So, my dad's friend has this 2002 Buell Blast up for sale for $1500. It's only got around 2000 miles on it, and seems to be in great mechanical condition. It started right up, idled fine, and rode fine. The fork seals look to be in good condition, and are not leaking. The suspension is in good order (albeit rather squishy). It does have a few cosmetic defects, but nothing major. The only thing I'm worried about is the rusted exhaust. However, that can be easily fixed with a little TLC, or an aftermarket system.

My mother, who is about 5'6", wants to start riding again, and my dad and I thought this would be a good bike to start on. What do you guys think?

Right Side:


Left Side:


Exhaust Rust:

Small and easy to ride bike, but has had dealers treat it like crap, owners been cluless and generally a lot of em turned into lemon law victims.
I think a decent rider/mechanic can keep one riding for 100's of 1000's ...
Cool.
Buddha.

Quote from: The Buddha on July 20, 2013, 09:02:13 PM
Small and easy to ride bike, but has had dealers treat it like crap, owners been cluless and generally a lot of em turned into lemon law victims.
I think a decent rider/mechanic can keep one riding for 100's of 1000's ...
Cool.
Buddha.

Yup. easy riders. as a harley owner ( former)  here, I can advise. the exhaust is an easy fix. a bit of steel wool to remove rust, then hit with hi temp exhaust paint. it WILL rust at that point cause tire kicks water and road debris RIGHT there.

Quote from: yamahonkawazuki on July 20, 2013, 10:32:32 PM

Quote from: The Buddha on July 20, 2013, 09:02:13 PM
Small and easy to ride bike, but has had dealers treat it like crap, owners been cluless and generally a lot of em turned into lemon law victims.
I think a decent rider/mechanic can keep one riding for 100's of 1000's ...
Cool.
Buddha.

Yup. easy riders. as a harley owner ( former)  here, I can advise. the exhaust is an easy fix. a bit of steel wool to remove rust, then hit with hi temp exhaust paint. it WILL rust at that point cause tire kicks water and road debris RIGHT there.

Small, yes. Easy to ride, it depends. I found that, for me, it seems to displace my left hip. I think I was trying to ride it like the GS, which it isn't, so that may be the issue. I'm also about 5'10". Either way, it felt a bit cramped. It handles well, though.
As for maintenance, I'm pretty handy with vehicles, so I'll keep it running lol.
And for the exhaust, I figured it would be an easy fix, and a common problem with the way that system is set up.

Thanks for the input so far, guys!

You could do worse.  The blast should be fairly easy to ride.  Exciting...no.

Well, easy to ride if you're under 5ft ...
Past that you start looking like a gorilla stuffed into a matchbox.
Cool.
Buddha.

I was actually looking into one of these for my g/f (she ended up not liking the looks), and found a friend of a friend who let me take it out and test ride it. First off, it's a tiny bike. I'm just under 6', and I'm not the most agile, but I could myself getting really cramped up on this thing after a couple of minutes. The belt drive is cool and funky looking, but I've heard it's PITA to replace and apparently it's a weak point of the bike. The bike is pretty popular with the stunt crowd, but the first thing that has to be done is either upgrade to a larger belt or do a chain swap because the original belt just snaps under any *above average* abuse. I wasn't too impressed with the brakes. The rear brake has that good ol' GS500 squeal and the front brake needed a lot of pressure to slow me down. And like the GS500, the suspension is almost unusable for anyone over 200lbs. It also vibrates like CRAZY. Would be fun for short trips around town, but long trips are out of the question.

The high point of the bike (many people disagree) is the little thumper engine. It's a torque monster for what it is. I found it really fun, but the redline is SO low that you find yourself constantly hitting it before shifting. The lack of a tach also doesn't help at all. And torque is really all it has, it has zero top-end power. Above 80km/h it stops being fun. This is definitely a city commuter bike. Unlike the GS, I think it really was geared more towards women with small frames and light weight, which was why I was looking at one for the gf. Too bad she didn't like it, I think it would have been a great first bike for her. The insurance quotes I got were even a bit cheaper than the GS500, maybe because it's only a single cylinder?

Hope this helps a bit.