Are there any more real world Blast reviews? Ive only seen one thread here in them.
Any Real World Blast Reviews?
- Thread starter cek
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We demo-ed one last year. Year before? Whenever they first came out. Yah, year before. We were pretty disappointed. Some of it may have been calibration, it clearly didn't have high elevation clutching. Handled strange, no power, bad suspension. Would have been a great deal for $4000? but not what they actually cost. And will never be a real mountain sled. Better to put the kiddo on a full size at that point, it isn't that much smaller than a full size sled. Tater was 9 I think then, he hopped right off and back onto his M6000, said "Nope."
I would compare it to the old Skidoo Freestyle. If your kid just putts around on the lake and will never have ambitions for more, great sled. My neighbor has a Freestyle, perfect sled for his kid. But that is why the Freestyle never took off. Yes, they are hard to find and valuable now, but for a very small segment of the market. Kudos to Cat for trying to fill the gap, but they missed in my opinion. At least in the mountain segment. Maybe the trail Blasts are a better fit, I could see that. Or for ice fishing rigs.
But we did ride a prepro demo. Maybe they tightened things up a bit. Haven't seen one since.
I would compare it to the old Skidoo Freestyle. If your kid just putts around on the lake and will never have ambitions for more, great sled. My neighbor has a Freestyle, perfect sled for his kid. But that is why the Freestyle never took off. Yes, they are hard to find and valuable now, but for a very small segment of the market. Kudos to Cat for trying to fill the gap, but they missed in my opinion. At least in the mountain segment. Maybe the trail Blasts are a better fit, I could see that. Or for ice fishing rigs.
But we did ride a prepro demo. Maybe they tightened things up a bit. Haven't seen one since.
J
Thanks Devilmanak, I've been looking for a modern replacement for my Polaris Indy Lite GT sleds that are close to thirty years young. We don't do mountain riding, mostly in and out of a family cabin on a lake but work the machines hard hauling freight and surviving overflow. It appears that Cat and Yamaha have crawled in bed and produced a couple of sleds aimed at the smaller market - the Blast series from Cat and the Transporter Lite from Yamaha. Both use the identical engine (400 cc single cylinder) two stroke and variations of a 146 inch track. 1.6 in. lugs on some of the Cat models, 2 inch on the mountain models that also get the single rail skid. But at close to $10,000 out the door both are a hard sell. I'd have to sell all five of my Indys to buy one Yammy or Cat! The Yamahas are available in Alaska only on Sno Check order, none to see or ride in the dealers. The Cats at least appear to be stocked in Anchorage. So for this user I'm not sold. The bones seem good, 146 track and 60+ hp engine, carrying more gas and oil than most riders could run out but the pricing and availability have to get far better for uptake to approach the Indy series for popularity, functionality and affordability. The market cries for a sled in that range, the Indy's are going for $2000+ even at their age. That's close to original pricing.
Where is your cabin? I am from Ak, know just what you are talking about with overflow. 
J
Redshirt Lake on the south end. As you probably know, all the lakes in that area are prone to having overflow conditions come and go over the winter. Turns out an Indy Lite GT will survive it if you are above 30 mph when you hit it and keep the turns to either zero or very few. 'Course you can't have anything on the machine besides yourself and no tub/freight sled behind you. I had one trip that had overflow so bad I was leaving 3 foot wide trenches of pure water behind the sled. Sobering.
@Yamadoo04 had his 11 year old (at the time) on one last year. The kid is an awesome rider and did awesome on the blast.
Here is an example video. I think he has some more too somewhere.
He let my 11 yo (at the time) ride it for a half a day in the spring last year and my kid, who is also a pretty dang good rider for his age and size, absolutely loved the sled and had a great time on it!!
The one downside he has reported on it is that it doesn't seem like it's really clutched for elevation, and as well, it seems like the longtrack version is probably geared just the same as the short-track version. Combine those two things and it really lacks the low end grunt in the deep powder at elevation. But he LOVED that it was EFI instead of being carbed like the dang freestyle, and even with the ski stance being a bit wider than would be preferable, it's still really easy for the kids to put on edge.
So far the review is good enough that I plan to get one in a year or two when my daughter is about the right age for it. For now, my kid (now 12) will keep riding Grandpa's extra 600 144 and actually Yamadoo04 has a 650 146 Khaos coming this year as his younger boy is done with the freestyle and really wants to graduate up to the blast. That sled will be awesome!! It should provide pretty much all the upside of the blast, and none of the downside. But the cost is probably a good 40%-50% more as well so...?
Here is an example video. I think he has some more too somewhere.
He let my 11 yo (at the time) ride it for a half a day in the spring last year and my kid, who is also a pretty dang good rider for his age and size, absolutely loved the sled and had a great time on it!!
The one downside he has reported on it is that it doesn't seem like it's really clutched for elevation, and as well, it seems like the longtrack version is probably geared just the same as the short-track version. Combine those two things and it really lacks the low end grunt in the deep powder at elevation. But he LOVED that it was EFI instead of being carbed like the dang freestyle, and even with the ski stance being a bit wider than would be preferable, it's still really easy for the kids to put on edge.
So far the review is good enough that I plan to get one in a year or two when my daughter is about the right age for it. For now, my kid (now 12) will keep riding Grandpa's extra 600 144 and actually Yamadoo04 has a 650 146 Khaos coming this year as his younger boy is done with the freestyle and really wants to graduate up to the blast. That sled will be awesome!! It should provide pretty much all the upside of the blast, and none of the downside. But the cost is probably a good 40%-50% more as well so...?
I’ve got a few videos of my boy riding it last year. It is a good sled for kids. No way would it be good for an adult. Just too under powdered. But for kid less than 100 lbs it’s good. Check out my videos on my YouTube page.
I have more of my boys on their YouTube page here.
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So any 9-12 year old kid that has ridden a 600 is going to say they don’t like the blast. They just want the power of the 600. I have seen it multiple times. That does not mean the 600 is the best sled for them. The 400 is a great sled to keep learning how to ride before they have more power. It teaches them how to actually ride a sled and not just go fast on flat ground. You can’t always take what a kid says and say ok have the bigger one.
My boys have developed skills on sleds that many adults don’t even have. And it’s all because they have ridden smaller sleds and learned how to handle them and not just sit on the seat and go fast across a hill or meadow. It’s about learning how to control the sled and the kids can’t learn that when the sled is so big they can’t maneuver it correctly. How many kids do you see on 600s jumping up a drift or off a drift down a hill. My bet is not very many.
https://fb.watch/8Yj2pjO1o_/
https://www.facebook.com/693150289/posts/10164992907315290/?d=n
The 400 is not the holy grail by any means but sure beats putting them on a bigger sled if you don’t have too. I get money is an issue and must be considered. Yes I do have the new 650 Khaos matrix 146 coming for my 12 year old. Honestly I do think that sled will be as close to the holy grail for a kid as you can get. At least for 11-12 and up. We will see how my 9 year old handles it but my guess it he will not be ready for it and the blast will be good for him for a couple years.
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I’ve been in the same boat with what to get my 9yr old last year. Bought him a new 600. It was a bit big for him, but he’ll grow into it. Plus, the chassis is way better, plus resale….. well you know where I’m going. Best bang for the buck.
Curious if anyone else has played with the clutching on one of these? We took the stock pucks and drilled out the center hole larger to lighten them up. I can't remember final weight but it was close to the specs of the high elevation kit. It really woke the sled up big time. It went from almost stalling on the hill to going over Afton. I put almost a full day on the blast myself (6ft 200lbs) and while it would not go straight up anything I had a riot picking my way through the trees and messing around picking lines trying to get to the top. I do think if a guy could find a cheap set of take off shocks from an alpha that would really make the sled much better as it would lift it up out of the snow a little bit more and not let it bottom out so easily. Another thing I think would make a huge difference would be to raise the compression, I really don't know if you could start one of these things by pulling the rope, it feels like the recoil is not connected to anything.
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Hoping someone goes through the headache of clutching the longtracks for elevation. Cause I am not as eager to go through it anymore . Lol.
Both our Venoms clutching were way off at elevation. Sometimes couldn’t get track to turn in heavy snow when stuck. Been looking for shocks for a while. But I do think they are a great learning sled.
Lightening up the goofy little weights helps a LOT. The thing doesnt have much power at all so it needs to at least pull full RPM. That makes a big difference.
"Plus resale"?
Have you ever seen a sled in the world that holds its value better than kid sleds?
Snoscoots from the 80's are still often pulling $2k
I'm selling a freestyle 300 as we speak for $4.5k
I haven't seen a current design snoscoot go for anything less than $3.5k, even the 2018 models that are now 4 years old.
I'll sell my 2015 120 this winter for over $2.5k
Kids sleds have an incredible track record for holding their value in the resale market. I see no reason to believe that the Blast will be any different.
But any old 600? They just follow the standard depreciation schedule. About 75% of new price after 3 years, about 50% after 5 years, and about 25% after 10-12 years.
There do exist some good reasons to buy a 600 instead of a Blast. But resale ain't one of them.
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Sorry, just one more thing. "The Chassis is way better".
Can you help me understand what you mean by that? The Blast is built right on the same chassis as all the full size Cats - that's why every aftermarket part for cats also bolts right on to a Blast.
Maybe you are saying because you bought a 600 of a different brand and you think that other brand has a way better chassis? I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that as I think Polaris has the best chassis currently. But I'm just wondering if that is what you are meaning.
D
I’ve got a set up that’s been working for us with a sx venom so same same.
Shimmed the primary spring 3mm
Shimmed secondary spring 3mm
Drill weights out to 8-8.4g for 7k elevation.
I just used washer shims and touched them up for ID and OD to fit in the spring cups. Little sled definitely woke up.! kids exact words were “it has double the HP”. Kids 8yrs old and tears around great on it!!! Being it’s lower to the ground, lower seat, lower and narrower bars, hes way more comfortable on it then a full sized sled. It doesn’t have that extra brapp so that means he can drive it around and clamp it and not be going wayyyy too fast too quick. Good purchase and holding its value like a rock so far!! 650 miles so far.
Shimmed the primary spring 3mm
Shimmed secondary spring 3mm
Drill weights out to 8-8.4g for 7k elevation.
I just used washer shims and touched them up for ID and OD to fit in the spring cups. Little sled definitely woke up.! kids exact words were “it has double the HP”. Kids 8yrs old and tears around great on it!!! Being it’s lower to the ground, lower seat, lower and narrower bars, hes way more comfortable on it then a full sized sled. It doesn’t have that extra brapp so that means he can drive it around and clamp it and not be going wayyyy too fast too quick. Good purchase and holding its value like a rock so far!! 650 miles so far.
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