I bought a 2000 Yamaha Blaster in November of 1999. I thought it may have been a little too small for me and that this little quad probably wouldn’t be fast enough and powerful enough for me. I needed it to get through some tough winters in Buffalo and I wasn't sure if this was the right quad to do it with. I was wrong, the Blaster had a lot of power for its 200cc motor and it got up to its top speed quite fast. I put a DG pipe on it and a 14 tooth front sprocket. After all of that it went about 70mph top speed, that’s pretty fast for such a small quad.

The Blaster needs pretty high maintenance. You have to change oils, etc. frequently but the one thing I hardly ever have to replace is the spark plug. I know I should but after 4 months of hard riding with the same one it still starts on one kick of the kick-starter. The only thing I don’t like is that it runs terribly, if at all, without at least 90 octane gas.

One thing i do recommend doing if you plan on buying a Blaster is turning around the front rims. Turn them so the side that faces out (with the valve stem) is facing in. This adds a few inches on the outside of your wheelbase and gives you much better handling in snow and mud. It also makes the bottom of the wheels tilt outward a little which makes it easier to get over tall logs and rocks.(Personally I think it makes it look a lot better too.)

The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that the rear brake broke 2 months after I bought it. It may have been my fault for leaving it out in February when it was freezing cold and snowing. I went in my house for 10 minutes and when I came outside the temp was hovering at about -10 degrees and there was 4 inches of snow on top of it. The front brake locked up but broke free after a few minutes of hot water and WD-40. I had to take off the back brake caliper to ride for the day, it was ok because there was a foot of snow on the ground and it stopped fairly easily going through that much snow. It did cost me about $50 in repair regardless.

The Blaster is a fairly cheap quad in price. With tax added I only paid $3300. If I wanted to go a step up to the Banshee I would have paid double that price. For now I’m just going to stick with my little 200cc Blaster.


* I know I said I was going to stick with my Blaster but I decided over the summer that I wanted something with a little more power. I gave the Blaster to my nephew and I bought a Banshee for myself. What a step up it was. I will write an opinion about it soon.




Recommended: Yes