20 WORST Motorcycles From The 1960s, Everyone Hated! 

What a poor vid with lack of knowledge regarding the period and mismatch of photo's to the dialogue 👎

The commentary is complete cobblers, by an American who knows little about European motorcycles.

poor video you have no idea nor clue what you are talking about on some of these motorcycles

Is this vid a joke?

What? The Hodaka was one of the best selling dirt bikes back in the day. Wake up!

... well, 20HP out of 250cc was already quite a lot in the early 60s, and also reliably durable...

Poor video

"20 WORST Motorcycles From The 1960s," - the Video that Everyone Hated! Do come over to Europe sometime we'll help you try to understand t'arse from t'elbow...

The Ziggalo in the first few words is actually an Ariel Arrow, a quite successful bike, with many unique and groundbreaking features at the time. If the narrator can’t even get the basics right, I dread to think how the rest of the vid is going to go……

This man has no clue ..just one example..the 250 twin 2 stroke yamaha was very fast ..leaving most other 250s in its dust

A complete mess of a video, disregard the dialogue and only look at the bikes although mixing up models and makes on each section means you will see more than 20 bikes. Nice to see the bike less so to hear the limited knowledge of the video maker.

For a bike that was unreliable, the CZ250MX somehow managed to dominate world motocross championships during the late 1960's and early 1970's.

This guy has no idea

The BMW 250 is a bike that could last forever

If you have even a clue about motorbikes of this era then you'll know whoever cobbled this video together knows absolutely nothing about the subject of motorcycles, past or present.

The idea od blaming a 50 c.c. engine moped for going not fast enough! 😀 This is one of the 20 worst MC review ever made.

Harley Sprint it’s a Aermacchi 250 and in that time used to go fast

This video is a joke, in 61 my first bike was a Royal Enfield Crusader sports, a fantastic bike in its day, together with the Ariel's and that fantastic Norton Dominator, this guy knows anything about British bikes of the day, was he even alive in the 60's.

A Ducati dealer from 1962 on with a119 mph 250 Diana ( clocked ) and 28 up on the dyno from a Monza engine shows that this guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

In Europe in the 60s we regarded Harleys as lumbering thirsty and primitive

with reference to the header of this video, the only things laughable and cringeworthy ia the commentary and lack of knowedge !!!

I think thr Ariel Arrow looks great, also the BMW is cool. At least half of these bikes would be great to own.

this vid is bolloks

The Cushman Eagle is a motorscooter with a fuel tank stuck on to make it look like a motorcycle.

So, small engined, low power bikes designed for city commuting weren't good for anything else......So what? Go to any bike rally & see the attention these things get when they show up. Worth every penny.

Very poor video

19:13 This is a rebadged and uglyfied Royal Enfield Super Meteor of 700cc. A parallel twin, not a V-twin of 1,200cc. The Super Meteors, and later Interceptors, were comfortable and capable tourers. This "Retro Rides" must be one of the most ignorant youtubers.

The market for these bikes was high school and college students in the 60s. I would have driven any of these, but my parents would not let me due to a relative hurting himself in a motorcycle wreck.

He sure do;nt know anything about nortons

First let me qualify - I was in my twenties in the '60s, in the UK where most of this video's clips originated, albeit of later origin..;) This is possibly one of the worst executed and most misinformed I have ever seen on this topic. The parameters by which the commentary judges the characteristics of the various machines is risible as well as being questionable.

Next up, 20 worst You Tube videos. First one, Retro Rides by someone who absolutely has no clue what he/she/it/they/them is talking about. Don’t quit your day job.

The BMW 250 single what BMW is most popular bike and they made 47,000 of them.

19:29 the Indian shown here has a vertical twin setup NOT v twin...sheesh.

There is no context given. Post WW2 factories in Japan, Italy ,Germany and Britain were being rebuilt. Some with new and innovative machinery. Scrap aluminum was used to build Japanese engines and great care was needed to dismantle and reassemble them. Phillips screws were soft and easily stripped. The BSA bantam,workhorse of British postal telegram service in its 125cc form was reliable when new,however,the crankshaft case seals were rubber and crankcase compression leakage caused hard starting and poor performance exacerbated by Lucas electrics. As a 13 to 15 year old kid I rebuilt five bantam and numerous NSU. Mopeds . The quicklies would reach 70 mph before getting point bounce running on nitro,gas and Castrol R. For brief periods.

The Cezeta was the worst ever. It had the fuel tank mounted at the front and doubled as a mudguard. When full of fuel it was nose heavy and when half full, the petrol sloshed around and made the handling ..... interesting.

You have no clue. You obviously did not live through this time and are speaking about things of which you have no knowledge.

The Ariel Arrow was a great looking bike which was popular in the UK.

1:00 Underpowered and slow are the outstanding characteristics of any H-D so what is the issue?

Harley SR100 technically an Italian Harley sold in the early 1970. This dog of a bike was my pride and joy until I rode it, buyers remorse was't a word then but this was the definition of that bike. Two stroke/smoke with measuring cap for the oil in the gas cap, problem was getting a running mixture. Mine came from an uncle who had a real Harley shop, I will never believe my Dad didn't say Steve get something that will make him never ride a motorcycle again.

300 pound in weight is light for a 250cc motorcycle. Modern 300cc bikes actually weigh more!! For example, the 1980 Yamaha RD/RZ250LC weighs 365 pounds. The 1978 Suzuki GT250 X7 weighs 280 pounds. The 1977 CZ350 Sport weighs 291 pounds.

Some of those "top speeds" seemed weird. I had a Suzuki 120cc single-cylinder two-stroke that easily did better than 70mph.

This really could have been a decent video, but at least try to ensure that the bike in question is actually the ONLY bike being shown in the associated video.

I owned a 69 BMW R27. Fast it was not but it was very dependable. It also was a smooth ride and handled well. I got lots of positive compliments on the styling and is still considered a great looking bike to this day. Whoever wrote your script lacks knowledge!

Good to see the olds bikes . The rest is hog Wash.

I had a 1961 Harley Davidson XLCH and loved it.

Sure wish you would show pictures and videos of the bikes being spoken about instead of darting back and forth like a waterbug ! I honestly don't understand the non stop criticism of the styling. Many of the bike shown are very similar to their contemporaries , and Hodaka, REALLY ?!

Redro Rides, could it be that you have lost control of your life?

Owned a 350 Sprint. At one time it held the Bonnie speed record. The damn thing handled like a demon. The vid is Bravo Sierra. I also owned a 125 Rapido which I modified. I got a ticket on it one night, 91 with a passenger. The engine was totally shot at 10,000 miles. The Rapido handled great too. The company that built the Sprint and Rapido, Aeronautica Maachi set a piston-engine speed record in 1934 that still stands 90 years later in 2024

Everything in Murica must do 75 mph

I grew up in So Calif.Hodaka Ace 90 was sold by the thousands. I own 2 Suzuki X-6, I got one over 105 MPH indicated. I bought a Honda CB 750 and the world changed.

Honda Dream was a dream. You are a liar. the new ninja looks completely stinks. Love the old bikes. they are not dull.

Records a video about European-style postwar commuter bikes, complaining about how they ride like European-style postwar commuter bikes. The Yamaha YDS3 was the first 2-stroke with Autolube. It was also the fastest 250 then sold. Yamaha won the 250cc world championship in 1964 with a similar engine. The YDS3 was the 250 street version on sale at the time. This was in fact the 2-stroke that broke the European lock on 250cc Grand Prix motorcycle racing. The YDS3 was the civilian-market innovator that boosted Japanese 2-strokes onto the world stage and led them to dominate motorcycle racing for the next 30 years. Hard to get from there to "hated" or "worst."

I don't know much about motorcycles but what did people want for a few hundred dollars I'm amazed that these bikes had such low prices and how fast did people want to go?

The Hodaka Ace 90 was sold as a trail bike and in SoCal I saw a bunch of them.

The BSA Bantam sold in great numbers here in England during the 60's, it was very popular as a commuter bike which is what it was designed to be.

I stopped watching with the "everyone hated" statement.

I don't think the person who made this vedeo knows anything about motorcycles or motorcycle history. Almost none of these bikes were "Hated by everyone" and in reality the performance and reliability of most of these bikes were about average for the time.

WORST video about motorcycles available on RU-vid. Whoever wrote this video is clueless about what motorcycles were like back in the '60s.

If you can find a Hodaka, buy it. Ace 100, Combat Wombat, Dirt Squirt. The Ace was a very good trial bike.

Probably one of the twenty worst videos on you tube.😫

My bike #1 a 64 50 cub. Next bike 1968 SC 175 Honda. Both reliable and a lot of fun growing up in the sixties.

I find tis vid a joke, I was in my mid teens in 65, if it ran you were on it day and night. parents did not give you the money in those days you worked your way up bike after bike. who ever made this vid was born after 2000!

Sorry, I have to say the Yamaha YDS3 was one of the best bikes from the 60's. And it was a looker in its day. I had one for 3 years and loved it. Otherwise the rest of the video was shite! I rate it D-

This video is riddled with errors from start to finish. Sorry creator, who ever you are. You should move on.

A cushman is Not a motorcycle

There was an article in an old motorcycle mechanics that featured a water cooled ariel arrow,it was an apprentice engineering project, imagine if that had caught on.

I wish I still had my Honda 305 Dream - it is worth20 to 30 TIMES what I paid for it new ($305.00) today.

I had a 70 350 Harley Sprint. At 25 hp.and 300 lbs. Performance was pretty good. Unfortunately reliabilty was a problem, as was the aukward left side kick lever. Electrical gremlins resulted in me pushing it as much as riding it.

The ‘low HP’ and ‘poor performing’ bikes mentioned by Mr. Knowitall here have a considerable higher HP/Liter ratio in the mentioned time period than the Milwaukee produced clumsy metal.

Some of the bikes were heavy but built for the european markets where the average rider was a lot lighter than most of the Americans shown in the videos. I suppose you could make the bike lighter or send the riders to weightwatchers to make the performance better.

My 1963 Ducati 250 would go 80 miles an hour. In 1972 that was one of the fastest 250s available. This video featured photos of the Diana, the scrambler, but no Monza

He forgot my first bike my mother bought me from the department store where she worked (LOL), a JAWA 50cc. What an embarrassment that bike should have been to Czechoslovakia.

This will be devastating news for many. The late Peter Fonda's first bike was an R-27 BMW. We are almost hesitant to access more of this failed attempt to be famous and for an elderly relative who bought a 1966 883 HD Sportster he characterizes as a POS. We try not to upset the old guy but he got shed of that one and bought a Triumph. A 40 incher..

The small Ducati is kinda cool!

I wonder if this guy ever rode any of these bikes, especially that Yammer 250. Get it up on the pipe and away it went with a rush. Shame seeing many of these bikes being slammed simply for being a part of their era. And, he seemed to include just about every manufacturer who made a motorcycle in the early '60s. Of COURSE they can't compare to bikes today. And most of them could be bought with what a high school kid made flipping burgers. Try that today. BTW... Hodaka made some fun bikes. And try telling any Indian fan his bike was a dud. In short, this video is... well... meh.

Those Aerials, were used by our police. You weren't going to catch many villains on those machines! They were called Noddy Bikes, from Enid Blyton's much beloved children's stories about Noddy and his friends.

The 1963 Indian was NOT a V Twin as everyone who watched the video knows except for the guy talking. I've owned a ridden a 1959 Sportster for over 50 years and it's mechanicals are typical of every motorcycle made in that era. Mechanical shoe brakes, oil dampened shocks and forks and kick start only.

The dude who tossed this bit together probably bought a Harley and look at the result....

I think Hodaka’s are more popular now. There’s numerous suppliers and rebuilders around keeping them alive.

The Indian Chief has a two cylinder inline, not a V.

Modern motorcycle failure: The Harley Davidson Livewire.

There should be every motorbike that the US has ever produced.

I might be crazy but a buddy of mine had a Montgomery Ward bike😳?????

lost count how many times he said ''uninspired design''

Some of these should be called scooters. HAHAHHAHAHAHA

my first motorcycle was a 1951 bmw r 25 . i loved it most reliable bike i ever owned . it always started on either the first or second kick ,

Don´t know the difference between Corsaro and Corsarino !

This video only amplifies the uploader's ignorance of motorcycle history regarding the significance of some of the models and their impact on the industry. 🤔

Did you get permission from Kaplan Motorcycles to use their images?

Utter codswallop.

Good grief!! :(

those R27 Beemers were amazing bikes - they could switch from being an upright single to being an opposed horizontal twin and sometime even morph into Harley Sprints - handy when running from the law since you couldn't outrun anything so subterfuge was needed just wondering if the Retro Rides folks have red noses and inflatable shoes ?

The Sprint was a good motorcycle and it was not underpowered

You left out the sears 106 super sport --- JUNK.

I owned an aerial arrow I loved it a fine very reliable reasonably quick bike from that era As good or better than the 250cc rivals at the time

Ah, the Harley Piglet!

$4,000 where did you get your figures a good Cushman Eagle can bring up to $15,000

75 MPH was slow for a 250, yet my 2004 Honda Rebel 250 wouldn't quite touch 80 running perfectly.

poor bikes like the humty back MZ or as i call it muzza or mouhinky zodper ..jeff..

even British bikes with Lucas 'the dark side electric