the worst bike you've ever owned?
Go on then, the worst bike (or bikes) you've ever owned and why?
Mine would have to be my Whyte 46. It was mega lightweight and it had loads of travel, but the upside down Maverick fork would regularly fire a seal out of the leg on a large landing, pissing oil directly onto the brake caliper. The back end had a truly epic amount of pedal kickback too, it climbed amazingly but it would pull your feet out from under you on the deacents.
I spent a lot of time going over the bars too, which in hindsight was probably something to do with having a 68 deg head angle and six inches of divey fork. The so called 'alpine' link to make it slacker didn't help things much either
That was nothing compared to my mate who had a single pivot Santa Cruz Bullit though. Fond memories of him being flung at the ground at every opportunity in the alps one year.
5 comments
Not a bad bike but not the best start in MTB'ing for me.... it was an 18" frame (I'm 160cm) and had a set of 150mm Manitou forks and was way before the time of dropper posts - I tried to take it to the Alps to ride the bike park in Les Gets, I'm surprised it didn't put me off mountain biking forever!
Kona Sex Two - yes seriously they really did have a bike called that. The suspension was poor and the links and bearings were made of cheese and forks and shock unit leaked permanently. Oh and the Ritchey brakes didn't stop you. Great name though for the time.
I rode the Whyte 46 and at the time it was a really groundbreaking bike, though it seems like less fun to live with in hindsight.
For my answer, it's be the Apollo Guro in a lovely lime green that was my first proper mountain bike. The people at the bike shop told me not to go for full suspension but I thought I knew better, headed to Halfords and got a hefty, URT full suspension machine - if you can call what was on it 'suspension'. It sucked hard and I quickly learnt the error of my ways once mates on similarly priced sensible hardtails could ride our tame local trails without bouncing off thanks to a lack of damping on every corner...
Yeah, I'm pretty sure. The stitches are pretty hard evidence
yeah, but was it actually bad?