Bought a Buell Friday

[mrphotoman]

We found a great deal on a starter bike for my gf so we made the 5 hour ride up friday to PA to pick it up. It is a 2008 Buell Blast 500cc with only 644 miles on it. It is primitive compared to a Japanese bike but it is really tiny and is light so it is a good bike for her to start out on. It actually runs pretty good, I rode it back friday night (got back at 3am) and it did great on the interstate other than me freezing on the ride back. It is a neat little bike, I bought the low seat for it (25.5 inch seat height) and wow is this thing little with that seat but it fits her great since she is so short (4'11"). I like it a lot, it is a pretty nice looking little ride for her. I had it over 80mph a few times and it still had some left in it.

A few pics with the standard seat:

I can not get over how tiny this thing is though, lol. I will post up a photo of it beside the fz6 when i get a chance.

 

[Pauly_V]

Congrats to your girlfriend!! Looks like a fun little bike.

 

[VEGASRIDER]

644 miles? I guess it didn't take long for the former rider to move on...

How's the clutch? We had the Buell Blast in our fleet, but got rid of them. I always had difficulty with their clutch. Never liked it. Any difficulties with this one?

 

[sxty8goats]

644 miles? I guess it didn't take long for the former rider to move on...

How's the clutch? We had the Buell Blast in our fleet, but got rid of them. I always had difficulty with their clutch. Never liked it. Any difficulties with this one?

The RidersEdge course I took used the Blasts as their training bikes. The clutch was sort of crappy on those. The bike was great for the license test though. On the slow bits like the cones and figure 8's all you had to do was let the clutch out and idle. It has enough torque to carry you along. Made for a very easy test.

 

[mrphotoman]

Congrats to your girlfriend!! Looks like a fun little bike.

Yeah it is not bad at all, it fits her well and is super easy to ride. The guy we bought it off of was a wholesaler for cars and had bought it for his gf (now ex-gf lol).

We are having a "blast" with it though :BLAA:

 

[lytehouse]

That looks like a sweet little bike! I was able to ride a Buell XB12s at the AMA conference....what a fun bike!! It had a wicked little vibration in it though, does Blast do that too?
Anywho...congrats to your girl :thumbup:

 

[mrphotoman]

That looks like a sweet little bike! I was able to ride a Buell XB12s at the AMA conference....what a fun bike!! It had a wicked little vibration in it though, does Blast do that too?
Anywho...congrats to your girl :thumbup:

It is a single cyl "thumper" so it has a big lumpy idle but once you get going it is pretty smooth, at speed it does not vibrate any more than the fz6 i would say. It reminds me a lot of a street/trail type bike except of course this thing is just for the street.

one thing i do not like is the tiny gas tank and no fuel gauge. i ran out of gas on the way home with only 115 miles on the tank and was 10 miles from the nearest exit at 1am lol. I thought oh sh*t but it has a reserve I switched it over and it made it to the station lol.

 

[sxty8goats]

If you are so inclined, you can do a crazy stupid back fire with those things. While running Clutch in, Kill switch off, Kill switch on clutch out. BANG!

 

[FZ6771]

Good Luck with it ! I've a friend with a very trick Blast he's on a 1500 mile trip to NM now. I have a 2010 XB12XT and love it ,just when Buell was gettin' it right.......well you know the rest of the sad story.

 

[Wavex]

How much did that cost you? Just curious

As FZ6771 said, GOOD LUCK WITH IT!

When a manufacturer makes fun of one of its own model as being more reliable as an end-table than as a motorcycle, you know you're taking some risks buying the motorcycle hehehe...

Here is another angle on that Buell:

 

[lytehouse]

How much did that cost you? Just curious

As FZ6771 said, GOOD LUCK WITH IT!

When a manufacturer makes fun of one of its own model as being more reliable as an end-table than as a motorcycle, you know you're taking some risks buying the motorcycle hehehe...

Here is another angle on that Buell:

David! :shakehead:

but :rof:

 

[Wavex]

Hey, I am sure he knew what he was doing before pulling the trigger... just like I did before getting my Buell (touch some wood quick!)

 

[mrphotoman]

yeah i knew exactly what i was doing when I bought it and I quit worrying about what was "cool" or what others thought about what I spent my money on or how others spend their money years and years ago. I would say I got over petty things like that right after I got out of high school. I know some people just can never get past that point in life but I was lucky I guess lol.

It is a nice little bike and is going to be great for her to learn on. I had a lot of fun riding it and I am sure she will too. I paid $10,000 for the bike and the clutch is completely unusable.

 

[Wavex]

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't referring to the "cool" factor, just that the Blast is famous for its reliability issues that's all (the whole Buell brand is actually... the Blast was just one of their worse model).

Tell me I am misunderstanding you though, you didn't really pay $10k for it right?

 

[mrphotoman]

They must have fixed the clutch issues and a few other quirks claimed on the net by the 2008 model or the issues were greatly exaggerated and/or people that have no idea how to use a clutch are just blaming it on the bike because the clutch feels just fine on this one.

No I paid $10,599 for the bike, it was a great deal! I practically stole it from the guy because he was desperate to get rid of it.

I am going to follow the gf in a few days on a trip to the lake and back (around 50 miles round trip) to see how she does navigating through light traffic and let her experience a few mild curves to see how she does. So far she seems to be doing quite well riding down the streets in the neighborhood getting some practice in.

 

[Pauly_V]

They must have fixed the clutch issues and a few other quirks claimed on the net by the 2008 model or the issues were greatly exaggerated and/or people that have no idea how to use a clutch are just blaming it on the bike because the clutch feels just fine on this one.

No I paid $10,599 for the bike, it was a great deal! I practically stole it from the guy because he was desperate to get rid of it.

I am going to follow the gf in a few days on a trip to the lake and back (around 50 miles round trip) to see how she does navigating through light traffic and let her experience a few mild curves to see how she does. So far she seems to be doing quite well riding down the streets in the neighborhood getting some practice in.

Wow... good deal. I was going to buy a Blast, but the owner only wanted to charge me $1200. I figured something was wrong with it.

 

[VEGASRIDER]

I am going to follow the gf in a few days on a trip to the lake and back (around 50 miles round trip) to see how she does navigating through light traffic and let her experience a few mild curves to see how she does. So far she seems to be doing quite well riding down the streets in the neighborhood getting some practice in.

IMO...bad idea. She should take a MSF class. Even with your expereince, taking it together will make it much more fun for her.

 

[mrphotoman]

Wow... good deal. I was going to buy a Blast, but the owner only wanted to charge me $1200. I figured something was wrong with it.

Yeah man do not pay under $9,000 for one or you are asking for trouble! :BLAA:

 

[Wavex]

hmmmm WHAT???? $10,599 USD for a used Blast?

Are you guys messing with me?

If this is true this is the most epic Buell thread in a long while :rockon::cheer:

 

[VEGASRIDER]

hmmmm WHAT???? $10,599 USD for a used Blast?

Are you guys messing with me?

If this is true this is the most epic Buell thread in a long while :rockon::cheer:

Collector's item, just like our Fz.