Post by urbanmadness on Oct 25, 2013 0:35:59 GMT -5
OMG, how do the Harley peeps do it?
Just really an observation about the chinese scooter industry vs Buell and Harley Davidson.
After riding and working on my scooter, as well as my friends scooters, I've gotton pretty comfortable getting parts, knowing where to get parts, etc.
It is now time for me to upgrade bikes. I have a 150cc, that has served me well, and I've put over 5000 miles on it since November. It hasn't been all trouble free, but it hasn't been that bad either. The parts are dirt cheap, the community in this forum is awesome and I have found it a very full filling hobby. We actually have a dealer that specializes in Chinese scooter and ATV's, and the guy is awesome. Since I work on about 6 bikes, am a constant fixture in the place... getting parts for this or that. I pretty much have free range of his shop, to the point where I get access to the "Stash". Lots of nice NOS (New Old Stock)
Enter the new bike (or what I'm looking at)... I decided that I really want to get a motorcycle. It's been 20 years or so since I've ridden one and that was just a little enduro, 175 two stroke. Awesome, easy to ride little bike even if it wasn't my style. I probably, all told put about 20 miles or so on it.... Just long enough to get comfortable with shifting it.
So off to craigslist I went, to see what's out there. I found lots of Ninja 250's and 500's, a few silver wings... then I saw something that caught my eye. Something off the beaten trail, not rare but, not common either. It seems in my neck of the woods, everyone rides a Ninja 250 as their first bike and I don't wanna be like everyone else. I'm kinda weird like that. Enter the Buell Blast. This is a bike often bad mouthed, hated, loathed, but I thought, well it is a thumper. Thumper usually means, brain dead simple to work on. One carb, belt drive, hydraulic valve adjustment.. hmmm might be on to something. Very funky styling, kinda like a chinese scooter.... And cheap... 500cc? hmmm in a thumper, it should be a torque monster... Looking good so far. So I figured I would do a little research. How hard is it to find parts, etc. Well since Buell was a division of Harley Davidson, I figured it wouldn't be too hard to find stuff for it online.... Oh how I was wrong.
It seemed like every harley site I went to, looking for parts, only had part numbers with prices and cryptic descriptions, if there was a description to be had. No pictures, no good diagrams. It seems that most harley part catalogs are like this. With chinese scooters, finding parts is comparatively simple. Not to mention, pricing is crazy. I'm used to doing the top end on a gy6 150cc including head for like 100 bucks.... Just the Jug and piston for one of these bikes was like 600 bucks.... You could easily drop a grand into rebuilding one of these engines.
Then I figured I would look at some forums, geesh I'm spoiled with this site and others. The forums for the blast have almost no traffic. There were archives but some of the forums were lucky to see one or two new topics a month. Most had bad links to outdated information. I guess that is to be expected on a bike that hasn't been produced since 2009 but dang, I would of thought that since many were out there, there would be a more active community.
Am I still considering the Buell? Yes, but keeping in mind it might be a disposable bike as to rebuild it is more then the bike is worth. Any tranny problem is gonna put it out to pasture as well. I know the Ninja will have more and cheaper parts available and the Ninja is more refined but dang, I really like the looks of the blast, it's simplicity, and the low end torque is also appealing. Painting a blast would be simple, only four pieces of plastic (the fuel tank has a tank cover), and you could still be street legal without any of the plastics. Put a set of bars on it, and you could have a really neat looking little bike. Doing a Ninja, plastics are more of a pain to remove (I've worked on a 250 ninja, so I know), the tank dents and of course, most of them do have dents, it's a starter bike after all. I haven't hunted parts for a ninja, but I imagine it's much easier then the buell and maybe cheaper. But it is also a more complex machine. And from what I have read, you really need to wring it out to get the most out of it. In the reviews, the suspension and seat are better on the buell, but the tranny is typical Harley, clunks, clatters and all. The clutch is said to be grabby as well but I'd get used to that. I think the buell looks unique and sculptured, if you ignore the micky-mouse mirrors and the ugly handle bars they put on them and it's gonna need some sort of fairing on the nose if you take it on the highway. The Ninja is gonna be much smoother, as it's not a thumper.
Just really an observation about the chinese scooter industry vs Buell and Harley Davidson.
After riding and working on my scooter, as well as my friends scooters, I've gotton pretty comfortable getting parts, knowing where to get parts, etc.
It is now time for me to upgrade bikes. I have a 150cc, that has served me well, and I've put over 5000 miles on it since November. It hasn't been all trouble free, but it hasn't been that bad either. The parts are dirt cheap, the community in this forum is awesome and I have found it a very full filling hobby. We actually have a dealer that specializes in Chinese scooter and ATV's, and the guy is awesome. Since I work on about 6 bikes, am a constant fixture in the place... getting parts for this or that. I pretty much have free range of his shop, to the point where I get access to the "Stash". Lots of nice NOS (New Old Stock)
Enter the new bike (or what I'm looking at)... I decided that I really want to get a motorcycle. It's been 20 years or so since I've ridden one and that was just a little enduro, 175 two stroke. Awesome, easy to ride little bike even if it wasn't my style. I probably, all told put about 20 miles or so on it.... Just long enough to get comfortable with shifting it.
So off to craigslist I went, to see what's out there. I found lots of Ninja 250's and 500's, a few silver wings... then I saw something that caught my eye. Something off the beaten trail, not rare but, not common either. It seems in my neck of the woods, everyone rides a Ninja 250 as their first bike and I don't wanna be like everyone else. I'm kinda weird like that. Enter the Buell Blast. This is a bike often bad mouthed, hated, loathed, but I thought, well it is a thumper. Thumper usually means, brain dead simple to work on. One carb, belt drive, hydraulic valve adjustment.. hmmm might be on to something. Very funky styling, kinda like a chinese scooter.... And cheap... 500cc? hmmm in a thumper, it should be a torque monster... Looking good so far. So I figured I would do a little research. How hard is it to find parts, etc. Well since Buell was a division of Harley Davidson, I figured it wouldn't be too hard to find stuff for it online.... Oh how I was wrong.
It seemed like every harley site I went to, looking for parts, only had part numbers with prices and cryptic descriptions, if there was a description to be had. No pictures, no good diagrams. It seems that most harley part catalogs are like this. With chinese scooters, finding parts is comparatively simple. Not to mention, pricing is crazy. I'm used to doing the top end on a gy6 150cc including head for like 100 bucks.... Just the Jug and piston for one of these bikes was like 600 bucks.... You could easily drop a grand into rebuilding one of these engines.
Then I figured I would look at some forums, geesh I'm spoiled with this site and others. The forums for the blast have almost no traffic. There were archives but some of the forums were lucky to see one or two new topics a month. Most had bad links to outdated information. I guess that is to be expected on a bike that hasn't been produced since 2009 but dang, I would of thought that since many were out there, there would be a more active community.
Am I still considering the Buell? Yes, but keeping in mind it might be a disposable bike as to rebuild it is more then the bike is worth. Any tranny problem is gonna put it out to pasture as well. I know the Ninja will have more and cheaper parts available and the Ninja is more refined but dang, I really like the looks of the blast, it's simplicity, and the low end torque is also appealing. Painting a blast would be simple, only four pieces of plastic (the fuel tank has a tank cover), and you could still be street legal without any of the plastics. Put a set of bars on it, and you could have a really neat looking little bike. Doing a Ninja, plastics are more of a pain to remove (I've worked on a 250 ninja, so I know), the tank dents and of course, most of them do have dents, it's a starter bike after all. I haven't hunted parts for a ninja, but I imagine it's much easier then the buell and maybe cheaper. But it is also a more complex machine. And from what I have read, you really need to wring it out to get the most out of it. In the reviews, the suspension and seat are better on the buell, but the tranny is typical Harley, clunks, clatters and all. The clutch is said to be grabby as well but I'd get used to that. I think the buell looks unique and sculptured, if you ignore the micky-mouse mirrors and the ugly handle bars they put on them and it's gonna need some sort of fairing on the nose if you take it on the highway. The Ninja is gonna be much smoother, as it's not a thumper.
