| Author | Message | ||
     Heavy18 |
A guy 45 min from me is selling a blast for $400 OBO. I know NOTHING about them but was thinking if I could get it for $200 …  Here’s what he says in the ad: Someone recently destroyed the ignition while it was parked. It does have a clean title. It has been sitting for quite a while. The speedometer sensor is broken. There is also some sort of mystery problem that has made it less efficient and less powerful. My best guess is there is something wrong with the primary chain in the crankcase. My concern is that mystery problem, and why does he suspect the primary chain? Any thoughts about the can of worms I’d be getting myself into with this? I’ve never been interested in a Blast but for $200 I might be able to fix it up, have some fun then sell it next summer… or heck keep it to let my sons learn on. | ||
| Zane |
Check the rubber carburetor boot. If it cracks or rots, it can affect performance. It's one of the few problems with a blast. | ||
| Heavy18 |
I asked him why he suspects the primary chain and here is what he said: There isn't any specific reason it is just the most common problem. I tried to adjust it but it never seemed to adjust correctly. Also I thought it might be the carb so I cleaned it and was fine. Not too much help… He needs to get rid of it tonight I think, would be tricky to fit it in after work but I could make it happen. I’m still kind of on the fence though. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
If you can afford to roll the dice on a couple of hundred $$, would enjoy the challenge, and have the time, I say go for it. If all else fails you could probably part the thing out to recoup the $200. | ||
| Heavy18 |
That’s exactly what I decided - I figured worst case scenario I will have my son part it out and I’d split the money with him. So the owner accepted my offer for $200 and I drove home at the end of the day, picked up my Jeep and trailer and drove to his apartment. The bike is ROUGH! It’s been parked outside for a year or more. The owner said it last ran in March and it was hard to believe, but back at my house I put the charger on it and it’s showing 50% so that actually seems about right. Things I know it needs: - Fork seals and rebuild - Ignition switch - Speedo cable - Tires - Air filter (I’ll definitely do a whole service on it) But you know what? I’m really excited about this! I am going to have my 16 year old work on it with me and I’ll let him cruise around on it when we get it running right (we have a CRF230 so he knows how to work the mechanics). A couple pics:  Back home my wife just shook her head when she saw it - I hadn’t told her what I was up to!   I was able to stuff it behind the Uly and get the charger on it.  | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Way cool! You and your Son will have a great time fixing it up together! Nice to see father/son projects still taking place. Have a Blast! | ||
| Patches |
Try the "THUMPer Forum" here may be able to help. Gearheaderiko & Ezblast are probably the most knowledgeable on the Blast. | ||
| Zane |
My first Buell was a Blast and to this day I still have fond memories of it. There great fun, easy to work on and go forever on a gallon of gas. I'm smiling just thinking about mine. You and your son are gonna have a great time with it. | ||
| Ducbsa |
Working with your son is worth $200. | ||
| Kmbuell |
I bought an old RE training bike a few years back just to play with. It now has an M2 front end with 17" wheel, a 1/2" stretched swingarm with 17" wheel, Pro Series cams, intake and exhaust. It also has a set of Crossroads rear sets too. It's a ton of fun! Ergos are a bit hard for me as I age, but still! | ||
| Etennuly |
I altered my Blast to become a tour bike. About the only thing I had to fix was the intake. I used a fuel filler hose off a 2000's Ford van. Ergonomics were my issue also. I extended the rear seat frame to accommodate a Ulysses seat. I just cut the frame tubes to move them back tail light, fender and all, six inches or so back. It's been a long long time. My pictures went down with a phone. There might be some in the Blast forum archives. | ||
| Heavy18 |
Well I can't beleive it has been two years since I bought this bike! Update: My son and I charged the battery, cleaned out the gas tank and she fired right up. We replaced the fork seals and when I went to register it I needed a VIN inspection and then we kind of lost steam for a bit. Recently he's been preparing to go to college and wanted to take the Blast so we kicked it into high gear. We got it street legal, put some risers on it so the aftermarket handlebars wouldn't hit the tank, replaced the horn with one from Harbor Freight (plugged right in and is easily 3x as loud - for $22!), replaced stock mirrors with bar-end units, replaced stock headlights with smaller LEDs, replaced the aftermarket rear taillight with another aftermarket and integrated turn signals, deep-soaked the carb (the bike already had a jet kit and K&N filter), swapped the fluid out on the rear brake, sourced a bushing for the brake pedal, cut the tail and modified the license plate mount, and along the way I had extracted a broken engine mount bolt. Then we were removing the header to modify the exhaust and a stud broke so that turned into a major chore, but we managed to drill that out eventually. Once we got the exhaust modded he was daily driving it and getting use to it. We decided the suspension was way too soft (he's 5'10' and 180 lbs) so we added a 1" spacer up front (already had the 7.5 weight oil) and we swapped in a 2002 CBR600 rear shock. He decided he wanted the extra ride height with it mounted in the stock mounting locations so we added a belt tensioner to take out the slack, which turned out to be pretty simple in the end. And of course, we had to extend the side-stand. I think the seat height ended up around 30-31" The day before we took him to college (which is 4 hours away) we were FINALLY getting around to changing the primary oil and it came out milky white! I was shocked. We ended up running 3 fresh quarts of random oil through it and on the 3rd flush and hot-run cycle it finally came out practically free of moisture. So we filled up with Mobile 1 V-Twin synthetic and called it good. (He had already changed the engine oil and filter) We drilled the footpeg mount to make removing the cover easy and that was a life saver! Everyone on here was right - this bike was good fun to work on (and easy) and Whisperstealth and Ducbsa nailed it when you said it would be great to have this project with my son. We spent many hours over the past couple months together working on this and those are prized memories for us now. I was also able to teach my son not only about mechanics but overcoming obstacles, sticking to something and the joy in succeeding. ANYWAY, this forum is awesome, I poured through THUMPer Forum for information and pointers and that was critical. Here is a before and after of the Blast:  Here is the new taillight - just a cheepo off Amazon but I really like the look:  |
