Worst dirtbikes ever(per offroad.com)

[nipper]

The worst bike or bikes I ever had, that's easy any RM between 85 - 88. Top ends every other week, 5 - 6 gearboxs a year, weight of a 250 and power of a snail.

My 88 kx 125 was also rubbish. 6 complete clutches on warrenty. I'm sure someone at Kawasaki UK was just using my bike as a experiment.

Best bike without a doubt my 89 Rm 125. Once ported and running a SPEC pipe (euro pipe) that thing hauled. The brakes and suspension were brilliant. It handled like a big 80 which was real bonus for me as I'm only 5'4 and 145lbs. Still though the reliability was poor. Cranks, Top ends, Gearboxs but when the bike went so well you could put up with that as a trade off.

 

[Chief]

Speaking of old CR's, the best bike I ever owned was a 79 cr. For a 16 year old 135 lb kid riding woods, It ripped. My first MX bike. Suspension was Primo for woods. Pretty sure it had an 18' back wheel. Man I wish I still had that one.

 

[motometal]

was that a CR125?  My best friend had that bike when I was young.  23" front tire.  I don't think he even knew where the air filter was on that thing.  It ran hard for a few years and finally the piston exploded.

 

[Chief]

I'll be damned. I used to say that bike had a 23 front and 18 back, but after awhile I just thought my memory was failing me. Yea, that was the bike (125). The back tire was more of a 'roller' than a tire and could wheelie perfectly. I remember the first time I rode it I was shaking from pure adrenaline and knew I had to have it. I owned it soon after. Sounds a lot like mine. No one really took care of it unfortunately due to our age and ignorance, but it was RIDDEN. I sold it when it stuck in 1st gear for what I bought it for. About 135 dollars. shame shame. I remember looking at the service manual and being totally blown away. We liked to use Bel-Ray (the blue stuff) at the time. Man was that sweet for the guy behind ya.

To put a happy ending to the story, it was rebuilt and sold and still running well 10 years later. Wonder where it's at right now. Parked in a garage not 10 miles from here? I probably wouldn't be as impressed with it now as I was then, but I'd have it as a first and only bike anyway.

Chief

 

[vetrider]

i don't know which bike pissed me off the most,or hurt me the most. the indian would run like a raped ape and then shear the flywheel key,leaving me usually a long push home(maybe it was it's way of telling me i needed to get more exercise). it was really loud and the neighbors really like seeing me push it. years later and about 4 bikes later i ended up with a 82 kx420 that had been bored and stroked, almost had to buy a new kickstart lever every week as it would bend off to the side and your boot would slip off the side and run up the side of my ankle damn neer to my knee. man talk about pain if it wasn't running then i had to wait tioll i healed up if it was running what a maneater this thing was(i'm sure it could pull a 7 bottom plow).

 

[cactusreid]

KX 500/bushbike setup!!! A buddy of mine did this combo on a late 80's kx 500. HUGE amounts of horsepower ( about 50ish) if I remember correctly thoughtfully placed in the lower 1/3 of the powerband. It would pull like a fighter plane right off idle,yank you all over the trail,and just when you got your feet and butt back where you wanted them it would hit about 5000 rpm.at this time the power would drop of (read stop completely) like a vw hitting a freight train!!now your doing the "over the bar's manouver thingy". So lets shift up and see what happen's ?? Oh Ya there's that 50 something H/Power again!!!here we go,again!! Also this unrully green b#^*ch would shake and vibrate so bad that even your feet would go to sleep on a 10 min ride. 2nd place-79 yz 400. way to much power for a bike with no handling and soapbox car braking capabilities. 3rd place- mid 80's maico 250 alpha. ton's of power with a power band about 74 rpm's wide at about 8000 rpm engine speed.any bike engine that look's like a cast iron frypan-stay away!!! now last but not least I have a reason to believe that my 3-back to back yz 490's wern't all that bad!(82yz490/4spd/drum brakes, 84 yz 490 4 spd/frt disc/big improvement, 88 yz 490/cartrige forks/5spd(they should have left it a 4 speed)this was a pretty decent bike.

 

[Chief]

I really like when someone tells me how to get more out of my bike. Fact is if holding on to it robs your energy then it's not worth it. I just tell them it's plenty for me and it works fine and can usually ride longer than they can under the worst conditions (rocky stuff especially) but hey I'm just an old guy that likes to play in the DIRT (spode).

 

[yamahonky]

My worst bike ever is my 1974 mx250 yamaha. It never blew up, no matter what kind of torture that engine put itself through. Here's the typical ride: 3rd kick cold and it fires up at about 6,000 RPM. The silencer blows off onto the ground. You touch the kill wire to the handle bar a few time to slow it down. put it in gear and take off. you hit fourth and there is a terrible noise in the tranny like a piece of metal inside a meat grinder. As soon as you get it into 3rd or 5th, floor it and it hangs wide open. no brakes. you pull in the clutch and coast to a stop while the motor is screaming at 15,000 RPM with no silencer. :eek: You find neutral and then touch the kill wire to the bars. Nothing. The psycho didn't need spark to run. so you find 5th gear, park the front tire into a tree, and pop the clutch. finally your safe! :worship: That motor must have insides of of some secret un-breakable steel.! I'd like to see any bike run stopped in neutral wide open for 5 minutes without blowing up. It is in my shed right now with a rusted magneto, but it will easily start up with a little sand paper. It makes 2 horsepower until about 6,000. Then it shoots up to the scariest 26 horspower you have ever felt :debil: People who think the 490's are terrible have never owned a truly psycho bike. My 490 is as safe as an pw50 with training wheels compared to my 250. I can still hear that beast screaming in my head. :ride: