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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128608
2000 Buell Blast The Blast is belt driven and suspended at the rear by a nonadjustable gas shock. engine has an automatic cold-start enrichener that is extra money well spent in pursuit of the simple life. The linkage-free gear lever is supposedly infinitely adjustable for smaller feet Simply by rotating it on its base, though you'd think doing this would make it increasingly harder to get your foot under it to shift up, and selecting bottom gear while the engine is warming up always entails a heavy clunk. Even at the best of times, the five-speed gearbox betrays its H-D Sportster ancestry by the auditory accompaniment to each gearshift, though the change itself is pretty smooth and easy. However, once you've Blasted off the line - well, relatively speaking, at least - the pushrod engine rapidly smoothes out until, at what feels like halfway to redline (there's no tach, so this is only guesswork), it's as smooth as a counterbalanced V-twin, and at least as invigorating to ride on a warm, sunny day. That's when the single front disc isn't more than up to the job of stopping a bike with a declared dry weight of 360 pounds figure 385 pounds with half a tank of gas - with little more than a reasonably hard squeeze on the lever, but because waiting for the green is when you'll notice the engine's vibration the most. Even when the engine is warm, vibration at rest on the test bike was high enough to make me want to put both feet on the ground and lift myself off the seat to avoid the high-frequency vibrating massage the engine delivers. Lighting up the Blast from cold is simple and unchallengingly car like for beginner riders: Just twist the ignition key rationally located (unlike on V-twin Harleys) behind the round analog speedometer (which comprises the sum total of the Blast dashboard), thumb the starter button and the engine cranks to life at a fast idle. No need for a choke, because the 40mm Keihin carburetor fitted to the SPECIFICATIONS: ENGINE .......................•..•......Four-stroke, two-valve, OHV, single BORE x STROKE ..............•....•...........88.9x79.375mm DISPLACEMENT _........•........................492cc CARBURETOR 40mrn Keihin carburetor COOLING ........•.................................Air-cooled TRANSMISSION ................•........ .5-speed, constant-mesh CLUTCH .5-plate, wet FINAL DRIVE Kevlar belt FRAME Steel backbone with built-in oil reservoir WHEELBASE ....•................................... .55.3 in. RAKE/TRAIL 25 degree/3.4 in. SUSPENSION: FRONT 37mm fork REAR .........................•......Nonadjustable gas shock BRAKES: FRONT .........•..•..•.........................320mm disc REAR 220mrn disc TIRES: FRONT .................................•..•.....100/80-16 REAR ........•..•...................•..•........120/80-16 FUEL TANK ...........•..•................•..•.......2.8 gal. DRY WEIGHT _ ....•..•.............•..•..... .360 Ibs. SEAT HEIGHT ...........•...................•........27.5 in. MSRP .................•..•..•..•..........•..•.......$4395 real pleasures of riding this little bike become apparent and it starts living up to the true meaning of its name: It's a Blast! Zipping along Florida country roads with Spanish moss hanging from the tree branches spreading across the highway, past 80-year-old wooden houses surrounded by junior plantations and spring flowers, is a magical riding experience that you can appreciate all the better on a bike like this. The lusty but muffled beat of the motor is the signature tune to a different kind of biking than is offered by a four-cylinder or even twin-cylinder maxibike, whose much-enhanced performance level imposes quite a different riding style. The Blast is fast enough to be invigorating without being threatening: It'll do 38 mph in first gear before the soft-action rev limiter flutters the engine, 56 mph in second, 72 mph in third, and 88 mph with a 6-foot, 190pound rider sitting upright in either of the top two gears; it makes no difference which one you choose, except for one thing: comfort level. Strangely, the Buell is one of those singles that gets progressively smoother the harder you rev it, so that in fact cruising at 70 mph down a freeway in fourth gear actually delivers fewer tingles to your hands, butt and especially your feet, than if you save a few miles per gallon and shift into top gear. Not that it really matters, except to those of a miserly disposition, because the Blast is extremely frugal, even when ridden relatively hard. You can expect more than 200 miles from a tank of gas. Although it's sprung on the soft side, the Showa suspension not only delivers good ride quality and is very compliant for such budget hardware, but it's also quite capable of allowing you to press the Blast on a little harder in turns, and there's good grip from the Dunlop tires. You can turn the Blast around in double its wheelbase, so it's ideal for city riding, where its low build also comes into its own by delivering added confidence - it feels very well-balanced at low speeds, which will again help learners get used to riding it. Indeed, while the mirrors vibrate a lot, and the kickstand tab could be longer to make it easier to find and pull out, the Blast's only real downside is that noisy gearshift, which is especially primitive-sounding in the bottom two shifts. Buell says they're aware of the problem, and have an improvement ready for the 2001 model year. The Blast is a bold throw of the dice by Harley-Davidson management that will be strongly supported by multimedia advertising backup, like on style-setting TV music stations such as MTV and VH-l. While there are already those who scorn its New Age street-single styling, or question why anyone would want to buy a detuned descendant of the pushrod gray oatmeal of all the Brit bike single-cylinder yesterdays, when for not a lot more money they could buy a more streetrod twin such as a Kawasaki EX500 or Honda CB500, this ignores the whole rationale of the Blast's existence. It's aimed at customers who are completely uncommitted to the cause of motorcycling - customers who'd just as soon buy a top-of-the-Iine mountain bike or highspec music system as an entry-level motorcycle that they just want to have fun with. You can't judge the Buell Blast's effectiveness as a product except in the context of the customers it's aimed at, and with one 16-year-old daughter already leaning on me to buy her one, after seeing the photos and reading these words, I guess I have close-up exposure to such a target Blaster. At a list price of $4395, the Blast certainly seems well-priced, though uncomfortably close to the Kawasaki GPZ500 or Suzuki GSE500 budget-level twins. However, it manages to be costconscious but not cheap, and seems well-made as well as competently engineered. The fact that it's a Harley-Davidson in all but the name just might be a key factor as well. eN The cockpit Is as simple as they get: a speedometer, Odometer, and not much else. 26 APRIL 12, 2000' "" U "" • e ne1lVs