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Top 10 Most Frightening Motorcycles

Some people are just scared of all motorcycles, even 50cc mopeds with a top speed slower than an Olympic sprinter. But there exist a handful of bikes with a reputation of being frightening, not just among the general public, but with trained professional riders and members of the moto-press alike. In 2015 with every commuter bike having over 100hp and the ability to top “the ton” easily, it can be hard to see what all the fuss was about on some of these. You have to remember though, when many of these bikes were new engine power was way ahead of suspension and chassis design, and brakes and tires were not even up to the standard of today's cheap mountain bikes.

READ MORE: 10 Essential Ways To Prepare For A Bad Motorcycle Crash | RideApart

1) 1992-95 Honda CBR900RR

Honda CBR900RR
Honda CBR900RR

These bikes have much the same reputation problem as the 1985 GSX-R 750; the Fireblade was so much lighter and quicker handling than the contemporary liter bikes it was scary. It is mostly a totally conventional bike for its day, but the fear comes from the 16” front wheel, when most bikes had moved to 17" rims. A smaller wheel makes a bike turn in quicker, which is a good thing if you are hustling up a tight canyon, but a bad thing if you are stunting from the bar to the beach in a half helmet and flip flops. There is no reason to be scared of the CBR900RR, unless you are a nervous rider who hasn’t learned throttle control and proper steering inputs, but that being said, it is not a bike for newbies.

2) 1997-2000 Suzuki TL1000s

Suzuki TL1000S
Suzuki TL1000S

These were excellent bikes, created at the same time as the Honda Superhawk 996 to challenge Ducati’s hold on Superbike Racing, but Suzuki was too clever by half. At the back of their fairly conventional chassis they chose to fit a separate spring and rotary damper with pushrods, instead of a coil over shock. The smaller rotary damper contained less oil than a normal shock, and had smaller metering orifices, both of which led to a rear end that could become vague when the oil got hot and frothy. In normal usage they are great bikes, but if you ride tight and technical courses you may notice the rear end not keeping up with the front. Cook the rear shock and the rear wheel won’t have much traction, which can easily put you on your ass when you overpower the tire with the abundant torque of the V-twin.

3) 1985 Suzuki GSX-R 750

Suzuki GSX-R750
Suzuki GSX-R750

Any GSX-R will scare you if you don’t respect the power it has, but that first year it was more about the handling. The 1985 GSX-R 750 has an inch shorter swingarm than later bikes of this generation and many people blame the shorter wheelbase on it being nervous and unstable at speed. Now, with 30 years of hindsight, it looks like it may have been that riders were not prepared for how radically different the Gixxer was. Weighing about 400lbs, with 100hp, a 56” wheelbase, and a rake of about 25 degrees, it doesn’t seem very radical today, but if you compared it to the 500+lb GS750 with 75hp, a wheelbase of nearly 60”, and a rake of nearly 30 degrees, it would seem as nervous as a BMX bicycle. Ride a first year GSX-R (not officially imported to the US) like a sport bike from 1995 and it will seem pretty normal, ride it like a bike from 1975 and it is going to feel like a race horse after a few coffees. You should respect the GSX-R, but no reason to be scared of it.

4) 3-Wheeled ATVs

1978ATC90-70
1978ATC90-70

These became so popular so quickly in the 1980s that no one thought them through properly. When they began as little balloon-tired back woods crawlers with a top speed of 25 mph, their dangerous handling characteristics didn’t really matter. When they became the hottest Christmas toy (blame James Bond) for middle and high school kids who went out goofing around with no gear or supervision, is it any wonder a bunch of them got hurt? Because we are Americans, we clamored for bigger and faster trikes and the factories made them, and lots more people ended up pinned under a heavy trike at the bottom of a ditch, often with broken limbs. Because in the 1980s there were still leftover activist regulators from the Carter Era, 3-wheeled ATVs were nearly recalled and outlawed completely. In the end there was a compromise: the companies agreed to stop selling 3 wheeled ATVs and offer free safety classes to anyone who had bought a trike, or the new 4-wheeled models. You still see these trikes occasionally and they require a bizarre type of body English to ride fast. These trikes are especially popular with guys who limp and talk about how they don’t let the government tell them what to do.

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READ MORE: QOTD: What Was Your Scariest Moment on a Motorcycle? | RideApart

5) 1975 Yamaha TZ750 flat tracker

TZ750 Kenny Roberts
TZ750 Kenny Roberts

There is no reason for you to fear this bike, because it is as rare as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. There are very few of these, and at this point they are pretty much all locked up in museums for safety. Kenny Roberts, one of the most talented road race and dirt track riders ever, raced it once and won the Indianapolis mile on it, but said never again. He was quoted as saying “they don’t pay me enough to ride that thing” and he was getting pretty well paid at the time. He has ridden exhibition laps on it in recent years, but even on the best tires currently available 125hp from a peaky 2-stroke 4-cylinder motor is just too much in the dirt.

6) The 1971-74 Suzuki TM400