ATV Scene's Project MX Blaster
From first time racer, to national championship contender…
By Joe Tolle
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| Thanks to the Graydon Proline exhaust and DuraBlue filter, our Blaster's harder hitting top end rush made clearing jumps out of corners much easier, as Dale demonstrates here. |
Since its introduction in the late 80s, the Yamaha Blaster has enjoyed a quiet yet very successful life. Lightweight, quick handling, peppy power, and relatively inexpensive retail price, have led to the Blaster becoming one of the most popular entry-level sport machines in history. These attributes, blended with the right amount of aftermarket parts, can also make the Blaster an excellent choice as a race machine. The 200cc/300cc air-cooled class offers adult racers, a more affordable and highly competitive class in which to gain experience and have a great time. For younger racers, the ATVA’s recent addition of the Youth Production class, allows racers between the ages of 13 and 15 to compete on 4 stroke machines up to 300cc, or 2 strokes up to 200cc. As you can imagine, the Blaster has become very popular, and highly competitive in this class. So if you are one of the many Blaster owners out there, and you have been contemplating getting serious about ATV racing, read on and we’ll show you what it takes to build a Blaster capable of winning everything from your local motocross, to a Grand National Championship.
Our Goal
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| Stuck with stock. While it's a fun trail machine, the stock Yamaha Blaster needs performance goodies in order to be ready for the track. |
Using many of the most cost effective parts available on the market today,
we have constructed a race ready Blaster with appropriate modifications
for beginner, intermediate, and national level racers.
Stage 1:
This stage is ideal for first time and beginner level racers. We
have recently made our Blaster a faster, better handling, better looking, and a more
durable platform on which to build a complete race machine, through the use
of some basic bolt on components.
Stage 2:
Ready to go big? In this stage we will make our Blaster handle as
smoothly and effortlessly as possible. All the power in the world will do
you no good if you cannot get it to the ground, so we thought it would
be better to focus on handling before we add any serious internal motor mods.
Of course we will keep on improving the machines appearance as well.
Stage 3:
With the handling and reliability issues addressed we’re ready
to add the power needed for a good finish at any level of competition. Our
Blaster is going to undergo a serious attitude adjustment in the motor department.
To see how successful we are with our project quad, we will take our Blaster
to a local race to see how it fairs against the competition in the 200cc/300cc
class as well as the open 2-stroke class!
Setting the stage
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| GBC Schredder tires mounted on Douglas 190 rims made a huge difference in our machine's traction, as well as adding much needed stability and durability. |
Before adding any mods to our Blaster, we took our group of test riders to New Vienna Motorsports Park, located in New Vienna Ohio, to evaluate our stock machine. New Vienna has tracks for riders of all skill levels. Their adult beginner track is similar to what you might find at an easy fair race. It consists of small singles, tabletops, and very forgiving double jumps, the ideal place to test a Blaster without the benefits of major suspension upgrades. While we will continue to use this track for lap time comparisons throughout the duration of our project, we will later venture onto some of New Vienna’s more challenging tracks for more rigorous testing in stage 2.
To test our machine, we acquired the riding skills of Dale (Dominator) Montgomery and Tim (TIMMY!) Gruber. Dale is an expert level racer. He is 29, stands 6’2, and weighs 185lbs. Tim is a beginner level racer. He is 22, stands 5’6 and weighs 145lbs. After getting used to the machine, both test riders will get the chance to run two three lap motos and their best time will be taken for comparison throughout the duration of our project.
Stock bike evaluation
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| Project Blaster's graphics kit and seat cover really helped dress up our machine's looks. The grippy seat also helped keep our butts planted in spite of the new higher speeds we were able to achieve with our stage 1 mods. |
On the track the Blaster has many strengths, and just as many weaknesses. All of our test riders liked the low to midrange power of the motor. Throttle response is crisp and responsive, and the motor builds RPMs quickly. Unfortunately, past the midrange point, not much else happens. The motor signs off early, leaving you wanting more. While short shifting, or riding a gear high may be okay for casual riding, it’s not the way that you produce maximum power with a 200cc machine. This motor needs to be uncorked in a major way for motocross applications.
Handling is another story of good and bad. The machine feels feather light when launching off of jumps. If you like getting crossed up, the Blaster is perhaps the easiest machine to throw around in the air that has ever been produced. Before you consider getting all, (Huevos) though, keep in mind that the stock suspension is pretty limiting when it comes to big air. The largest jump on our easy test track, was 35 feet in distance, and provided roughly 5 1/2 feet of air. The landing had a flat top, and if our lightest test rider didn’t completely reach the down side, the suspension bottomed with a mild clunk. All of our test riders agreed, even the beginner track tested the limits of the Blaster's stock shocks. If you have the skill or desire to go big, you will need serious suspension upgrades in the future. Although we didn’t try our machine in any extremely high speed, whooped out sections, we can honestly say, we didn’t want to. There is no doubt that the short wheelbase, combined with overly soft suspension, and bouncy tires, (more on that in a minute), would have left us swapping side to side, and nearly out of control.
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| ROX Speed FX provided us with a set of these PowerMadd hand guards. ROX's universal mounting kit makes mounting on most popular machines a snap. |
The stock tires are an issue all in themselves. If you’re going to simply putt around camp they work fine, but on a track they just plain aren't acceptable. In corners they are horrible. The sidewall rollover sends you up on 2 wheels and leaves you hanging way off the seat in an effort to keep all 4 wheels on the ground. Sure, they may offer you an extremely small amount of protection from soft stock suspension, but in trade, they are extremely bouncy. The stock tires have to go!
Despite the tipsy feeling, caused mostly by the stock tires, the Blaster is a decent cornerer. If you remember not to sit too far back on the seat, and take a wide smooth line, you’ll be surprised how fast you get through turns. Although the machine can cut a pretty tight turn, the narrow width, combined with balloon tires, force you to scrub off a lot of speed if you try and take the inside line.
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| Kyle "T Rex" Schuschster showed up to pound our stock Blaster into the ground. He agreed, we have a long way to go before race day. We're sad to say that Kyle injured his back at a national, and will have to set out the rest of the test. Get well soon Kyle! |
Feelings were mixed when it came to the fit of the machine. Tim, at 5'6, felt comfortable on the machine and had no issues with the ergos. Dale on the other hand, is used to racing a YFZ450 and at 6’2, had a difficult time with the overall ergonomics of the machine. The distance between the bars, seat, and pegs was just too cramped for his liking. Hanging too far off the back of the machine sometimes caused the front end to come up unexpectedly on jumps and he would often hit his knees on the bars during aggressive cornering. To be blunt, he was too big for the little Blaster.
The rear brake is a real pain on our pre '03 machine and must be constantly adjusted for it to function at all. The front brakes work decent, but once again, you have to keep them adjusted. If you have a '03 or '04 with hydraulic brakes, you’re stopping on a dime. The stock wheels can’t take the beating. One of our front rims ended up with a small ding in it before we even began testing. This is another issue we will have to deal with immediately.
Overall the Blaster is reliable, durable, and a fun machine to ride, however, to be considered for racing, even at the beginner level, there are a few performance, durability, and reliability issues that must be addressed before heading to the track.
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| The adjustable ROX Speed FX bar risers with TAG X5 bars allow you the flexibility to set your bars in a position that will accommodate even 6ft + riders, while ROX's aluminum dash panel gives you a place to conveniently relocate the key switch after removing the stock dash. | ||
Let the mods begin
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| DuraBlue's two stage foam filter allowed us to breath easier after removing the air box lid. This setup will allow your machine to bring more valuable oxygen in while keeping more dirt out. |
Since stage 1 is building a beginner level racer, we decided to start with the essential parts needed to make our machine race legal. Graydon Proline, a leader in nerf bar design since the mid '80s, outfitted our Blaster with a set of their new design aluminum nerf bars. These nerfs feature a tab free mounting system, making them lighter, without sacrificing strength. Their, spider web net design also looks cool and will help set you apart from the competition. For mounting number plates, AC Racing sent us a prototype Stadium front bumper and MX rear grab bar. AC’s aluminum parts are lighter and better looking then the stock parts they replace, and come complete with number plates and all necessary mounting hardware. We then outfitted our machine with a Pro Design kill switch to complete the legal issues.
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| Our stage 1 Blaster's track performance is much improved, with looks to match. | ||
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| Wider is better. The Douglas wheels provided 1 inch of offset on each side. Combined with the GBC shredder tires, this is the most cost effective improvement you can make to your Blaster's handling. |
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With all of our testers agreeing that the handling was the biggest problem on our stock machine, we went on a search for stability. Douglas Wheel’s Red Label rims replaced our stock wheels. They are light, considerably more durable then the stock wheels, look great, and are very affordable. Douglas Wheel recommends that you run at least 8lbs of pressure in your tires with these rims, since they do not feature bead locks or reinforcing rings like some of their more expensive racing wheels. Up front, we maintained the stock wheel offset, but Douglas does not manufacture a stock offset rear wheel, so outback we went with a 1 inch offset rim, making the machine two inches wider overall in the rear. More width equals more stability, but if you plan on adding A arms in the future, you don’t want to use a much wider offset front rim, as it will dramatically increase bump steer.
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| While Dale's jumps got bigger and bigger with the extra power and cornering speed on tap, the dismal stock shocks bottomed harder and harder. We finally had to pull Dale off the track in fear that he would break something. We look forward to adding some chassis/suspension mods in stage 2 |
GBC replaced our stock tires with their Shredder R/A tires, 21/7/10 up front, and 18/9.5/8 in the rear. The rear tires have a much lower profile then the stockers, which will go a long way in adding stability and bite in the turns. Shredders feature a tall open lug pattern with a soft enough rubber compound to provide great traction in everything from hard pack, to mildly muddy conditions, while maintaining a long wear life. Although these tires are slightly heavier then some of today’s new generation MX tires, they are also more durable and reasonably priced, making them an excellent choice for the racer who doesn’t have a few hundred bucks to spend on tires every couple races.
Next up is the motor. Our goal is to make the most of what the blaster has to offer, a quick revving motor, and try to unlock some more top end power. Off came the stock exhaust and on went a Graydon Proline pipe and silencer. The Graydon system has a reputation for producing excellent power. It features a sweet looking chrome finish and is much lighter then the stock system. To increase airflow into the engine, we removed the air box lid (for dry conditions only), removed the stock air filter and replaced it with a DuraBlue dual stage foam filter. The DuraBlue filter does a better job of keeping dirt out of your motor, without restricting airflow. For jetting, we went with a 310 main as Graydon recommended (not included) for use with their exhaust system and it seemed right on the money.
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| Dale slightly lifts the front wheels powering out of a corner. The extra width provided by the Douglas rims, combined with the low profile Shredder tires, made a BIG improvement in traction and stability. |
We have heard stories of the Blasters stock oil injection system failing and we wanted to have control over our gas oil mixture, so we installed a James Lucky oil injection block off kit. This kit comes complete with block off plate, gaskets, and complete installation instructions. It’s an inexpensive way to help insure a long motor life and a good idea for all Blaster owners.
No matter how fast you make a quad, you will never be able to take advantage of the extra power and handling, if you can’t confidently control it. To upgrade the controls and make the ergonomics better for our taller riders, we started with a set of Rox Speed FX two-inch bar risers. We are HUGE fans of these because they are position adjustable. By loosening your stock stems bar clamps and swiveling the bar risers either backwards or forwards, you are able to find the perfect position at which to mount your handlebars. This is something you can’t do with an aftermarket stem and the Rox bar risers cost a fraction of the price! Since the stock dash will not work with the ROX risers we installed a ROX aluminum dash panel, which relocates the key switch. Next up were the handlebars. We opted for a set of Raptor bend TAG Metals X5 bars. The TAG bars are much stronger then the stock bars and will hold up better to repeated jump landings and hammering through whoops. To keep our hands protected from flying mud and rocks, we outfitted our bars with a set of Rox Speed FX/PowerMadd hand guards. Rox produces the trick billet aluminum mounting hardware, which allows for universal mounting. Finishing things off, we added a set of black Scott grips, which are far more comfortable then the hand blistering stock grips.
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| Graydon Proline's aluminum nerfs are extremely strong, while their tab free net mounting system shaves unnecessary weight. The Spider Web net design will also give your machine a unique look. |
Since its important how good you look when you go fast, we installed a Project Blaster, Team Silver graphics kit and seat cover. The Seat cover is well constructed and features a grippy top to help keep your butt planted. The vinyl stickers on the tank should be thick enough to hold up to normal wear and tear. This kit did a lot to dress up the looks of our machine and is the least expensive graphics/seat cover combo we have ever seen to boot. To finish off our stage 1 mods, we then installed Golden West Cycle number plate backgrounds, with One Industries 8 inch numbers. While it’s not necessary to mount numbers and number plates on your rear fenders to be race legal, most racers use them to make it easier for scorers to see their numbers.
STAGE 1 Track test
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| While not overly loud, The Graydon Proline silencer gave our Blaster a powerful throaty grunt. |
So did we improve the machine? You bet! When you ride the machine, you immediately notice that it feels like your riding a slightly larger quad. Dale and Tim both agree that the Rox bar risers make the machine much more comfortable. We set the bar risers leaned a few degrees forward in order to raise the bars and stretch out the cockpit. You could actually see the difference in Dale’s body position as he rode the machine. His more forward body position helped to keep the front end down on jumps and both testers liked the bend of the TAG bars.
With our testers feeling more confident, they were free to explore enhanced power and handling of the machine. As you traverse the track, you immediately notice that the power has been transformed. Gone is the lazy bottom to mid power curve and in its place is a more potent mid range rush with good top end over-rev. While the bottom is a bit weaker then stock, you can still lug the machine around if you want to, but why would you? The Graydon Proline exhaust system and DuraBlue filter definitely wake the motor up with a broad and fun to ride power curve. Short shifting is no longer the way to go. Shift it, rev it out, and shift it again. The top end will definitely come in handy at the end of long straights.
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| For years Graydon's Blaster exhaust has been a favorite among the racing community and for good reason. The Graydon pipe/silencer really brings the upper mid and top end power to life. This is how the Blaster is supposed to run! |
While the power definitely helped our testers pick up their lap times, we all agreed, the biggest lap time improvement came from the tire/wheel package. The extra width provided by our Douglas wheels, combined with the low profile rear Shredder tires allowed our testers to push much harder through corners. Our test track was hard packed throughout our testing sessions and the Shredders hooked up like glue. The steering was precise with very little pushing and out back the machine was totally hooked up coming out of corners. While we didn’t take the machine onto one of the other tracks, which were disked and watered, we know from previous experience that these tires work equally well in loamy conditions. Look for more on that in stage 2.
Overall, we were very impressed with our machines improvement. Not only does our machine perform much better on the track, it gets a lot more attention due to the improvement in styling. We suffered no mechanical failures during our testing. That’s good, especially considering how forgiving the test track was. We will see how all the components hold up in the next 2 stages as we take our machine onto some of New Vienna’s more difficult tracks.
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AC Racing sent us a MX grab bar and this prototype Stadium style front bumper. Yeah, they look great and reduce weight to boot. |
Now for the bad news, all of the improvements have further enhanced one of the worst traits of the Blaster, the suspension. While lower profile tires help cornering and overall handling, if your suspension is dismal, there is less tire sidewall to cushion the hit when your shocks bottom. This is no fault of our tires, it would happen with any low profile tire. Now that we got rid of the stock tire rollover and widened the machine a bit with the rear rims, the narrow width of the stock axle and A arms combined with soft shocks that allow too much body roll, hold the machine back.
Is it good enough for a beginner level racer?
Well our testers sure think so and Dale has plenty of racing experience. Dale
improved his 3-lap moto time by 10 seconds and more impressively, Tim knocked
over 20 seconds off his time! That’s quite a few bike lengths over your
competition at the finish line.
| Rider | Stock | Stage 1 |
| Dale Montgomery | 2:35:44 | 2:25:10 |
| Tim Gruber | 3:00:66 | 2:37:65 |
So what’s next?
We can’t hold back anymore! It took physical restraint to keep Dale
off New Vienna’s 60ft tabletop, so in our next stage we will put our
Blaster through some serious chassis and suspension upgrades. We will also
do some serious work on getting rid of our Blasters '80’s styling. Check
back in a few weeks to see how much more we can improve our project Blaster,
watch our testers get some BIG AIR, and don’t forget to check ATV Scene
often for all the latest race results, industry news, and product evaluations.
STAGE 1:
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CONTACTS:
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Project Blaster Stage 2
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