Worst Bike I Ever Had

[RobLoasby]

Or you could ask Charlie Endell.

 

[Canuk]

Or you could ask Charlie Endell.

Not many left alive will bring to mind Charles Endell: 'Budgie, ya wee jobbie that you are'

 

[Canuk]

Worst bike I ever had was this Viscount Aerospace, admittedly I did find it in a skip when I was 15. When I was a yoof, we called them 'Rusty Viscounts', for well deserved reason. Mine came with the big solid cut out chainring, and I spent hours and hours taking it apart and regressing/repairing it. My grandad gave me my first tub of Campagnolo grease, which he believed had magical properties.

Everything was wrong with it, and the sealed bearings bracket gave me no end of trouble but after a long cold winter it came out in the spring and was raced for a few months before retired for a nice shiny 531 bike. Still no idea what tubing the Viscount was, I swapped it for a pair of large flange Campag track wheels, a good deal, on my part!

 

[Nothin-fancy]

My worst road bike was some type of Olmo that I picked up second hand that had the weirdest powder coat I've ever seen. It was a thick green waxy coating that would run off on the rag when washing it and you could scrape it off with your finger nail. It also had the most flexible tubing ever. It would flex enough at the bottom bracket to rub an 8 speed chain in a Campy Record 5 speed front derailleur. I was only to happy to sell that frame for more than I bought the bike for.

My worst MTN bike was a 1994 Trek 970. I found it by a dumpster and I know why they got rid of it. The thing is a dog. I've tried everything to make it ride well. Got rid of the RockShox fork and went to a suspension corrected fork, every handlebar you can imagine, different length stems, different gearing, single speed, changing seatposts and saddles, wheelsets & tires galore. You name it, I've tried it. The frame still haunt's me hanging in the shed. Because maybe it will ride better if I...

 

[Bluejohn]

Raleigh Grifter - the worst and the best bike I ever had as a teenager. Common flaws: the plastic foam saddle would often disintegrate, or get bits chipped off it. Would perennial get stuck in just one of the Sturmey three speed gears, and the tyres were the shit for doing skids, you could get through a new one in a fortnight.

Apart from that, the Grifter was the dry roasted

I was so jealous of the kids with Grifters round our way - you could tuck the front mud flap back up on itself so it rubbed the knobbly tyre and sounded like a motorbike as you cruised along... that was all I wanted from life. (well that and to be Evel Knievel or Eddie Kidd)

 

[Nothin-fancy]

We used to run over aluminum cans with our Haro's and Diamond Back's to get that sound. And we all wanted to be Jeremy McGrath...

 

[4th in the devil]

In winter I always rode an ex-race bike with full mudguards bodged on as best I could (there was an attachment which went into a Campag rear drop out to provide a mudguard eye). One winter around 1999 after hearing slight rubbing for weeks I wore through the rivet on the front mudguard because there wasn't enough clearance and I flew over the handlebars. After that I decided to get a dedicated winter bike. Cycling Weekly had an add for bargain steel winter frames, there was a yellow one for canti-brakes and a white one for normal brakes. I got the yellow one. It was unbelievably heavy and dead feeling. I don't know what tubing it had but it was so bad it felt like it was made from metal bars rather than tubing!! After one year it had gone a bit rusty and I replaced it with the almost universal blue Ribble alloy winter bike that loads of people had and that was a massive improvement (which is saying something).

 

[pigman]

In winter I always rode an ex-race bike with full mudguards bodged on as best I could (there was an attachment which went into a Campag rear drop out to provide a mudguard eye). One winter around 1999 after hearing slight rubbing for weeks I wore through the rivet on the front mudguard because there wasn't enough clearance and I flew over the handlebars. After that I decided to get a dedicated winter bike. Cycling Weekly had an add for bargain steel winter frames, there was a yellow one for canti-brakes and a white one for normal brakes. I got the yellow one. It was unbelievably heavy and dead feeling. I don't know what tubing it had but it was so bad it felt like it was made from metal bars rather than tubing!! After one year it had gone a bit rusty and I replaced it with the almost universal blue Ribble alloy winter bike that loads of people had and that was a massive improvement (which is saying something).

. Lots of dealers imported them (or bought them from an importer). They didn't look too bad, with forged ends and cut out lugs. I remember feeling inside one and it had seamed tubing and loads of powdery rust. We knew them as falk frames. I later bought one of these - a frame off a mate for about a tenner and built it up as a fixed for evening training

 

[bagpuss]

In winter I always rode an ex-race bike with full mudguards bodged on as best I could (there was an attachment which went into a Campag rear drop out to provide a mudguard eye). One winter around 1999 after hearing slight rubbing for weeks I wore through the rivet on the front mudguard because there wasn't enough clearance and I flew over the handlebars. After that I decided to get a dedicated winter bike. Cycling Weekly had an add for bargain steel winter frames, there was a yellow one for canti-brakes and a white one for normal brakes. I got the yellow one. It was unbelievably heavy and dead feeling. I don't know what tubing it had but it was so bad it felt like it was made from metal bars rather than tubing!! After one year it had gone a bit rusty and I replaced it with the almost universal blue Ribble alloy winter bike that loads of people had and that was a massive improvement (which is saying something).

Pure resistance training. All been there .