My only gripe with a Blasty is it's size & braking... important if you're a bigger guy. I'm 6'2" & about 230 & I can ride the Blaster that my cousins have no problem & have tons of fun doin it, I just look a lil dorky on it. They can make tons of power, handle pretty good, easy to throw around, TONS of Aftermarket support, you name it & it's pretty much available for the Blaster. Do yourself a favor & ditch the self mixer though, they have a plastic pump drive gear & have been known to destroy an engine. If you get it & do some research you can build it to the point that many a Warrior/400EX Will get it's ass busted! As far as it not having reverse, well, that has it's ups & downs, Blasters aren't really put-put machines, it doesn't like ALOT of light throttle riding & was never designed for trail riding & once ya kinda get into riding it you'll find that your desire to just look around in the woods for a new path & needing reverse to back up & find it really doesn't matter. Additionally, it's so easy to just stab the throttle & spin it around that after ya get used to riding it you can do about whatever ya want. If the one you're looking at has solid swingarm bushings, axle bearings & decent balljoints & front drums, $850 Aint too bad, otherwise, they are typically 5-600 dollar machines IMO until ya get to '03. If I were in the market looking specifically to buy a Blaster it would be an '03-06 but that's just me & if you are just looking for something to ride, the Blaster is a simple, affordable & easy to work on machine that just gets better with each mod. Take that stock machine & if it has good compression just buy a simple Toomey kit for it, that's a B1 pipe & silencer, jet & UNI air filter. You'll be surprised at the change in it!
