Colorado Kid

Did you ever have a bike (that you owned) that you hated? For one reason or another, we all owned bikes that we didn't like. I had an early Carbon Fiber bike that had it's cables were on the inside of the tubes. This led to all sort of problems. What about you? Did you own a bike that you hated?

Classtime 

No. And I will never have an e-bike.

BTinNYC 

Hate is a too big a word, but I did custom assemble a bike that was sadly disappointing and became a parts donor. The tall Centurion Prestige frame was like cooked spaghetti at speed. Two terrifying descents with high speed wobbles and my dream bike became another learning experience.

Prowler 

“Hate is too big a word” but I have a Sears Free Spirit road bike that is a BSO. Poorly designed, cheap steel tubing cheaply joined, steel rims and heavy with tractor like basic components. But it was free. I overhauled it and changed a couple things and it now serves as a winter bike for days when the roads are dry though still having too much dirt, gravel and salt powder. I don’t care about Babe the Blue Oxen enough to avoid salt dust and I don’t wash it but once in the spring. The bike I just don’t like BUT well suited for purpose. Ride outside on winter roads and heavy. “If you’re going to ride less often, you may as well ride harder”.

cycleheimer

Many of them. They were the ones with steel rims that could never be properly trued, cottered steel crank sets, nightmarish deraileurs like the Allvit-Huret, etc. Then I bought a Fuji and found happiness. My first Grand Record from the progressive folks at Motobecane in France also put a happy smile on my face. Bikes really improved in the mid'70s through mid-'80s. Some people may say later bikes are better, but I like bikes with nice lugged chrome-molybdenum steel frames.

bikamper

That would have been the American made Huffy Sportsman. It was a poorly made tank. I also had a Huffy badged Raleigh Sports at the same time. The bare American frame weighed more than the Raleigh bike. I saved the wheels, fenders, and chain guard off the American Huffy and scrapped the rest.

beech333

gilco tubed Colnago Master: felt heavy and dead to me.

Fuji Opus III: The frame was beautiful, but it felt cursed. I never had so many flats as on that bike, and I never had issues with the wheels/tires that were repurposed to another bike.

Klein and 2000's Fuji Newest: I recognize that aluminum accelerates fast, but it is too rigid for my liking.

jamesdak 

Dang.......My Opus III is one of my most cherished rides.



And I'm currently falling in love with a Gilco tubed Master. I'll admit, on it's initial ride it did not feel as "good" as the C40 but man does it carve it's way through fast curves and such.

Kabuki12

I know there are a lot of Varsity fans out there. I am not one of them! My friend from high school had a Continental and we decided to take a trip up the coast , maybe 40 miles or so . We had used our Schwinns to ride all over town and some ten mile rides but nothing over 25 miles. That was the last ride for my Varsity . I gave it to a friend who didn’t have a bike and bought my first lightweight bike(21lbs!) . I never looked back .

thinktubes 

Raleigh Grand Prix - the green one


My first “good” bike when I started cycling again at age 30. Heavy, dead road feel, yet managed to transmit every bit of road shock to my hands and butt.

Steel rims, cottered cranks, lousy brakes, and a stuck stem completed the package.

Upgraded to a Miyata

Trakhak

Loved all my (steel) bikes until I bought my first aluminum bike: a Specialized Langster fixed-gear bike (aluminum frame and fork). All I ride are aluminum bikes now.

bikingshearer 

More dislike than hate - A Koga-Miyata Prolog from the early to mid-90s. I bought the frame to replace a Bridgestone RB-1 that developed a major crack (involving the down tube, seat tube and BB hanger). I wanted to love it, but it always felt lifeless to me. It did what I asked it to do, but in a "well, if I have to" sort of way. Traded it someone, got a Lemond Zurich frame to replace it and was much happier.

cyccommute 

A couple. I bought a Schwinn Montague for travel. It “traveled” only about 3 times including a trip to DC for a conference where I crashed it into the back of a Dodge Horizon in front of the White House. It was way too heavy and not small enough to make it through as baggage so it had an extra charge. I had the stupid thing for 16 years and put a grand total of 420 miles on it.

The other bike I absolutely hated was a Specialized FSR that I paid a crap load of money for. I really wanted a Specialized Epic FSR but let someone talk me into the other one. It was total crap. Every pedal stroke caused the suspension to compress and rebound so it was like riding an inch worm down the road. All that excess movement wore me out on rides that I would never have felt as tired on a hard tail. I kept the stupid thing for 7 years and put 465 miles on it including one year where I rode it a grand total of 8 miles. I replaced it with the Epic that I wanted which is a much, much better bike but I don’t really ride that one all that much either.

repechage

No, but I have purchased a bike that I fully expected to like and my first test ride had me very disappointed. The fellow I bought it from was a twin of my size and proportion… quick tape measure had equal saddle height and tip of saddle to bar length.
‘OK, get out the rulers, framing square and level.
‘the new to me saddle was all the way back on the Campagnolo seatpost, normal 73 angle but the rails were such that I sat 22mm farther forward than my typical Cinelli saddle.
exchange that, now the stem and bars needed correction, 44 cm wide, how fashionable, stem now too long.
‘with a Cinelli 110 mm and #63 -40 bar, right at home.
‘the handling of the bike was transformed. I was too far forward between the axles.

the bike had mechanical issues too, all correctable, Just a bit expensive, a new Campagnolo bottom bracket required, repack everything else, new brake cable housings…
some yahoo at the previous owner’s local bike shop used index shift cable housing for the brakes. Had stuffed a 7 speed into a 120mm wide frame.
no wonder he did not like the braking performance, and had noisy, hard to trim shifting.

right size, sought after color, happy in the end for me.

kroozer 

My Schwinn Continental: I loved it when I first got it (first ten-speed), grew to hate it when I realized how much better good bikes really were, and now appreciate it for having been the vehicle that really hooked me on cycling.
A few years ago I got a '72 Schwinn Super Sport and converted it to all-alloy components. It was a fun project but still rode like a dead dog.

roadcrankr

I put a twenty dollar deposit down at a shop for a green Grand Prix back in '71.
My buddy got his white one, shortly before mine would arrive at the shop.
He let me ride it around briefly and the ride disappointed bigtime.
The shop would not return my deposit, when I changed my mind!
Not sure how much my built-up customized U-08 surpassed it.
But I outfitted it with aluminum rims, Suntour derailleurs, and better tires, saddle, brakes.

non-fixie 

Yes, I did. This one went straight onto the scrap metal pile after taking this picture.

georges1

Peugeot 103 carbolite racebike, felt heavy, averagely equipped and not really responsive on fast roads, then bernard dangres city bike , heavy and very unefficient brakes on it

RCMoeur 

Hmmm.

(screen gets all wiggly as we go into "flashback" mode)

A very heavy Varsity at mile 75 of my first-ever century, when it was 100° out and kids were throwing light bulbs at me,

my (otherwise-beloved) Raleigh Pro, when I was on a too-long training ride and the shifting and overall feel was off just enough to exacerbate my irritation,

my Rans recumbent, when it decided to eat a derailleur during a group ride and I tossed the whole thing into a bush. An ex-girlfriend was riding in the group at the time and decided to add some snippy commentary, adding to the overall joy,

and a mid-70s Centurion Super Le Mans I painstakingly refurbished but just could not get comfortable on no matter what.

(wiggly again as we return to the present scene)

So, overall, not so bad, and I'm probably forgetting eleventydozen other times I raged at the two wheels under or beside me but eventually forgot or forgave.

clubman 

New '96 Cramerotti ELOS with full Chorus. It had over-sized chain stays as well so the ride was so rigid that I was exhausted after 50 kms. Kept it for just over a year and sold it to a friend for half of what I paid.

Rick_D

Not hate, but I didn't trust it: Bianchi Campione D'Italia that was my first legitimately light road bike and I racked up the miles, got into centuries, doubles, etc. Spokes began breaking so commonly I'd carry spares to swap en route, eventually threw in the towel and had the wheels rebuilt. Saddle broke. The clincher (heh) was the crank arm snapping when I was riding in traffic, while strapped in.

Built up a replacement and got rid of the Bianchi, after which my breakdown and repair frequency plunged. Win-win.

sd5782 

Perhaps hate is too strong of a word, and disappointing is more appropriate. 1983 Peugeot UO14, made in Canada with magnalloy tubing. Research showed it to be highly regarded as the best of the UO series. Nice components, and I even reconditioned the heliocomatic hub. Nice SR Stronglight 99 copy. Mafac racers and very nice shifting Simplex SJ rd. It felt a bit dead and tiring, and of course the brakes squealed terribly.



1983 UO14

It is in storage now, but I think measurements reveal that the seat sits a bit too far forward over the bb for my tastes. It was my introduction to French bikes, and so far not so good. I am saving it for the parts now to perhaps try again on another French bike. The heliocomatic on 27” Weinmann concaves would go real nicely on a Trek 720 dream bike though.

Trakhak

I thought the same about my '85 Bianchi Specialissima; Super Record gruppo, Columbus SL/SP mix, with SP down tube and chain stays. But I eventually realized that it wasn't the heavier-gauge SP tubes that made it rigid---it was the short wheelbase; i.e., the criterium geometry.

Chuck M 

Not Vintage.. Marin Coast Trail. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it. Gave it away.

Het Volk

I currently have a custom cross bike that was built to replicate a Redline Conquest that I destroyed by running into the top of a garage while on a roof rack. It has a BB30 shell, which was fine....except I cannot get the damned BB to stop creaking. Been to the blke shop 3 times, and I worry I am never going to be able to ride this silently again.