well today i went to the my local bike dealer to buy some oil. and i was hanging with one of my buddys earlier this week and he wants to start riding and he wanted to buy a buell blast. well anyway back to what i was saying. well i researched them and there a 500cc bike with a 34hp and adjustable seat. well i saw one for the first time today and boy i was not impressed exspecially since right next to it was a 2002 gs(sweet) :mrgreen: and well just had to let that out. you figure for harley they would have added more power to there beginner bike 34hp with a 5sp tranny, i repeat raspberries to the buell blast!! ;)
don't knock the buell blast too much. it's doesn't have much horsepower, but it does create a decent amount of torque, it's very unintimidating to ride, and has a seat about 3" lower than the gs500. remember, even a gs500 is too big or too scary for some people.
34 Hp is about 5 less than a stock GS and the blast makes more torque to its a pretty even swap. Don't knock it, it ain't that bad.
There is a Buell owner in a group I occasionally ride with. He always has a problem with it and he standing excuse no matter the problem..."it's a Buell"...enough said.
http://www.mybuell.com/
Where will you break down today....
If you read it, you will be shocked by the poor quality of Buell and the tactics they have.
It doesn't seem to be contained to 1 model. The bigger Buells give lots of problems too. The Harley engines they use aren't up to the tuning that was done to them. Scored cylinderwalls, holed pistons, overheating, high oil usage....
It's shocking that a company can sell such junk to people and get away with it.
I had a chance to check out the Buells at the motorcycle show in Dallas this weekend and some of them look cool from about 15 feet away. But hopping on a few it seemed to me that the finish on them is crappy with lots of flimsy plastic. :roll: I can't stand that in cars or bikes. I guess if you insist on a "made in USA" bike and don't want an oversized cruiser, you don't have other options though. Other than that, I couldnt' explain why they sell. :dunno:
Matty,
What was your opinion of the show in Dallas? I was there all weekend but didn't see much of it.
Curby
Buell have a bad name... From a marketing stand point, there's not position for an american sportbike.
A friend of mine has a 2000 lightning... He's had so such trouble with it. Just the type of trouble you'd expect from a company that just started making bikes, and that's not been in the biz long enough to troubleshoo them.....
Tell your buddy to go with a jap. Besides, the blast looks way to small for an adult male. it looks too much like a moped not a motorcycle
Curby -- the show in Dallas was really cool. It was my first motorcycle show, so I don't have anything to compare it to. But it gave me the chance to sit on 40 or so different bikes of all makes and really feel the differences in ergonomics. Riding them is obviously another thing, but at least I now understand better what I do and don't like about the design of some bikes. Got to spend a lot of time ogling the new FZ6 -- so freakin' sweet. The combo of a real comfortable ride with a more street-friendly R6 engine seems like a dynamite combo. Also, sat on the 599 which is impressive as well. Two things disappointed me though: Suzuki didn't have any naked SVs there -- only some '03 SVS models. I was told the '04 SV will be out in April and will have some minor changes to make it an even more comfortable ride -- slightly lower pegs and more domed seat rather than flat. Other than that I don't think they're messing with the basic formula of the bike. The second thing that sucked was that the gear selection was weaker than I was hoping for. It may be because I was there on the last day of the show though, not sure. If you get a chance to see the show in another city, I'd take it. :cheers:
I hadn't been there in 3 years and there were more vendors this time. But, I heard other say that there were less than last year. I was there as Field Rep for the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club, so I didn't have a lot of time to take in the show. The St. Louis and Kansas City shows aren't on the schedule for 2004 and I probably won't make the Denver or Atlanta shows.
If anyone is interested, pictures of my display are here
http://tinyurl.com/wd5o
Curby
I took my test on a Blast. It's great little beginners bike. They sell a bunch of them because HD does or did have an incentive plan. If you bought a Blast and then trade it in before a certain time they will give you the full price of the bike towards the trade in on a Harley. They are really going for women learning to ride who want to ride a Harley but are intimidate by Sportsters or big twins.
The Blast is WAY too small for me (I don't dig looking like a Shriner THAT much) but I loved my 97 S3 to death and would buy another in a heart beat.
Obviously opinions vary on any bike in existence.
Almost bought one of the them earlier this year. Local dealer was selling them super cheap at $2995 out the door. Boy am I glad I didn't. They look really cheap side-by-side with most other bikes. 500cc single vibrates like Madonna's dildo too! Better off with my '96 GS at about half the cost.