i have just sold my old suzuki 230, because every time i rode it something broke, and im only 14 years old so i could not aford to keep it. any way all my friends have honda 250s and ltz 250s and i was going to get one till i saw the price. The blasters look fun but i heard they break all the time and you have to get them rebuilt alot. i do want something zippy but i want it to be really durable. any comments will help. Thanks!

 

My brother has a Blaster and I have a Banshee. Both of these are very reliable. Neither of us have had any mechanical breakdowns of any kind. As long as you limit your hop ups to bolt on items such as pipe and air box they will stay reliable. A piped Blaster will run away and hide from a 250EX.

 

thanks, oh and do you have any idea how much the 00,01s go for?

 

The absolute most important thing for reliability when buying a used quad is to make sure it was taken care for properly. Any quad ever produced will be a reliable machine as long as nobody beat the crap out of it and all the requred maintenance is kept up with. This is ESPECIALLY important with blasters, blasters get abused more than any other quad ever built. Mainly because they're owned by younger kids 90% of the time, and one thing i've learned is that kids don't have any money to spend on things (unless it's something shiny, then they save up their money), some kids just don't even know the word "maintenance". A 2 stroke will get REAL tempermental if you just let it go and expect it to take care of itself.

If you get a blaster that was taken care of good, you're still guaranteed to be disappointed with the brakes if you get one made before 2003, they use a very poorly designed drum brake system. More than anything else I dislike about blasters, the brakes is the worst thing. I also can't stand riding one because they're just too damn small for your average size adult, but they're about the same size as your old suzuki. Actually, now that I think about it, a blaster is sort of like a 2 stroke version of what you're riding now.

As far as how much to expect spending on one, it depends on your location, what condition it is, etc, but i wouldn't pay much more than $1,300 for one made before 2003, maybe as much as $1800 for a 2003 or newer. The newer ones got a styling upgrade (so they don't look like an old snapper lawnmower anymore) plus greatly improved brakes, they basically put raptor 660 brakes on it.

 

Check out www.blasterforum.com for some info on blasters.

 

If I were you, I would look into a 300ex 350 Raptor or a 400ex. You won't get bored with any of those to quick. If tiy want to see what thery're going for, check out kelley blue book or NADA on line to get an idea.

 

Or you could try a warrior?? I had a blaster for about 1 year with alot of mods and it was fun but to many probelms with it. So i traded my friend fourwheeler for fourwheeler and i really like this warrior.

 

Another good suggestion, in fact I think the tires on the old warrior provide a little more ground clearance even, helping to prevent you from getting stuck.