According to the internet, Buell produced the Blast between model years 2000 and 2009. Buell Motorcycle Company was owned by Harley Davidson. The Buell Blast was a 492cc "sport" bike, and in fact, its engine was based on the HD Evolution Sportster engine of the time, with a cylinder lopped off.
In July 2009, Buell announced that there would be no 2010 model year Blast, with one legendary exception: upon request, you could buy a 2010 Buell Blast which had been crushed into a cube, signed and numbered by Erik Buell.
Then, in October 2009, Harley Davidson announced that they were dumping Buell entirely, and that all production of Buell motorcycles under HD would cease by the end of that month.
That wasn't the end for Buell as a motorcycle name, as Erik Buell went on to create Erik Buell Racing (EBR), which still produces motorcycles with the Buell name. Except, of course, the Blast.
The Blast was not a "great" motorcycle by any means. Buell itself heaped a lot of criticism on the machine at the end of its run. It was just "a motorcycle." Nothing special.
So when I saw a craigslist post offering a 2010 Buell Blast - not in the shape of a cube - I figured, that's got to be a typo, surely it's a 2001.
I contacted the seller who said, no, title says 2010. Cropped picture of the title most definitely said model year 2010. Okay ... maybe it was a typo by the state when it got its first title? I acquired and checked the VIN.
The tenth digit of the VIN denotes the model year. The tenth digit of this VIN was "A". "A" means it is a 2010 model year. Okay ... maybe it was a typo somewhere else in the paperwork, and that "A" was actually a "4"? Which would make it a 2004?
The seller is going to send me a picture of the VIN tag on the actual bike today. Honestly, I expect it to have an "A", because I think I might know what happened. Edit: Yes, the VIN plate has "A" in the tenth position. It is a 2010.
Speculation incoming!
Way back in mid-2009, Buell said "No more Blast, no 2010 model year for the Blast." But there were still bikes in the production funnel, and some of those frames already had paperwork and VINs identifying them as 2010 model year Buell Blast. They kept rolling Blasts off the assembly line as long as there were enough parts to put them together, and just called them all 2009s, even though by VIN some of them were 2010s.
Is this 2010 Buell Blast for sale a super-rare unicorn one-of-a-kind priceless museum piece? Well ... no. It's definitely neat, and a little special, but it's still "only" a Buell Blast.
There can't be very many of them out there, but there are surely others. It's definitely one of the last HD-era Buell motorcycles made, and the model year curiosity sparked my interest enough to dig into some details of the history of Buell and the Blast.
If nothing else, the legend of "all 2010 Buell Blasts were crushed into cubes" has just a tiny bit of extra fun in it.
