My 17 year old son is taking his motorcycle safety class in a couple weeks and I'd like to pick him up a nice used bike. I was leaning towards the Buell Blast since at least it has some Harley ties but am open to any suggestions. Pros, Cons ?

 

All I know about the Blast is that it's what Harley used in the Rider's Edge course before the Street was introduced. Does he want a sport bike, or would he rather have a cruiser? Or a standard, for that matter.

 

Very bad idea unless you want a dead son.

The bike will have way too much power for an inexperienced rider. Add the fact that he is 17 and will try to use all the available power just get a rise out of people (blanket statement about all 17 year olds).

A used 250 to 300cc naked bike will help him develop the skills he will need to keep riding for many years.

 

Get him a Honda Shadow VLX. The 600 cc will be enough to learn on while still being very manageable. They can be had for fairly cheap.

 

Agree, good bike to learn on. Not allot of power; so he might if lucky hit 90mph down hill with a good tail wind.

 

Start him out Honda Rebel, dime-a-dozen bike.
This is what Erik Buell thought of the Blast.

 

Buel Blast is 500CC
I would say its fine. So do they

http://www.bestbeginnermotorcycles.c...l-blast-review

 

That's more in-line with the admittedly few things I've heard about it. Just because it's a sport bike doesn't make it a death sentence.

 

Another nice bike if he wants a sport bike is a Kawasaki EX-500. My son had one as his first streetbike. He was testing a 1200CC Buell that he brought by for me to look at and I 'gently' talked him out of it. I think he would have killed himself on that one I was glad he settled on the EX-500. Now he rides a Suzuki Bandit 600.

 

This is just silly. I'm probably a lot smaller than this man's son without teenaged bones and did fine on a Blast. It is a 500cc bike, but it's also a single cylinder engine, so it's not some souped up sportbike. Yes, it can do highway speeds, but I doubt it has enough grunt to get the kid in too much trouble. It's also easy to take care of since the body is mostly hard plastic and it's easy to do basic maintenance on, if you want him to begin learning that.

It's also light, low, and super easy to maneuver and you can pick them up readily around 2k or even less.

I'd say it's a good choice for a starter bike, particularly for smaller riders. Taller or bigger people may feel cramped on it, particularly with the low profile seat.