gerald.hughes wrote on 08/26/09 at 19:50:43:The Buell Blast was a competent, basic bike. It did what it was designed to do. When I watched the video on the Buell site, all that I could think of was what a pathetic individual Erik Buell was. He did nothing but disparage his own creation. If he was unhappy with the Blast, then he should have improved it. His wanton destruction of the bikes, but more importantly, his manner of talking about them, caused me to lose any regard that I had for the man and his company.
I don't know if the Blast was actually his creation, or just something Willie G. and the corporate crew didn't want the precious Harley-Davidson nameplate on. Still, re-labeling would seem a better option. Hey, it's not the first single cylinder Harley!
As for losing regard for Mr. Buell & his creations, I guess that process started for me with a test ride of the Ulysses. While the basic bike was really nice, there were two things that should have never made it to a production model:
First, the wires to the heated handgrips were these fragile dangly things that seemed especially prone to breakage.
Second, and more important, the bike was a testicle cooker, and not the kind at the Turkey Nut festival! When the salesman at the Harley dealer can show you the place to put a strip of metal tape to solve the problem, you gotta wonder why a heat shield wasn't included in the original design!
Olean Missouri during this year's Testicle Festival:
Deep-fried turkey nuts:
Tasty, but I would have sauteed them with onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and green peppers in olive oil and served them on a slice of crusty bread bruschetta style!