TEN Worst Dirt Bikes Of All Time

Rupert X
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10/27/2009 4:51pm Edited Date/Time 1/27/2012 7:30pm
http://dirtbike.off-road.com/dirtbike/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=2659…

Fascinating. How many of these POS's have you owned ?

Actually, they list my Yam 490 in there - and I'm not sure it was THAT terrible.

Sure, it broke a lot. But wheelies were infinite jogs of joy.


"For sale-1972 Suzuki TM-400. Only ten hours on bike. Possible injury forces sale. $500 or best offer."


hehe......
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Rupert X
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10/27/2009 4:55pm
THE LIST!
10. 1974 HUSKY 450 DESERT MASTER. The head engineer, Reuben Helmen, designed this lost cause at the urging of his cousin- who he promptly disowned. This bike was 35 pounds heavier than previous Huskies, worlds slower, had an awkwardly spaced gearbox and a stupid power curve. It also had ancient Girling shocks that lived to puke seals and forks that had more metal shavings than fork oil in each leg. The exhaust burned your leg, brakes were gruesome and shifting was ugly. It also seeped mung and drool out of every gasket surface. Handling was best described as spooky. The engine pinged like it was running on kerosene and items fell off the bike like they were held on with Scotch tape.

9. 1981 HONDA CR450. Actually, it was a 430. A 430 with a hopelessly spaced four- speed gearbox and a powerband like the tip on an X-Acto blade. It shook the steering head like someone removed the bearings, and tracked like a buffalo on steroids. The front number plate looked like a hangnail, and the suspension was a mass of confused Showa leftovers that didn't like each other. -This bike would get into a high-speed wobble at 38 mph, stalled easily and the odd spacing in the gear box always kept you over-revving the engine or bogging below the power curve.

Oh sure, it had a lot of power, but the power delivery was freaky. It would either hit hard, or hesitate, but you were never sure which would happen. Geared for off-road use, low gear would take you out to 45 mph, while fourth gear might squeak up to 80. Topping off its list of bad habits was that it was hard to start when cold, harder to start if you dropped it and when it got hot, and it tended to foul plugs and ping.

8._ROKON 340. Brought out in the mid'70s, the Rokon was supposed to be the answer for those of us who hated to shift. All versions of the Rokon were very heavy, and loved to plow straight-on ahead, even if you sort of wanted to turn at the time.
To start the big Sachs engine you had to tug at a rope-starter, which took a strong arm and an even stronger patience level. It came poorly jetted, and when it loaded up you would rip half the calluses off your hand before getting things spinning.
We talked about the belt drive earlier, and the less said about this the better. The thing was fast and had disc brakes to slow it down. Sadly, they worked intermittently, and the master cylinder often boiled over, leaving you with a lever that came back to the grip and a corner that rushed up to meet you. Gearing down was impossible with the torque converter, which meant you free- wheeled into turns and down hills. Spooky.

7._YAMAHA SC-500 SCRAMBLER. Another four-speed brute, this 1973-'74 two-stroke single ran hot, detonated fiercely, stalled constantly and seized regularly. After testing the bike, I noted: "It's gray and black; so is a turkey." Brutally fast, the SC-500 was cursed with state-of-the-dark forks and a pair of chromed shocks that would have faded on a busy barroom door. It shook its steering head like a dog coming out of a swimming pool and the rear end hopped around like the frame had a hinge in the middle. All things considered, the only thing this bike did right was not leak around the gas cap.



6. HARLEY-DAVIDSON BAJA 100. H-D brought this little stinker out to capture the small-bore trail bike market that was dominated by Hodaka at the time-the early '70s. They contracted with the Italian Aermacchi factory, which responded with a hopelessly tall, short-wheelbased, underpowered, ill-handling package that nearly defied belief.
Still, H-D put together a desert racing team that started to dominate the trail bike class, so people went out and bought the Bajas in droves, only to find out they weren't buying what was being raced.

The race bikes had everything changed! The stock bikes came with rigid footpegs, no horsepower to speak of, a huge overlay sprocket on the rear wheel that constantly came loose, a tank shaped like a mailbox, a saddle that felt like plywood and a strange metal hook strategically placed to rip your crotch off if you crashed. It also had stupid bars, dumb fat grips from a street bike and a suspension that had more side-to-side travel than up-and-down stroke. I called it "a re-hashed Italian street bike with no redeeming traits." Yes, we promptly lost the H-D ads at the magazine.

5. CZ 250 ENDURO. It was hard to believe that CZ would foist a pile like this mid-'70s bummer off on the public, but they did. Seeing a chance to get a piece of the enduro market, they simply took a late '60s frame, a dated engine, electrics that would have trouble lighting-off an .049" model airplane engine and suspension components that did little more than hold up the bike.

It had rigid footpegs, a huge, bulbous tank, an exhaust that burned the leg, a speedo that didn't work and various bits and pieces that were attached with pure afterthought technology. The first time I fired up our test bike, the horn fell off on the ground. After I rode the bike 100 yards, the battery fell out and the wiring loom melted. In the next 20 minutes, the plug cap came off, the air filter fell off, the muffler cracked and wedged into the rear wheel, the gas cap leaked, both fuel lines cracked, a tire went flat and the throttle stuck wide open.

The feeble engine was also horribly over-geared, the kickstarter would stick on the frame, fork seals weeped like a garden hose and the motor mounts fell out. This mount signaled the beginning of the end for CZ sales in the United States, and rightfully so.

4. YAMAHA YZ490 (MOST YEARS). Yamaha introduced the YZ 490 in 1982, after a solid run with the YZ465. Sadly, the 490 was heavier than the 465, nowhere near as reliable, horribly difficult to start (hot or cold), came with a grim suspension, vibrated enough to bring blisters to your hands and was impossible to jet.

If you jetted it rich enough to keep this dog from seizing, it would blubber, puke, foul plugs and produce no power. If you jetted it to run strong, it would invariably seize. It came with air leaks, a wandering ignition, gimpy motor mounts and the worst case of Yamahop at high speeds since the original DT-1. Yamaha issued a mountain of service bulletins to try to fix the problems. None of them worked.

3. PENTON 125 MUD LARK. In 1973, John Penton was selling some great race and enduro bikes that were being produced by KTM in Austria. However, he was forced to buy a whole load of the Sachs 125B engines in order to get a supply of the "good" engines. So, to get rid of the B engines, John contracted with Wassel, an English fabricator, and they threw together a frame, a set of wretched Betor forks, ginky shocks and a layout that made you feel like you were sitting on the edge of a pinball machine.

John called it the Penton Trials, but not even Batman could have ridden it in a trials event. There was no power at all, the gearbox was spaced oddly and it wouldn't turn without plowing the front end. So, in desperation, John renamed it the Mud Lark, a sort of all-purpose play machine. In fact, it was a no-purchase dirt bike, and will go down in history as one of the few bad business decisions ever made by savvy John Penton.

2. ANY THREE-WHEELER. Yup, the All- Terrain Cycle, or ATC, was introduced by Honda to let people who didn't have the skills to balance a regular two-wheeled bike ride in the dirt. Cute little buggers, the ATCs sold like crazy. Then savvy people started noticing that they handled like a shopping cart loaded with bowling balls with one locked front wheel going down a flight of stairs.

People started doing wonderful things like riding over their own legs and biffing over
the bars when the things got into a high- speed wobble-you know, anything over 20 mph. Suspension on these early three-wheelers? Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zero. Just three balloon tires were there to take the impacts.

As the years passed, the ATVs got more and more powerful and they gave them forks and shocks. This let the unstable triangle wallow around, as well as defy the laws of physics when trying to turn. The rest is history. Three-wheelers are no longer being made. However, be warned! They're still out there, wiggling and lurching around the trails and sandpits of America.

1. And the winner (or loser, actually) is:

THE 1971 SUZUKI TM-400R CYCLONE! It weighed 242 pounds, dry, and delivered about 40 hp at 6850 rpm. Sometimes it delivered it at 4400 rpm. At other times, it would deliver it just when you least expected it. You see, the Cyclone had a weird ignition that would go from a starting mode to full advance whenever it felt like it. Even a change in temperature would change the power hit.

Picture this: you're exiting a hard- packed turn in second gear and you roll the throttle on. All of a sudden, the engine lurches into the fat part of the power curve and the rear end leaps out about three feet. The chassis shudders and sends you sailing into the clear blue sky in a nice arc. Moments later, you thump into the ground, painfully, and then a microsecond after that, the Cyclone lands on top of you.

Adding to the bizarre powerband was a set of forks that went rigid on square bumps and rear shocks that faded from anything hotter than headlight glare. Many companies produced endless handling and frame modification kits. None of these things seemed to help much, but the bike cost only $995 brand new and people kept buying them, trying to make them work. They all failed, to one degree or another, to tame the Cyclone.

The legacy of the TM-400 can be summed up in an ad that appeared in a newspaper:

"For sale-1972 Suzuki TM-400. Only te
Highsider
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10/27/2009 5:38pm Edited Date/Time 10/27/2009 6:04pm
The '81 CR450 had a little brother, the '81 CR250R.
The transmission gears were made of cool-whip and the goofy 'supercross' front number plate tilted up, so if you were sitting in the clock at the LA Coliseum, you could read the number!

ps- Honda Parts division had no replacement gears to sell.

Luckily, the guys in our area, who bought them, got a 'rocket fuel' deal on them.
10/27/2009 5:43pm
The '81 450 was a turd. The '82 480 was the best Open bike of '82.
KMC440
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10/27/2009 5:59pm
You'd think they'd give credit where it's due.

I liked my 82 yz480... point and shoot

The Shop

FlickitFlat
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10/27/2009 5:59pm
85 YZ 125 was pathetic. I remember smoking a few on my RM80.
Highsider
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10/27/2009 6:05pm
The '81 450 was a turd. The '82 480 was the best Open bike of '82.
And '83, too.
Steve47
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Winter Springs, FL US
10/27/2009 6:11pm
The list is not complete without the 1997 CR250. That thing was the worst pos I ever rode.
Rupert X
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10/27/2009 6:18pm
Steve47 wrote:
The list is not complete without the 1997 CR250. That thing was the worst pos I ever rode.

I was SO amped to ride one and, when I finally did - I wanted my ol' 1987.

In fact I still want my ol' 1987 Honda CR250 back.

And, back then, those ol' black stock Honda grips were the schniz.
JW381
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10/27/2009 6:50pm
The only bike mention I've rode was a 97 CR250. That was bad for sure. My dad rode YZ490's for years, and he loved them, but that's probably because that's all he rode, so he didn't know what he was missing...
Larry
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10/27/2009 6:56pm
I had a 86 490 and won a lot of trophies on it. It was not really good at anything but I could ride it hard for 20 minutes and that was all that counted.
10/27/2009 7:08pm
85 YZ 125 was pathetic. I remember smoking a few on my RM80.
Even more sad was my 1980 Kawasaki KX125. Also made the mistake of getting an '80 KX420. I think the shock spring came from a rail road box car. The Maico's and the YZ465 made me cry that year. The only good Kawasaki in '80 was the KX 80.
ktm300hater
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10/27/2009 7:09pm
any mid eightys YZ 250 was a pile as well, especially the BASS shocked ones
Larry
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10/27/2009 7:11pm
85 YZ 125 was pathetic. I remember smoking a few on my RM80.
Even more sad was my 1980 Kawasaki KX125. Also made the mistake of getting an '80 KX420. I think the shock spring came from a rail...
Even more sad was my 1980 Kawasaki KX125. Also made the mistake of getting an '80 KX420. I think the shock spring came from a rail road box car. The Maico's and the YZ465 made me cry that year. The only good Kawasaki in '80 was the KX 80.
That 420 was a pile. I sold one to my best friend and its a testament to friendship that we are still best friends today.
10/27/2009 7:14pm
any mid eightys YZ 250 was a pile as well, especially the BASS shocked ones
83/84 was a good bike. 88/89 were too.
Wandell
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10/27/2009 7:15pm
1981 and 1982 have to be remembeed for all the weird number plates. Water cooling was new, everyone mounted the radiators too high (except Suzuki) and thought they had to have weird vented number plates to help with airflow to them.
41NDT
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10/27/2009 7:20pm
anything 2-stroke
MPM64
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10/27/2009 7:25pm
85 YZ 125 was pathetic. I remember smoking a few on my RM80.
The '84 YZ 125 was also horrible. I Started the season on one and switched to a KX after the Florida Series.
Crazy thing is Mike Beier finished 3rd OA and top privateer in the Nationals that season riding that slug. I sure would like to know what he did to make that thing run.

Number 4 finisher YZ 490 was responsible for making my brother give up the sport. He hated that thing.
mr50racer
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10/27/2009 7:35pm
I think it was 81 or maybe 82.......The year the yamahas had the radiator behind the front number plate....Can you say over the bars?
jleews6
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10/27/2009 8:57pm
Anybody ever here of a Jawa? When I was a kid my uncle had them and my dad had Yamahas and I can remember my dad saying what a pile of shit the Jawa was.LOL
bd
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10/27/2009 9:06pm
fcr
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10/27/2009 9:10pm
jleews6 wrote:
Anybody ever here of a Jawa? When I was a kid my uncle had them and my dad had Yamahas and I can remember my dad...
Anybody ever here of a Jawa? When I was a kid my uncle had them and my dad had Yamahas and I can remember my dad saying what a pile of shit the Jawa was.LOL
Jawa-CZ , speedway engines. They had street bikes also, don't know if they were available here.
TerryK
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10/27/2009 9:20pm
Anything four stroke
JPT
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10/27/2009 9:59pm
Friend of mine had an SC500 and I rode it a few times. Was fun on a smooth, scrambles type track and would wheelie about anytime you wanted. Other than that the review's about right.

The Cyclone was dangerous to even be in the vicinty of. You learned to give them plenty of room.
10/27/2009 10:00pm
jleews6 wrote:
Anybody ever here of a Jawa? When I was a kid my uncle had them and my dad had Yamahas and I can remember my dad...
Anybody ever here of a Jawa? When I was a kid my uncle had them and my dad had Yamahas and I can remember my dad saying what a pile of shit the Jawa was.LOL
fcr wrote:
Jawa-CZ , speedway engines. They had street bikes also, don't know if they were available here.
My dad had a Jawa-CZ franchise in the late '60's in Bakersfield. They were actually pretty reliable and tough as an anvil. The Benelli's he also had a franchise on were another story.
WhipMeister
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10/27/2009 10:37pm
Steve47 wrote:
The list is not complete without the 1997 CR250. That thing was the worst pos I ever rode.
damon bradshaw agrees
WhipMeister
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10/27/2009 10:38pm
jleews6 wrote:
Anybody ever here of a Jawa? When I was a kid my uncle had them and my dad had Yamahas and I can remember my dad...
Anybody ever here of a Jawa? When I was a kid my uncle had them and my dad had Yamahas and I can remember my dad saying what a pile of shit the Jawa was.LOL
aka CZ
WhipMeister
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10/27/2009 10:40pm
83/84 was a good bike. 88/89 were too.
I`have an 89. Reliable as a rock. Turns and suspended like one, too.
wildbill
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10/27/2009 11:35pm Edited Date/Time 10/27/2009 11:47pm
haha, my 89 CR500 was suspended from an even harder rock after I stiffened it up. Luckily, I was strong and used the motor to jump stuff that hurt to ride through. Here's what made me buy it in the first place.

"4. YAMAHA YZ490 (MOST YEARS). Yamaha introduced the YZ 490 in 1982, after a solid run with the YZ465. Sadly, the 490 was heavier than the 465, nowhere near as reliable, horribly difficult to start (hot or cold), came with a grim suspension, vibrated enough to bring blisters to your hands and was impossible to jet. If you jetted it rich enough to keep this dog from seizing, it would blubber, puke, foul plugs and produce no power. If you jetted it to run strong, it would invariably seize. It came with air leaks, a wandering ignition, gimpy motor mounts and the worst case of Yamahop at high speeds since the original DT-1. Yamaha issued a mountain of service bulletins to try to fix the problems. None of them worked. "

I remember getting off at speed in the Oregon high desert on my 88 YZ490. I was trying to keep up with a couple of pros who were obviously faster than me...(also rode better bikes). I swapped out so completely that I remember flying backwards through a whooped out canyon in 4th or 5th thinking "this is gonna hurt". Amazingly, I down sloped a whoop while somersaulting backwards while the bike went harmlessly on by. I didn't even get a scratch. Later that same day, I looped it on a red cinder road while showing off my wheelie skills and severely broke my tail bone. Should of packed it up while everything was intact.
andymoto
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10/27/2009 11:40pm
83/84 was a good bike. 88/89 were too.
I`have an 89. Reliable as a rock. Turns and suspended like one, too.
Had a couple '90 YZs that were my fav bike of all I owned. Wish could find one still in relatively good shape by me in NorCal.

'86-'88 RM125s sucked. Tried everything with the motors including trying "reputable" engine shops; still horridly slow...the '89s on up finally were tons better.

The white steel tanked Husky 500s in around mid '80s. Terrible bike.

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