revtothelimit - motorbike forum

XJ600. That's the old aircooled one. No redeeming features.

2017 R1200GS

An incredibly capable machine, but it was also as boring as watching paint dry... The front end had no feel either, because of their insistence on using that stupid telelever suspension (there's plenty of grip, but you just have no idea what the tyre is doing, it just feels totally remote)... But the absolute worst thing is the Boxer engine, so dull, so flat, I found myself nodding off whilst riding it a couple of times at a constant speed! The very first time I've ever experienced narcolepsy induced by a motorbike... It HAD to go...

Picked up a KTM 1290 Super Adventure on the very same day, and the moment I got on that bike I absolutely knew I'd made the right decision, a lovely rumbly V-Twin with huge reserves of grunt and a conventional suspension fork with lots of adjustment (and FEEL!), it was immediately everything that the GS wasn't...

Weirdly, a Fireblade

I've not had many bikes, but I went from 8 years of Blackbird ownership to a Fireblade, the one with the small front wheel.

It was an awesome bike and really good fun, especially after it's gurtly big brother - but damn it was very very uncomfortable.

This made me very sad I'd dreamed of having a Blade, but the riding position of that one hated me


From that to a TLs

The West One 250 Superdream.

If your bike broke down you were 'obliged' to use this monstrosity until yours was fixed, it was a gutless heap of crap. Thrashed mercilessly by everyone who was forced to ride it and maintained by Harry John (those who know will know).

Awful, just awful bike.

honda 200 Benley

Bought it for cheap transport. I was stunned how slow it was

Taipan wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2024 2:24 pm

Buckaroo wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2024 10:02 am

Taipan wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2024 8:05 am
Thats the weird thing. Harleys have that reputation, yet they are probably the bikes that achieve the biggest mileages. Loads of yank Harleys have over 2 and 300,000 miles on them! I suppose it could have been higher...

Yes, I was unlucky I guess. As was my daughter. Mine had fueling issues, as in it would start and rev to the limiter without warning, brakes would bind, odd idiot lights would appear / disappear. All in the first year. It had to go !

Oh yes. Even the Harley owners I met, when I had one, regarded Buells as unreliable POS!

How ironic.
They had obviously never ridden / owed one as it would have been way to scary for them.
I loved mine - it had its idiosyncratic issues but it was a great real world bike

Mr Moofo wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 9:59 am

Taipan wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2024 2:24 pm

Buckaroo wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2024 10:02 am

Yes, I was unlucky I guess. As was my daughter. Mine had fueling issues, as in it would start and rev to the limiter without warning, brakes would bind, odd idiot lights would appear / disappear. All in the first year. It had to go !

Oh yes. Even the Harley owners I met, when I had one, regarded Buells as unreliable POS!

How ironic.
They had obviously never ridden / owed one as it would have been way to scary for them.
I loved mine - it had its idiosyncratic issues but it was a great real world bike

Some of the guys I’d met had indeed owned them. It was a bit of a joke that all Buell had to do was put a well know engine into a different bike but managed to cock it up on an industrial scale as his bikes are known to be plagued with reliability issues!

By contrast and Despite their reputation there are Harley’s out there with spaceship mileages!

I suppose almost anything is capable of high mileage if the owner keeps fixing it.

Skub wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 1:03 pm I suppose almost anything is capable of high mileage if the owner keeps fixing it.

I'm not that familar with HD mechanics, but my understanding is that they're pretty simple mechanically - so well within the capabilities of most owners to fix them relatively easily - and very underpowered, which means that they're not really being stressed much when in use. TBH what most likely kills them is lack of use.....

In the UK there does seem to be lot of "Accountants bikes", but in the good old US of A they are used a lot more and everywhere in America is a long way. Seems quite common for a 200+ mile round trip for breakfast at the weekend etc. Also it seems as there's not exactly been much development of Harley engine mechanics in many ways, so common faults are known about and pre-emptive fixes carried out, or easily fixed when they occur. At least that's my impression of them.

The UK strikes me as a bit of an odd place for bike ownership. If you haven't got the latest, fastest model of a sportsbike then there's something wrong with you, which is probably driven by the bike press too. ADV bikes seem to be changing that a bit now though. Here, a bike with 20k miles is considered high mileage and, BMWs aside, the bikes gets hard to sell above that mileage. Yanks in particular seem to be proud to achieve high mileages, not scared by them? I've sold a few bikes to eastern european bike buyers who always seem to be amused by our attitude to bike mileage?

@Alan PBTD does massive miles on his, my old neighbour has a Street Bob that has over 50k on it..

Taipan wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 11:26 am

Mr Moofo wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 9:59 am

Taipan wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2024 2:24 pm
Oh yes. Even the Harley owners I met, when I had one, regarded Buells as unreliable POS!

How ironic.
They had obviously never ridden / owed one as it would have been way to scary for them.
I loved mine - it had its idiosyncratic issues but it was a great real world bike

Some of the guys I’d met had indeed owned them. It was a bit of a joke that all Buell had to do was put a well know engine into a different bike but managed to cock it up on an industrial scale as his bikes are known to be plagued with reliability issues!

By contrast and Despite their reputation there are Harley’s out there with spaceship mileages!

Whilst the Die Hards will tell you the Erik Buell was a great engineer, I beg to differ.
He did get twice the power out of sportster engine but the shock set set up as a pull system was nonsense. The in house build quality and QC shocking. But once they were sorted by a trip to Maz in Manchester they were great fun.
The XB with fuel in the frame, which when it toppled over wrote the bike off, were just plain stupid.
He was a very slow learner hence the businesses going tits up

And way better than a Harley to ride

Mr Moofo wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 2:07 pm

Taipan wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 11:26 am

Mr Moofo wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 9:59 am

How ironic.
They had obviously never ridden / owed one as it would have been way to scary for them.
I loved mine - it had its idiosyncratic issues but it was a great real world bike

Some of the guys I’d met had indeed owned them. It was a bit of a joke that all Buell had to do was put a well know engine into a different bike but managed to cock it up on an industrial scale as his bikes are known to be plagued with reliability issues!

By contrast and Despite their reputation there are Harley’s out there with spaceship mileages!

Whilst the Die Hards will tell you the Erik Buell was a great engineer, I beg to differ.
He did get twice the power out of sportster engine but the shock set set up as a pull system was nonsense. The in house build quality and QC shocking. But once they were sorted by a trip to Maz in Manchester they were great fun.
The XB with fuel in the frame, which when it toppled over wrote the bike off, were just plain stupid.
He was a very slow learner hence the businesses going tits up

And way better than a Harley to ride

That's pretty subjective though, apples and oranges really.

I did a trip to Chesterfield HD with some of the Ukbeg (buell group) years ago, a little bbq then stop off at a pub near Carsington water, I think it was.

Tbh, there was some absolute beauties, lots spent and proper works of art. I forget the names but maybe DaveH was one. If his was yellow then maybe that was at the Maz bbg.

Think CJ had a Ulysses with a few miles on. They were fun bikes and always attracted attention but breakdown cover was essential.

Taipan wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 2:17 pm

Mr Moofo wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 2:07 pm

Taipan wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 11:26 am

Some of the guys I’d met had indeed owned them. It was a bit of a joke that all Buell had to do was put a well know engine into a different bike but managed to cock it up on an industrial scale as his bikes are known to be plagued with reliability issues!

By contrast and Despite their reputation there are Harley’s out there with spaceship mileages!

Whilst the Die Hards will tell you the Erik Buell was a great engineer, I beg to differ.
He did get twice the power out of sportster engine but the shock set set up as a pull system was nonsense. The in house build quality and QC shocking. But once they were sorted by a trip to Maz in Manchester they were great fun.
The XB with fuel in the frame, which when it toppled over wrote the bike off, were just plain stupid.
He was a very slow learner hence the businesses going tits up

And way better than a Harley to ride

That's pretty subjective though, apples and oranges really.

But you started it

I've said it before but VX800, seemed okay on paper but my god it was shit & then to add insult to injury it would on occasion allow petrol to drain into the sump and then blow a mixture of oil & petrol via the breather pipe all over the back tyre, god I hated that thing & was soooo glad to see the back of it.

Jody wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 7:32 am honda 200 Benley

Bought it for cheap transport. I was stunned how slow it was

You have just reminded me that I was loaned a CD175 for a few days whilst Mocheck were bolting my 400-F back together after I rode it into the back of a car in c London. I can't recall a single redeeming feature other than the seat being quick comfortable (for the time).

CZ250

The only good thing I could say about it was it was cheap. Even so it was very poor value

Druid wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 5:49 pm CZ250

The only good thing I could say about it was it was cheap. Even so it was very poor value

My brother bought one. £299 on the road from Coburn & Hughes. The salesman wheeled it out of the shop, leaned it over on the side stand...

...which promptly fell off.

We tuned it. Simple porting job, plus gutting the silencers. Made it rather more fun but pushed the front brake beyond its feeble limits.

I can only repeat this post from 2021. My opinion has not changed one iota in the intervening years.

A mid-80's BMW R45.

What on earth possessed BMW to produce this gutless, insipid sack of shit I cannot imagine. It produced fractionally over 30hp (allegedly) and had difficulty even dragging its sorry arse off the line at traffic lights. It needed two-stroke levels of skill to launch, but gave nothing back in return. It weighed around 450lbs (the same as much more powerful bikes in the range) and had zero torque. Zilch, nada, rien. When I say that my bike at the time was a tuned RD350LC, you can understand the disgust, antipathy and loathing I felt for this appalling excuse for a motorbike. The front end of the bike was raised up in the air, chopper stylee and the rear was low. Very low.

As a result it handled like a plate of sick; the front tyre (a ridiculously hard compound Pirelli SuperTouring) gave absolutely zero feedback, and combined with the power and torque-free motor was the motorcycle equivalent of pushing a supermarket trolley. Up the escalator. You never had any clue as to where the front end might be heading at any moment in time. I had to thrash the living daylights out of it to even stay in sight of the other riders, all the while wondering if I might be on my arse at any moment. Oh, and it rained. It rained and it rained and then it rained some more. In France, in August. I felt horribly cheated.

If I was ever invited to do a Room 101 list, that piece of crap would be first on the list. It was truly, definitively awful.