USAZorro

Back around 2007 or 2008 I found a Trek Tri-series on Harrisburg Craigslist for $75.00. It was in excellent condition, and I just needed to make minor cable adjustments to get it going. A couple days after I got it, there were races at Rodale Park near Trexlertown, so I brought it along to ride after the races were done (I was not racing). I took it for two laps around the course, and it felt dead and slow. The next day, I recouped my investment selling it on to a fellow scavenger who was my height and looking for a rider. Not three days later, HE had it up on CL for the same $75.00 asking price.

To this day I have no idea why that bike was so disappointing, but I think it just might be a Trek road bike thing. I was also rather underwhelmed by a Trek 760 that I had also acquired from CL for $75.00.

beech333

For what it was worth, the Opus rode well, when I wasn't changing the tubes. I just started choosing other bikes, to be able to get a ride in, because I resented the Opus.

The bike that replaced it is my red Fuji Design Series.

SurferRosa

Had a '72 Bottecchia that just passed through my hands. It had several problems, all of which I corrected except the squealing brakes from both ends. The rear brake bridge was not level, which caused some of it. I corrected what I could. I spent way too much time on this project. So far, that's the only bike I ever overhauled where I could not eliminate the brake squeal. Fortunately, I sold it to a self-important engineer that was all too ready to take his crack at it.

philpeugeot 

I blame myself for buying the POS that was the Sears Free Spirit back when I was just getting into bicycles. I hated that thing with a passion, and I believe it's the sole reason why I have anger management issues today. I bought the damn thing for $175 because I liked the way it looked, with the fenders and step-through frame; in hindsight, it was my 2nd worst purchase, after the too-good-to-not-be-stolen Rivendell. The thing was heavy and uninspiring to ride, yet flopped around like a wet noodle. On a 20 mile ride, the pedal decided to detach itself from the spindle, leaving me pedaling using my left leg. I left it for dead outside the dorm, and a week or so it was gone. Good riddance.

I know some people believe in second chances, but I hope that bike reincarnates as a washing machine or a fridge; at least that way, it would be more useful.

Steve B.

Had a Lemond titanium, Victorie I think. It was a warranty replacement for a failed Klein aluminum. Trek owned Klein and Lemond at that point. There were no Klein frames available so I figured what the heck, go Ti. It quickly developed that the frame had a really flexy bottom bracket which was aggravated by my being a clyde. I resorted to using Campy shifters to try to reduce the terrible chain rub on the front derailer every time I put out any hard effort. Campy shifters have multiple trim points where Shimano does not, so it helped a bit. Then the paint started flaking off. Trek agreed to re-paint so off it went. Then within a year the 2nd paint started flaking off and Trek declined a 2nd paint job. **** ‘em I said and got the frame repainted locally. The frame then developed. 1/2” long crack next to the downtube cable stop. Trek declined to fix as I had had the frame repainted. I will never buy a Trek bike, needless to say, they have zero loyalty from me.

MeadMan2

I did the same with a '74 Super Sport that belonged to my wife. It's outfitted with front & rear racks for bike camping. Loaded with gear, I didn't expect a spirited ride ride but it does the job.

jiangshi

TSD Guerrciotti SLX. Flexiest bike I ever owned.

easyupbug 

Yes, I blocked it out many years ago, maybe 20, but think it was called a Raleigh 500 (aluminum) and I believe it loosened a tooth filling trying to get it ridable.

Russ Roth

Yup, a Poseidon Redwood. Wife convinced me to sell our Blue Proseccio's to get something that could handle true wide tires and to some heavy duty bike packing on. I loved my blue, she hated hers. Bought the frames and built them up with custom wheels, using XT hubs, sram XX 2x carbon cranks, carbon bars and posts, 10sp tiagra shifting using a GRX front der and 11/34 cassette. Shifting is smooth, rolling is smooth, and I don't think I've ever ridden anything that feels so dead, lifeless and boring. Of course, she loves hers. I've swapped multiple stems and even though the fit matches my cross bike I never find myself comfortable on it, the fork is rigid aluminum and heavy. Really I find it has no redeeming qualities and I'm hoping to replace the frame sometime in the near future.

Choke 

Around 1999 I purchased a Klein Mantra. It was fine on the flats and going uphill, but when pointed downhill it was the scariest thing I've ever ridden. I was happy to see it go.

Lascauxcaveman 

Ross Super Grand Tour Professional.

The only honest word in that title was "Ross." Weighed as much as a Schwinn Varsity, only much uglier. The welding (not brazing) on that bike was grotesque. Stripped off the 600 Arabesque running gear which was waaaay too classy for that frame and made it into a fixie which I sold to a big tall guy who weighed about 300 lbs. A good solid frame for him.

Dfrost 

Not “hated”, but one that never grabbed the ol’ heart strings like others.

I really, really tried to love this 2003 Rivendell Rambouillet as my only bike for a decade with thousands of miles and a few short tours (note the avatar). I was sure it was the bike I’d ride to the end of my days. But when I got the ‘87 Marinoni Sports Tourer, and significantly updated my ‘79 Miyata 912, it was obvious after many comparison rides, tire and wheel swaps, etc. on my 38-mile round trip commute back then, which was the bike that didn’t fit in. I’m sure it’s in a happy home these days.



All three setup very similarly with identical shifters and gearing, very similar fits (each had similar Tubus SS racks for carrying a pannier on my commutes):

Hajo

About a yeat ago I bought a alu/carbon Colnago. Nice profiled tubes, a reasonable Campagnolo group on it, thought it would a nice one from all steel bikes I did previously. But on disassambly everything was rotten, broken, dented, scratched, so after a week of hard labour it ended in the scrap heap.

jamesdak 

I don't know that I hated any bike but I've had several that I hated things about it.

One was a Lynskey R265 I spent new money on, not my normal thing. Nice bike but on undulating road surfaces the rear got all bouncy on me and I just couldn't stand it. Sold for a big loss.



Then I bought a mint 90's Vitus Argal from overseas one time to see what it was like. I noted the very short chainstays and was a bit nervous about it riding too harsh. Turns out that wasn't an issue. But something about the bike made it feel very unsettled and unstable in the front on even moderate speed descents. The steering was way to vague and unprecise for some reason. Yet if I pushed it up to similar speeds on the flats it felt fine. Never got it sorted and passed it on to a new owner with full disclosure. Buyer gave me a sob story about just getting back into biking and I cut him a really good deal. Turned out to be a local flipper and I know ignore him whenever he contacts me about other rides I'm selling.



I also had one of the highly regarded Trek 560 Pro Series bikes I could not come to terms with. Wanted to love it but it was way too flexy and always slower than my other rides.



Then there was the old Hercules bike. I didn't hate it but it was too small and too problematic to say I loved it. Had pedals welded to the crank arms when I got it. One of those fell off on a ride one day. Swapped in a nice new crank to solve that. Brakes were always a bit suspect. This was an errand bike and when the side baskets open it was way too easy to hit a heel on them, ouch! But it's also had one time it shined for me. Had some rude punk on his C.F. road bike call me an old man and told me to get out of his way on the bike path. Old man huh?! I dropped the 3 speed down, blew by him, and continued on for about another half mile with him chasing and me hoping my foot didn't slip and hit a basket. Just about as my lungs were about to blow up, he turned off in shame having not caught us. This one is gone too though. Needed something better for it's intended purpose.



Which brings me to the bike I could almost claim to hate. The German Mars Trekking bike I bought to replace the Hercules with. It was totally weird and ugly looking. Creaky and squeaky as all get out and way too top heavy when I loaded up a milk crate full of groceries that I kept on the rear rack. Not to mention how you had to really swing your leg high to get on with that milk crate and how easily it would flop over and spill things out if you weren't careful. To it's credit though, it was fairly comfortable and worked quite well mechanically once I sorted it all out. The lights actually "worked" but only a fool would trust his life with them. This would have probably been a fun one to just cruise around on but not amount of lubing, bushing replacement, etc could get rid of all the creaking and squeaking.

jdawginsc 

I had a similar experience. I bought one junky at age 11 I think. Maybe $10. Stripped it and painted it.

No sooner did I ride it then I hated it. Used my snow shoveling winter money (it was lucrative for a 12 year old) and bought a low model Peugeot. Put alloy cranks, got rid of Turkey bars and still did not like it.

Age 14, I bought my Bianchi Randonneur and all was well. Even “raced” on it. I miss that bike still. Replaced with a Cannondale Crest R600. Which I still have.

lasauge 

The only decent quality bike I have truly disliked was an '88 Panasonic MC-4500 MTB. Same geometry as the original Stumpjumper but with a brutally heavy and stiff frame/fork. It wasn't nice to ride as a mountain bike and didn't make a good commuting bike either. Other people seem to like these okay, but I could never learn to like this one regardless of the components I had on it.

retroman57 

Not including a Schwinn Varsity- A 1977-78 Windsor Touring Elite. Branded "Touring" because that was the current thing, it was really a criterium bicycle. Twitchy as hell, and just miserable to ride. In every other way- gorgeous...

madpogue 

Plenty of "meh" bikes that I've flipped or given away, and a few I still need to. No "hate" for them, more like pity or maybe a touch of scorn.

The only bike I'd say I hated was one that was supposed to be "my" bike. Not even a C&V. Its predecessor was a 2001-ish Raleigh Capri, bought as an end-of-season demo. WSD bike with a 650C front wheel; the bike fit my long-leg short-torso build like a glove. Best fitting bike I'd ever had. Lot of fun for a then-new-ish bike. Then the head tube developed a crack in about 2008. The best Raleigh would do was replace it with a China-made generic low-end road frameset (I think they called it a Grand Prix), that I just couldn't tweak to make fit. And the bike just had no soul. I hated it mostly because it was such a shoddy ill-fitting substitute for a bike that really did fit right. Stopped riding it in about 2013 for other health-related reasons, and just drove commuter hybrids for several years. When those circumstances changed and I got back into roadies, that's when I started intentionally buying C&V bikes, and haven't looked back. The hated one still hangs in my basement; I really should just sell it.

I honestly can't think of a C&V bike I've bought with the intent of keeping, that I came to hate.

RB1-luvr

BMC Road Machine, (or a Race Machine?) circa 2012-ish. I disliked that bike. It will be the last bike I have with mid seat stays. The ride was too harsh.

mhespenheide 

Not hate, but no love lost -- an early (semi-modern) Kona "Dew Drop". Heavy steel frame with none of the loveliness of good steel. Disc brakes that were a bear to adjust and didn't stop any better than rim brakes. Heavy. It was a utilitarian tank made for commuting in the rain, but didn't bring the joy of riding a good bike. I bought it second hand, spent too much time and money fixing it up, rode it twice, resold it. I hope its new owner had a better experience than I did.

rustystrings61 

No hate, more sadness and disappointment - the most expensive bike I ever had, my 2000 Rivendell Road Custom. And ultimately because I hadn't yet learned what I really, really want in a bike, so, my fault.



Aesthetically lovely, right? At least, until the upwards angled top tube begins to get on your nerves. Beautifully put together, pretty lugs, stunning paint, serious OCD-level attention to detail, and I kitted it out with all the bike jewelry parts, down to T.A. Zephyrs fitted with T.A. sealed bearing pedals, Campagnolo Olympus rear derailleur, Nitto bottle cages, lugged stem, Nitto bars, a B17, Campagnolo 8-speed hubs on MA-2s ... on paper, perfect. Design-wise, right on.

I didn't really grasp though that OS tubing doesn't work for me. I would ride the bike and it would just feel ... slow. As in, pokey. It descended beautifully, I got everything dialed in just so, but it never felt like it was getting up and going. Still, I convinced myself it was the perfect bike and soldiered on.

Then I got a roached-out dented-up Mercian built with standard diameter 531 and built it up with junky scavenged parts. Looked like hell - and blew the Rivendell out of the water. Much livelier, zippier feeling, felt nimble, descended like it was on rails, tracked straight and true no-hands - and was simply a superior bike to ride.

One day in 2011 or so I realized the Rivendell had been hanging on its peg for at least two years without being ridden once. When I wanted to go ride I was reaching for the afore-mentioned Mercian, or my Mercian custom fixed-gear, or even the beat-to-death PX-10. I carefully removed all the fancy jewel-like parts and sold them and the frameset on the 'Bay for pretty close to what I had in them and never regretted it once.

SirMike1983 

I did not "hate" any of the bikes I've owned. There were a couple I moderately disliked. Both had harsh rides to them, despite being well-made and properly rebuilt. Both were steel frames, one even being hand-built, fillet brazed cr-mo. Both had what I would call a very "heavy" and "dead" feel while pedaling, and both tended to channel every road bump right into you. It seems as if there are just some bikes that don't ride well, without any obvious explanation. Fortunately, this was all quite a few years ago.

jolly_codger

Pre-Trek Klein Quantum. I fell in love with the gorgeous purple paint and built up the frame, but it never felt right to me. I am not a small person so it wasn't its stiffness; I could never put into words what was so off. It might have been my subconscious at work due to my deep disappointment with the weird BB width and pressed in bearings that wouldn't allow me to use a modern compact crankset (learned a lesson: always research and never assume something is a normal bike). Rather than have it take up room in the garage and fill me with resentment every time I saw it, I now can say that no one in the whole wide world has a prettier purple bike mounted to their Zwift Hub.

kunsunoke 

Most of the issues I've had with bikes came down to me not setting them up properly, or the frames being too big for me. Sometimes the bikes had issues that were difficult to fix.

My first decent road bike (1987 Schwinn Tempo) would have been fine with 44cm bars, round chain-rings and a decent set of tubular wheels with cassette cogs. The clinchers used to go flat all the time, at the worst possible moments. I recall sliding on asphalt pretty frequently.

The PX10 I once had annoyed me at times, as the fixed cup enjoyed walking out of the bottom bracket shell. Some Permatex Blue would have solved the problem quite easily. I use that solution regularly, and most recently on the PZ10 that is now in the 'racks.

Of the current livery - the Bianchi Superleggera has huge gears, and so is not good for relaxation. The bike has to be ridden quickly all the time. It's fine on the flats, not so much on the hills. Tire clearance is almost non-existent with 25mm carcass tires.

The Atala Record 101 has horrid chromium plating. Someone just hung it on a plating rack with no surface preparation and just dipped it in hex. No descale, no copper strike, no acid copper, no nickel - just hex chrome. Derp.

The Colnago Super has a really fragile lacquer paint job - looks great, scratches if you look at it crosswise. Shifting was a horror show until I switched the bike to Dura Ace. De Rosa #1 has really fat chain-stays, which means it has no tolerance for any run-out. Both bikes have really nice rides, though.

I like the Focus Mares CX cross bike that I have, as it's light, comfortable and versatile. The main issue is that it is rather ugly, in a Pontiac Aztec sort of way.

Hate's too strong a word, though. Takes a lot of energy one could use to ride faster.

AdventureManCO 

The bike that is most drawing my ire at the current moment is my 1972 Paramount. Can’t stand the thing.