10 Motorcycle Flops | The top ten worst motorcycles ever made

With the arrival the other year of the BMW R18 Cruiser, which is equipped with the largest air-cooled boxer engine

ever

made

by the company, we were reminded of the German brand's previous disastrous attempt to create a Cruiser and that was, of course, the 1997 R 1200c and that got us. think about other motorcycling failures of the past, and while that's a topic bike manufacturers may not like to be reminded of, recent history is littered with great white motorcycling hopes that pioneered new styles or technologies , but which in reality turned out to be absolute motorcycling disasters. so here, in chronological order, are motorcycling's top 10

flops

and hoping there aren't more to come in the years to come.

We start this list with Yamaha's GTS 1000, a hugely ambitious pioneer with enormous expectations on its shoulders, it was designed at enormous cost. And the headline-grabbing front end was joined by a pioneering fuel-injected ABS and catalytic converter, it even had six-piston brake calipers and much more, the good news was that it was actually very good, the bad news was that It was too easy to criticize while the The engine was developed from that of the 140 hp Fzr 1000. It was retuned to produce only 100 horsepower. The omega chassis concept, although cl

ever

, was heavy and unwieldy, especially at low speed, fuel consumption was low and tank range was small, and

worst

of all, to make matters worse, the gts was too expensive, As a result, potential buyers simply weren't willing to overpay for radical technology when they could have the proven shaft-driven European Honda ST 1100 for much less money.

We mentioned the R18 above, so we had to include the R-1200C in this list, originally released in 1997. The Sea was BMW's attempt to take advantage of the vast and highly dominated US cruiser market. Unfortunately, decided to make it with just a slight variation of his then r1150 boxer and gave it his half-hearted style, which really only his mother would love, both factors go some way to explaining the enormous technological and styling efforts that have been invested in the new R18. I really didn't want to make the same mistake with this one again, although it was enlarged to 1170cc and retuned for torque, the resulting lump produced just 61bhp and unfortunately none of that really washed up with the Harley brigade on the other side of the puddle.

It just looked horrible, even James Bond couldn't make it look cool in 1997. Tomorrow Never Dies. and despite numerous derivative models, it never caught on as BMW removed it from the range in 2004. It's no surprise that it took the German brand 15 years to try to cruise again, so perhaps it's a bit harsh to say that Suzuki's tl was a failure. After all, initially this Japanese Ducati outsold the 916. Its powerful engine was always considered one of the best V Twins that exist to this day in the V Strom 1050. Now, although both the S and R versions of the tl are considered affordable classics Prices are likely to rise, but all that ignores the fact that at the bike's launch, the initial S was so ruined by its revolutionary twist-shock rear suspension and ultra-sharp geometry that it was considered a widowed manufacturer, forcing Suzuki to update a steering damper in In addition to that, the later Suzuki tl mil r, the sportbike sister of the tl mil s, was created for the superbike world, although it proved to have both Overweight, it was so unwieldy and unreliable that it was quickly abandoned.

Both tls can be considered classics today, but at the time they were such corporate embarrassments that they were phased out in 2002. Another short-lived v twin, although this one from aprilia in the form of the future rst 1000 sports tourer was originally conceived to rival the Honda's VFR 800 V4 Sports Tourer and used a detuned hundred-horsepower version of the Rotax V Twin from the original RSV Milli, had a similar single-sided swingarm and underwater exhaust, a dashboard similarly from the late '80s and early '80s. The 90s, comfortable ergonomics and stylish angular bodywork on paper should have been pretty good, unfortunately the look was divisive.

Some thought it was too bulky and the V Twin's lumpy delivery clashed with its high-tech appearance. Production problems delayed deliveries and it was also quite expensive for what it was, plus most potential buyers were much more likely to visit a Honda dealer than try to find one. an aprilia that was close to them talking about classics, we could not attempt any summary of the failures of motorcycling without the inclusion of one of the most notorious of all, however revered the bikes in question are today, we are talking, of course, of Ducati's infamous retros before their time.

The Sport Classic family was launched in 2005 as a duo - the Sport 1000 and Paul Smart Le were joined by the gt-1000 in 2007. All had beautiful retro-inspired styling and were powered by the 1000 ds 90 bhp V- twin air-cooled and were decked out with quality details and bike parts today we would appreciate them, in fact we make good used examples now they regularly reached five figures at the time, although they were simple single-seaters, the sport was narrow and The file was too expensive, plus the retros which back then hadn't really taken off, Ducati tried to fix things with new bars and a poposto and cheaper versions, but it was too late and the range was axed in 2010.

Everything This, considering the current scrambler offerings and the popularity they have gained, is a huge shame and explains why Goody examples now sell for a lot of money. This is proof, if ever it was needed, that manufacturers should never get carried away with the excitement of

motorcycle

shows. The original Bee King was an incredibly wild concept

motorcycle

that was unveiled at the Tokyo show in 2001. It was basically a stripped-down roadster version of the hayabusa hyperbike. It turned heads because it also had a supercharger, a huge rear tire, and styling that came straight out of Judge Dredd.

Build it. Everyone said we will buy it. They promised it. Unfortunately, Suzuki did it. when it was ready practical concerns meant there was no supercharger, the styling had been watered down and it still cost almost twice as much as a conventional super naked in its defence, the king of the bees was still a wild ride, it was one of the first to adopt driving modes. and it was well built and equipped, but it was expensive and, crucially, it didn't have that supercharger that was the motorcycle's original selling point. Another bold concept that

made

it to production, but probably shouldn't have, is the xr1200, it was a highly European motorcycle. -concept driven and aimed to push Harley's sails on this side of the pond by being a naked performance with ducati monster style but with the styling inspired by the harley heritage in us, flat tracking, sports reworked to v-twin They produced an adequate 90 hp.

The chassis was impressively agile for a Harley anyway and looked good too. The problem was that it was quite heavy and had no performance advantage over the competition. It's a shame, Harley really tried to improve the model by launching a one-make racing series here in the UK and Europe, although it was simply too little too late and the xr was axed in 2012. Gotta love Honda, big red though may have a reputation for being overly conservative and unappealing, it's also undeniable that it pushes the boat out every now and then, one of the latest and craziest has to be the dn01 from 2008, a sort of high-tech custom cruiser. .

The dn01 had a little bit of everything and combined it into a real dog's dinner: a motorcycle with a 680 cc v-twin engine. It's from the boring devil's Torah and was mixed with an early form of Honda's semi-automatic gearbox. It was so bland and characterless right out of the box, the feet forward riding position with the forks out is cruiser so yes it is comfortable although the ground clearance really was. One problem: its styling is also very sharp and its screen is so useless for commuting or any remote work and its fancy technology and dashboard also made it more expensive, so it's slow, it's not conventional, it's not sporty, it's not conservative and it's not even cheap.

I'll say three. no one ever, the street 750 was harley's last attempt at making a true entry level bike, it looked good on paper, although on the road its performance would have quickly become boring for all but the most timid new riders, sure. which was a cheap route to harley. owned by davidson for just £5,795 the problem wasn't that many new and impressionable young riders were walking into harley-davidson dealerships to buy a cruiser the cafe racer and the classic scene in the uk and europe was just beginning when the street appeared 750 and not even the most muscular street rod released soon after could rescue the project and finally, for now, we couldn't resist including another weird and wonderful Honda in the form of the ctx 1300.

Whichever way you look at the ctx, it has very little sense, so little in The fact that production only lasted a year, it's basically a cruiser or bagger version of the old stx 1300 torah, so it's immediately hard to see the Americans accept it and sadly they didn't get behind it instead of a direct replacement or upgrade for the Practical pan-European Honda gave us this front-footed, low-screen version that's also not going to make us queue the continental types around the block and, sadly, we didn't. Third, it is supposedly stylish, but in reality it has very bland speakers with strange features. but there's no stereo, none of this made sense and none of that made it cheap to buy, it won't be any surprise to hear it flopped with Honda pulling the plug after just one year of production of this weird and wonderful model, so there we are.

Wow, those are the top 10 motorcycle

flops

we can imagine in the last 20 or 30 years. If we have missed any

motorcycles

, please let us know in the comments section below and if you like this video, don't forget to give it a like. and subscribe so you can stay up to date with the latest Advisordown videos for the latest motorcycle news, reviews and features visit visordown.com