Boy, am I a sap! Editor Tuttle pushed the box containing the Metro Air Force Blaster Motocycle Dryer toward me with his foot: “Hey, check this out; it’s a blower that’s supposed to dry a motorcycle in five minutes!” Hmmm, that piqued my interest since I’d rather spend my time riding a bike than cleaning one. Here’s where the “sap” part comes in: I wandered down to the shop to see which bikes could use a washing, and found the four dual-sports featured in this issue caked with mud and gunk, like they’d spent as much time on their sides as on their tires.
Lucky for me, Metro’s claim that you can dry a motorcycle in five minutes is true. So why not use a leaf blower? Metro claims that since the Blaster blows warm, dry, filtered air, it is superior because there’s no residue or debris in the air blast to scratch a motorcycle’s paint. Air flows from the Blaster at about 20 degrees warmer than the ambient temperature, too, so it leaves no water spots. The 10-foot flexible hose is sufficient to stretch around a bike or go over a seat so you don’t have to keep moving the unit with you.
The Blaster’s power cord is approximately 11 feet long, enough for me to plug into a ceiling outlet in the garage when I continued with my cleaning binge on my own bike at home. The unit weighs 8.35 pounds and is made of steel. You can see water being whipped out of nooks and crannies and all those little places where it hides and is hard to reach with a towel. Wow, drying between cylinder fins and spoked wheels was so easy! It’s also good at removing water that gets between the headlight and fairing, and on mirrors where water can seep out later and leave streaks. And I didn’t need to roll the bikes to dry the wheels, like I normally do when towel drying.
Even though the company claims that the risk of electric shock is remote, you’ll want to take precautions such as moving your bike to a dry place and (duh!) not placing the Blaster in a puddle of water.
Not only did it save time drying, but I also spent less time bending and stooping, great for my back and knees! The only downside was that it’s noisy, so I wore earplugs. My favorite part was having a dry, warm seat so I could ride off almost immediately without getting a damp rear.
The Blaster comes with five interchangeable attachments (one is a connector piece), one with a 1?4-inch circumference for getting into small spaces. Air blasts out with enough force that you’ll want to be holding the hose before turning on the unit, otherwise you’ll have a hose on the loose, and be sure to turn off the Blaster before putting on the attachments or they can fly off. So far it hasn’t blasted off or loosened any motorcycle parts. If you’re a frequent bike washer, the $229.99 price tag may not seem so steep.
Now if only the company would come out with a way to wash a bike as fast and easy as drying one! The Blaster is available through motorcycle dealers everywhere and major mail-order catalogs.
