| Author | Message | ||
     Johnelliott |
New to this forum, but it seems to be a great resource. I don't yet own a Buell Blast, but I hopefully will within a week. There are two options, one is an 04 model, 8000 miles, $1200, ready to ride. The other is an 03, 3800 miles, $500, but owner says it needs a clutch. According to him, he had it priced at $1000, someone came to look at it and on their test drive they burnt up the clutch. Owner went to retrieve the bike and in his words, "It barely made it home, now it won't move at all when I let out the clutch." This seems very strange from what I have heard about Buell's "bulletproof clutches". I'm really leaning towards the 03, and I have read over and over about adjusting the clutch, but not much about replacing one. Do any experts out there think the adjustment will fix the problem? Or am I going to have to replace the clutch? If it has to be replaced, what is an estimated cost and difficulty associated with me doing the work myself? I'm fairly handy with a wrench, but I have very limited clutch experience. It seems very hard to find help on Blast clutches, I'm assuming this is related to the "bulletproof" design that I hear about. | ||
| Reepicheep |
You can kill a Buell clutch, but it isn't easy. And even harder on a Blast. It might just need adjusted or a new cable. If you don't mind possibly replacing the clutch yourself, that $500 is a "can't loose" proposition. If it's near Ohio, do NOT tell me where it is, or I'll go buy it.  If you will have to pay a dealer for repairs, it is closer to a wash, but I'd still go for the lower milage one on the off chance its just a clutch adjustment. | ||
| Johnelliott |
Awesome, that's good to hear! I called a couple of shops locally and it looks like finding someone to work on a Buell is getting hard. I wanted a quote to use as ammo to minimize the sale price, but the local HD dealer won't even touch it. However, I don't mind getting dirty and working on my own stuff at all, so I'll be doing all work by myself. I'm sort of looking forward to digging in it to learn a little. I wanted to ask if he had done the adjustment, but I think I'll chance it and go ahead and pick the bike up. If he hasn't tried that, I'd hate to tell him the fix before I get the bill of sale. Hopefully a little adjusting is all it needs, especially at less than 4k miles. Wish me luck! | ||
| Reepicheep |
You will need a big socket, and maybe a special tool to compress the clutch springs. I haven't done it on a Buell (those clutches are bullet proof ya know  ), but I've done it on plenty of other bikes. Its usually an interesting project. | ||
| Johnelliott |
Does anyone know if it's normal for a clutch to be slipping like that because of the adjustment? I haven't yet seen someone post about a slipping clutch, then say they did the adjustment and it fixed the problem. Maybe I'll be the first, but it seems like the adjustment has helped most people fix a clutch that's a little off, not one that seems to have failed 100%. | ||
| Reepicheep |
A really bad cable could do it, it could prevent the clutch from ever fully engaging. A misadjusted clutch could easily do it as well. You could easily check for that by making sure there is just a little slack in the clutch lever before it picks up tension from the clutch springs. If that cable is tight like a rubber band even when the clutch lever is released, I'd suspect an adjustment related problem. It would be unusual, but that is a very low milage bike for it's age, so "unusual" might be par for the course. | ||
| Johnelliott |
Awesome, you've given me hope! Thanks a ton Reepicheep. |
