dads.

  Not many dirt bikes gave me any issues, other than the ones that people had messed up themselves. I cut my teeth on old bikes with points and condenser you had to replace, then fast forward 40 years to fuel injected four stroke MXer's. Street bikes were way more difficult.....Gold Wings were terrible, Honda CBX's required dropping the engine to change throttle cables, the horror of the Kawasaki VN750 stator replacement, Kawasaki ZRX carburetor removal with the stock airbox. It goes on and on. I worked in a Kawasaki shop for many years, and worked on many other brands as well, but I never found and quality difference between the fasteners on one brand over the other, maybe I never had issues because I used top of the line tools, my customers deserved for there bikes to be taken care of. ATV's and side by sides were even worse.

The Cannondale MX400. 

What did I win?

May as well dump the toolbox out on the floor before you start, you'll need them all.

It's definitely har to find a motocross bike that's as difficult as some street and ATV ,but I'm sure the Ducati is going to make this thread when a customer attempts a valve adjustment. For fun I'll leave this for you guys

A few examples.. 2 stroke Polaris quads from the 90s are annoying. The motor is made by Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru) and is metric, whereas the rest of it is American made and uses imperial sizes. The socket set is needed for it. That is annoying more than anything.

Repairing a dud connector on my CBR600RR was also a little hard, but annoying as well since the body work and other bits are numerous and easy to damage. Getting these little inserts around the fork was near impossible. Left them off altogether.

But possibly the most annoying and what I like most about dirt bikes is the ease of disassembly of the rear end. On my 08 CRF450X, it is a massive pain as the ECU and a bunch of the wiring is down there. Which makes taking the subframe off (typically needed to remove the carb) way more work than he R model, or most other bikes I have worked on. I wish they would just located it up front or less intertwined in the subframe. But, the X models were after thoughts.

LOL, forgot to turn the engine around...

2010 YZ450F, no way that a dirt bike should have 10 pieces of bodywork...and nothing ever lined up...it was like working on a Gold Wing

1978 CB750K, getting the carbs in and out without skinning fingers or tearing an airbox boot...and then syncing them. Good times

The five valve Yamahahaha!

Changing 10" and 12" tires by hand.

I had 4 different five valve bikes, 86 700, 98 400, 03 250, and 07 250. The 86 carbs were stupid, really made me curse ethanol fuel. The others I didn't think were too bad to work on, my 07 went over 300 hours without needing valve adjustments! 

I raced evo/vintage bikes for a few years and rebuilding anything from more than 20 years ago is a pain. Replace the most worn bit.....the bit next to it is worn....replace that.....the bit next to it is worn etc etc. Carry on "putting out fires" till either money or patience runs out.

I guess it's not surprising that something thrashed and bodged by 10 different owners turns out to be less than tight 😄

That piston looks like it is installed backwards?

Face book marketplace, customer bought an 08 YZ 450f and the person who sold it said it just needed a valve adjustment...I guess they thought it was a newer model 

I had a Husaberg FX450 a couple years ago and while it was an awesome machine and reliable it was a pain to work on, it was a mission to get the tank off that involved half removing the subframe as well. 

I adjusted valves on it once and I'm pretty sure I had to remove one of the radiators as well and it was also tricky removing and installing the buckets and shims with the head sideways. 

My Yamaha YZF750 has 20 valves in total.

Clearances and shimming is a mammoth job. Airbox, carbs, coils, leads, heat shields all need to be removed to access the head, which is buried deep in the frame

First 4 stroke mx'er I ever owned (& still have) is a 22' KX250. After only owning 2 strokes, the first day I went to change to the air filter to the Twin Air powerflow kit, and realized the effing air filter has to be tilted, angled, slightly spun, repositioned and cussed at before it gets in the airbox and seated. By then your hands are coated in sticky filter oil, everytime.

Nothing like any 2 stroke filter/airbox in existence. 

My 24' KX250 is slightly better, but I realized the Kawi 4 stroke 250 airboxes suck!

2005 KTM SX50. I mean, it wasn't complicated to work on -- just continuous work every single ride.

And the ticking valve noise recall fix lol

OK let me add another one ….. jet ski’s.

Hyper extending knees. Fiberglass into your arms.

This is why I typically don't buy used bikes, by the time you're finished rebuilding one you are pretty close to a new one. Don't ever add up the cost of hours for "saving" money doing all the work yourself either 😅. Sometimes I could have just worked some overtime and paid someone else to do it. 

Agree with OP. I had a 12 Honda 450 and the air boot clamp where it goes on the the throttle body is literally right behind the frame. I’ve spent more nights in my garage bitching out the Honda engineers about that bike. Loved the bike on the track. Handled good and had a good motor but damn what a pain in the balls to work on. Even checking the valves was a pain in the balls. If you framed it, it took longer how to figure out how they routed the wires than putting the rest of it together. 

Haha I know what you mean. My first new bike was a 1998 YZ250 and when I got it home I spent the next couple of evenings stripping it down checking grease etc. It was a revelation to finally buy a bike, get it home, strip it down and not find something I'd missed that needed fixing. Don't think I rode it for about a fortnight as I didn't want to finally lose the new bike "shine" 😄

Aprilia RXV/SXV 450/550. Unreliable, engine needs to be removed for any type of service, dry sump meant customers could not figure out oil level.

I thank the lord every day that I have ZERO interest in 4 cyl streetbikes...

Totally agree, except you forgot about the MXV 450.  Just because its a motocrosser, doesn't make it any more accessible.  Yup, having to drop the engine out of the hanger frame just to adjust the valves is a pain in the butt.  I figured I'd save myself the grief and get the dealer to do it.  They quoted $1250 for the project, but only if I pulled the engine myself.

Chase Sextons KX 450

I just leave it stock and tell him I made changes

The 04 cr125 DBP is easily the hardest bike to work on. Because there’s a constant crowd of chics all over it.  I say , Hey I got to drop the filter.  They say I hv to touch it again & can I take another pic by it.  I don’t know can you ?  It’s annoying 

Yup.  Some here probably don’t know what an impact driver is and why they were so important.  Especially with screws that were recessed so you couldn’t grab them with vice grips after the butter soft metal lost its shape from the wrong screwdriver.  

The genesis engine IIRC.