I'm want to convince my wife that our 18 year old should get his mc license, so
he can ride the NH. The I can get a Suzuki S40. Any convincing arguments you
could recommend?
Thank you,
Ross
-----Original Message-----
From: "Joey Kelley" <sandp...@gmail.com>
Sent: 8/22/2013 1:56 PM
To: "nighthawk_lovers@googlegroups.com" <nighthawk_lovers@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Nighthawk Lovers] Buell Blast Impressions
All,
On another thread, I believe it was Allen who asked what I thought of
the Buell Blast I picked up for my wife.
Well I finally got the opportunity to ride it for a distance the other
night. I put about 20 miles on it, half highway and half 25-45 MPH streets. For
those that aren't aware, the Blast is a 500 (492 really) cc single cylinder
motorcycle built so that one could have an HD made starter bike. It was
constructed by essentially taking one half of an 883 Sportster engine and
making it into a thumper. Single cylinder bikes are known for vibrating and
this one is no exception - that having been said, you notice it at idle but
once you've gotten above about 5 MPH it smooths out, unless of course you lug
it. Its surprisingly quick - Gears 1-4 are your power gears and 5th is an over
drive. Like most bikes that are small displacement, top gear roll on power is
more like a hurry up and wait experience. The last naked bike I rode was my 450
that I stopped riding three seasons ago, so getting onto this was both
refreshing and a reminder of why I got bigger bikes.
The first impression is that this bike is too small for me - mostly
because of the seat. Buell sold this with two seats available, this has the
shorter one and although it might be great for the wife, I cramped almost
instantly.
Based upon the specs on Paul's site:
http://paulsnighthawkpages.blogspot.com/p/nh-450.html compared with the Blast:
http://www.bikez.com/motorcycles/buell_blast_2002.php I can see why the Blast
has higher performance - one the Blast is 32 pounds lighter (I would also take
a guess that the center of gravity is significantly lower, based on how it
feels) and according to the manual I had on the 450, has one more HP than the
450. (33 Horsepower rated, Buell 34) I don't have the torque specs for the 450
off the top of my head, but I suspect that it is significantly lower than the
Buell's 30 foot pounds.
Once I got rolling and was banging up through the gears I really
surprised myself - out on the highway it had no problems maintaining highway
speeds, even a bit over. 70 MPH came up pretty darn fast for the size of the
bike. The handling, as one might expect from a company that built sport bikes,
is pretty darn good and the bike felt stable at all speeds that I ran it at.
Due to the weight of the bike and the size of the front disc brake, it stops
very quickly.
Its a 500 cc bike and as a result I can't expect performance like
my 1300 cc Yamaha. That having been said - its a competent bike for a beginner
and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a decent starter bike.
One thing that has come out of this experience thus far is that
the parts for this bike are largely cheap - being a starter bike, it is prone
to being damaged and having cheap parts is a good thing.
-Joey
--
-Joey Kelley
JoeyKelley.com - My Life Online
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JoeyKelleyPhoto.com - Photographing Today, For Tomorrow
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