Buell Blast??

A little background- I have ridden a good bit in the past, including a Kawasaki 100, Honda CBX and a CB900, but it's been 15 years since. I'm large, 6', 230# and old, 64. I have noticed the Buell Blast mentioned a few times here, and have looked closely at a few around here. At 500cc, they are not a big, scary machine, but what would it be like for someone like me? It would be for fun only, riding is flat dangerous around here. (SoFla), so I would be out of town on back roads to enjoy it. Is this something I would enjoy, or a waste of money? I see them for 2500-3000. Thanks, guys.

I have always been curious about these too. I see them on flea-bay for under $1500.

My sister in law has one. It's held up great and she let me take it for a spin recently. Here are my impressions.

For a tall rider, you definitely don't want the low seat version (identifiable by its scooped appearance; they made two seat versions). It is a short and stubby bike, but the tall seat version has pretty neutral ergonomics for a taller rider. They're light and flickable like just about any other Buell even if it doesn't have things like the ZTL brakes.

The engine is built to a budget, and it shows. There's no counterbalance, so it shakes pretty hard, the redline is a bit low compared to my GS500, and I wish it had a tach. On the other hand, they've put a good deal of work into keeping maintenance to a minimum as there's no valve adjustments, no chain, and not even a manual choke. And it has a lot of low end torque. Kind of feels like it would be at home in a dirt bike.

The Blast feels like it was mostly designed for being a practical commuter bike and for novice riders to learn on and build confidence. It's not quite as sporty as the two Japanese 500s, but it's still fun on back roads. If it were a car, it would be a Corolla XRS, some sporting potential, styling that blends in, and a lot of practicality. The question is whether you want a bike that could be compared to a Corolla.

we want a Miata-bike, not a Corolla bike

CarKid1989 wrote: we want a Miata-bike, not a Corolla bike

That would be the Ninja 250. Lighter than many sport bikes, quick but not superfast, and most forums dedicated to first time riders often consider it The Answer.

On the other hand, the SV650, while somewhat less forgiving of newbie mistakes, generally sees a bit more track action.

My wife's first bike was a purple '01 Blast. She loooooooved it! I enjoyed riding it, too. It isn't a model of sophistication but it was fun fun fun. Fun for blasting down to the corner store, fun for a non-highway commute, fun for a bit of peg-scraping farm road riding (we don't have canyons in northern Illinois).

Ours belched a little oil every now and again, and when I (admittedly, a big guy) would do long highway rides my left pant leg would be covered in monkey oil, but my wife never had a leakage problem.

The rubbery grab handles on the sides are spaced perfectly for a bungee net. Everything is plastic so if you drop it or drive into it in the garage everything either pops back into shape or is easy to replace. Yeah, I liked it. Great around-town bike.

Thanks all for the info, sounds like I'm on the right path. Just have to make some more sales now.

I ride a blast and they do like their oil. Mine is kind of worn out with 24k miles on it but keep puttering along. Aside from the oil use there are only two choices for the tires duplop or pirelli. And the early models I think 00-01 used paper gaskets that like to leak on the rocker box. On the 2000 model there was a recall on the rear belt for some reason or another.

The bikes do go on the freeway, I just open up the throttle and it goes to about 85mph and doesn't like to go over 90mph so you'll keep you license longer. The foot controls and pegs are too low to the ground for very aggressive riding. The stock muffler is a crap box, mine totally rotted out and was replaced with a loud vance and hines system, I might wanna turn down the volume on it.

That's what I know and good luck!

Rocker box leaks are a common issue on Evo HD's in general. I've about given up on our Sportster. Uh, "It adds character." Cylinder base gasket leaks are also common, but I don't know about the Buells.

I'm pretty sure but not certain that the buell uses the same gaskets as the sportster. My bike doesn't leak any oil but will burn through a quart in 500 city miles, but burns less on the highway. Whoever broke the thing in didn't do it right. The bike has smoked since I started driving it with 6000miles on it. I hear that if you have the old style paper seals you have to let the engine warm up 5 minutes or you will end up blowing the seals out when you ride the thing.

The thing I like about the blast is it designed like an old motorcycle. A single cylinder that is oil cooled, carburated, and uses pushrods sounds like an engine design from yesteryear so the little beast has character.

Zombie time. The dealer where I'm taking my MSF has a 2010 Blast w/4k at $3.5k. Might this make a decent starter bike? Any potential collectability being the last of it's kind?

I against buying "New" bikes for starter bikes. Buy a cheap sub $1k bike to learn to ride on, then upgrade.

why? because you will most likely drop it.

Or, with $3500, buy a really nice SV650 or spend even less on a Ninja 250, which looks better and is probably as quick if not faster.

benzbaron wrote: The thing I like about the blast is it designed like an old motorcycle. A single cylinder that is oil cooled, carburated, and uses pushrods sounds like an engine design from yesteryear so the little beast has character.

Only good inanimate objects can have "character." Sorry Blast.

neon4891 wrote: Zombie time. The dealer where I'm taking my MSF has a 2010 Blast w/4k at $3.5k. Might this make a decent starter bike? Any potential collectability being the last of it's kind?

The only thing wrong there is the price; see if you can talk him down a bit to $3K. (You may not be able to, but it's worth a try.) I don't see the Blasts having the same sort of collector value as the V-twin Buells however. The Blast may have a bit of a niche following, but the larger Buells have more fans. (Not that I'd ever suggest starting on a Firebolt as your first bike.)

I'm torn on the Blast...Its much less fun to ride than almost every other bike I've ridden, but its stone reliable, and riding a boring bike is about million times more fun than not riding a broken one.

So I'd say go for it. You can always buy something fun and fragile later, and keep the Blast for when the fun bike breaks down.

Jamesc2123 wrote: I'm torn on the Blast...Its much less fun to ride than almost every other bike I've ridden, but its stone reliable, and riding a boring bike is about million times more fun than not riding a broken one. So I'd say go for it. You can always buy something fun and fragile later, and keep the Blast for when the fun bike breaks down.

I'd say the Blast is probably less reliable than the Ninja 250, or a supermoto'd 250/400. Both aren't exactly Guzzis.

It doesn't even sound like the Blast is very reliable, if benzbaron's experiences are any indication.

I've owned 3 tube frame Buells and can speak to Buell reliability. I haven't owned a blast. Since it's a one lung Buell we'll just cut my statements by 50% and get the right answer.

Early buell's will not hold up to abuse like a jap bike. You can't ride them on the redline day in and day out and expect lengthy service intervals. There are other high end manufacturers that suffer from this. Most are assembled by guys named Tony or Enzo. My experience is with the older tube frame Buell's so the XB series reliability may be vastly different.

Early Blast's do have paper valve cover gaskets. This means they can leak. Think of a valve cover leak in your car and that's what you have. I know some folks have retrofitted the later XB style valve covers with PVC valves in them to avoid this issue. It works. I'm unsure if later Blast's have the PVC style valve covers.

Quite a few Blasts were beat to pieces when introduced. Like BenzBaron said, if broken in poorly they will consume oil. I now have an S3T with 24k miles on it. A good amount of miles for an air cooled motor. It consumes no oil.

The Blast is a model of simplicity. If you buy one you can fix it. Especially if you're knocking around in this crowd. That's the siren song of the Buell for me. I don't ever have to visit a dealership again. I can buy my parts online and fix it myself, whatever breaks. No valves to adjust. The carb stays tuned and since it's only one never needs syncing. The belt drive is as reliable as a chain and never requires lubrication. The suspension is made from quality products as Eric Buell hated shoddy suspensions. I know. I spoke to the guy. Met him on a Buell rally and he's as passionate, and arguably wonky, as they come.

There's a lot of good in the Blast. It's a reliable learner bike. It only has 33 hp which is good and bad all at the same time. If you want something that has more headroom to grow into..and SV650 might be a better bet. But motorcycle shopping is rarely an exercise in logic. Get what you like and what you want to ride.