Modern Buddy

PeteH

Derestricting is putting the engine, exhaust, and drive train back to their original design specs, freeing them from federal 'intervention'. I don't think you'll be putting the power train at risk by doing so. These scooters were designed to provide years of service freed from all that junk, so you'...

PeteH

Syd wrote:In the olden days of the internet there was an RTFM site put up by one of the research universities. It's gone now, of course.

Bet you could find it using the Wayback Machine at archive.org. I've used it to recover some most amazing old stuff.

PeteH

My 2009 150 had the sticker on the headset calling for first oil change at 300km. I followed this recommendation. If I remember correctly, I had the dealer stick with dino (conventional) oil for this change, then switched to synthetic thereafter. The ModernBuddy consensus at the time was that the di...

PeteH

I don't know about the manuals for the 170i family (Buddy & Hooligan), but in the older PGO 50/125/150 manual, the octane figures were given using the RON method, not the R+M/2 method common in the USA. Thus, the higher RON value was met by 87 or 89 regular here. This really means the bike will ...

PeteH

Hey, Moses,

Thinking about it, but haven't registered or chased down housing. Now that I have a truck, I can actually get [further] out of town.

Pete/STL

PeteH

Syd wrote:You should search the forum for member TVB's MI way rides. Touring Michigan on his Buddy 50.

Oh, yeah. He did just about every county in Michigan over the years.

PeteH

Support your local dealer first, but if you don't have one, get this on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Scooter-Oil-Filter-Buddy-GT200/dp/B004007EOG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1461615666&sr=8-2&keywords=vespa+oil+filter You want this one as it has a hex bolt head on the end rather than the sil...

PeteH

I reamed out the plastic on the end of the throttle tube and put up cheap eBay bar-end mirrors back in '12 or so. Still going strong.

PeteH

Tim, sorry to hear about your slide. The jiggle of the kill switch, and subsequent start, leads me to believe the problem is somewhere near there. You have two brake switches - front and rear, and either one will interlock with the starting circuit. Most folks grip the left (rear) brake when startin...

PeteH

GMax 68S full-face, Bell Classic 500 (in orange metalflake) 3/4, with face shield.

PeteH

I ordered PGO blanks from ScooterWorks, but they weren't on their website. This also was a few years ago, and I don't know if Genuine/ScooterWorks are encouraging that stuff to be acquired through dealers.

PeteH

Here ya go, Storm!

http://www.amazon.com/MAXSA-Innovations ... B000H0P9NQ

PeteH

Couldn't a shop check and adjust the valves in just a few minutes? I may call them to see how much they'd charge, and see if I could watch them to learn for the future. Yeah, it's an easy check = the underseat cover comes off, then the valve cover, then you rotate the engine around to to the refere...

PeteH

Ditto. I had a Prima that I bought with the scoot in 2011, but the wind, snow, ice, and UV finally did it in. I came out one day to see that the windshield was sticking up out of a brand-new slit. I picked up a DowCo scooter cover a couple months ago on Amazon. Seems well made, and so far, so good t...

PeteH

Starting to smell like a bent frame.

PeteH

I had a staple in my back tire last year. Harder than hell to find the leak.

PeteH

The Jr. puts out 0.75A.

PeteH

giddyup98 wrote:Cleaned the jet, reassembled everything and she fired right up.

Well, alright! Well done!

PeteH

And then there's the fuel line coming in, the vacuum line from the intake manifold to the fuel tank (this controls the fuel shutoff on the tank - you might not need to move this), the throttle cable, the electric choke wire, and the clamps holding the carb onto the intake manifold and the air intake...

PeteH

Our local rally this year featured 2-up jousting - see 2:23 in this mini-documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYlXZeBQ6Y4

PeteH

Bought my kit and 2nd-helmet rig from Amazon, no problem.

PeteH

A lever doodad is one thing, since if you let go, the throttle still springs closed, but adding friction with a tension zip-tie, O-ring, etc., strikes me as kinda dangerous.

PeteH

Since the more recent firmware upgrades, Sena now claims some cross-brand interoperability. I haven't had the opportunity to test this. It shouldn't really impact a purchase decision for a new pair of units, but it may be a factor if you ride with more folks on a trip or rally.

PeteH

Oh, in my case the FM radio gets the most use, and I've yet to use the intercom with anyone, but the Bluetooth link to my phone is there so that the Mrs. can reach me in an emergency while I'm out doing the solo-riding thing.

PeteH

+1 on Sena. Multi-party intercom, good range, multiple Bluetooth support if you should add a phone (smart or not), and some models offer FM radio. The hold a nice price point compared to Cardo. You need two kits for two riders, but I've added the speaker/mic kit to both my helmets and can snap the c...

PeteH

Not really even drilling: more like what to trace out with a utility knife.

The installation after that is trivial - long 10mm-head screws and washers go through the rack into plastic spacers and then into pre-welded threaded holes in the front frame.

PeteH

That Italian photo hurts my head. Just because it has a high rear fender don't make it no Scrambler. Where is/are the high pipes? Non-clogging front fender?????

This was simpler in the '70s

PeteH

SeaFoam is a good cleaner, but I don't know if it has stabilizing properties. Check the manufacturer's specs to find out for sure.

PeteH

Yeah, could be. The stock fuel filter is a simpler plastic gizmo, but since somehow you have a foam air filter, maybe somehow you got a different fuel filter as well.

PeteH

What's really embarrassing is when you're sitting on your scoot atop the sensor coil and there are cars piling up behind you and the traffic lights skip you thinking that there's nobody there. I have that problem coming out of my neighborhood in the morning, and if I see a car coming behind me, I'll...

PeteH

=====> Technical Section! Great research!

PeteH

Well, you called it 'green' rather than 'Italia', so you might add that to your search. Doubtful that a thief would call it 'Italia', but you never know. Even in your photo, the Italia badge is missing from the front cowl.

But it may have already been rattle-canned, so it may be green no more.

PeteH

EvPocket - if you don't want to deal with Our Local Dealership (I, too, had a less-than-stellar service experience there), call Mike Taylor at Taylor Motorsports. He was the lead wrench at the defunct Maplewood Scooters, is Genuine-certified, and has handled all my maintenance needs since he hung ou...

PeteH

My shop guy said he had to do the Stop 'n' Go mushroom plug a couple of times, the second time added rubber cement. Apparently scooter tires (and most Moto tires) don't have the steel cording like passenger car tires, which makes it harder for the plug to grip on to. A good glop of cement helped: it...

PeteH

I keep a very compact bicycle pump in my tool bag in the Buddy's pet carrier. It's a Topeak Pocket Rocket. Only about 7 or 8 inches long, and I've brought a tire back from almost full deflation with it. For punctures, I have an old-school plugging kit - the kind with the reamer and hook to thread a ...

PeteH

The spark plug, along with the rest of the engine, is behind the footwell and below the seat. THere's a plastic cover on the front of the engine plastic that has 4 screws - one visible plus 3 under the floor mat. If you remove this cover, you can see where the heavy black wire runs to the "fron...

PeteH

mosesrodriguez wrote:Show off!!!

LOL

Hey, weren't you "iMoses" around here?

PeteH

I was leading the STL long ride (on the Buddy 150) and since we got to the gymkhana late-ish, I had to bug right out for another gig. Would have liked to say hi and chat.

PeteH

The ethanol fraction of modern gas isn't in and of itself harmful, it's more an issue when storing the bike (and its gas) for more than a few weeks. During that time, the ethanol can separate, attracting water, and forming a whitish gunk. Not a big issue for more modern fuel-injected engines, where ...

PeteH

I saw that Genuine threw a still photo into their Facebook feed yesterday, but I haven't yet watched the episode. Funny, I figured Sebastian more as a Tomos moped kind of guy. Not that there's anything wrong with that :-) But there was some other show last year, perhaps, that had an incidental Buddy...

PeteH

The fuel tank is not getting a vacuum, ... the carb is getting fuel These two statements might be contradictory. Are you certain that the manifold vacuum is hooked up correctly to provide vacuum to open the fuel valve? If for some reason that hose is compromised, you're not going to get fuel. Still...

PeteH

Yeah, the OEM valve stems on my 2009 were total crap. You had to support them, and I was terrified I'd crack a leak. At my first tire change, the shop replaced them with bolt-in 90-degree stems that are solid as a rock. I have had no trouble with a small dial-type gauge (Slime brand) that you see at...

PeteH

I was looking for one with a nice, high lumen rating. The other thing to check is what maximum DC voltage can they handle? Early adopters of the VooDoo kits reported problems with certain LED modules that, as it turned out, didn't accept more than about 14 volts. There were some troubles with the Ea...

PeteH

Interesting - I hadn't heard of fuel-starving the PGO scoots. You hear about this on the classic Vespas with big kits/carbs, which is why SIP and others sell a fast-flow fuel tap. I wonder if your fuel filter is the culprit, or if the petcock on the tank is a bit compromised. I guess you could bypas...

PeteH

Scoot.net has a Stolen Scooter Registry.

PeteH

I used ThatVWBusGuy's wiring kit (no cutting or splicing) and these 1156-base LEDs from SuperBrightLEDs.com (they're in St. Louis and have a same-day pickup window): https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinf ... ifications

PeteH

Yep, got a 4-liter jug of Motul 2T for $50, shipped 2-day free with Prime.

PeteH

Depending on how long it runs (and I haven't tested this on my scoot), I wonder if you've got a good vacuum in the hose from the intake manifold (downstream of carb) back to the petcock. If that's compromised, it'll shut off the fuel, then as soon as you exhaust the fuel in the carb bowl, motor stop...

PeteH

In the summer, I sometimes wear handball gloves. The old-school 'outdoor' kind for use with the solid handballs. They're real leather, so they won't melt to your hands in a slide, they've got some ventilation on the back, and they have double layer palms with some extra padding inbetween, so they ab...

PeteH

HiFlo Filtro HF183; uses the 'dreaded' slot top, but @ $7.60 + 6% PA sales tax = $8.06 each from my dealer I figure coughing up @ $20 for the slot filter ratchet attachment isn't bad when Piaggio equivalent filters that fit the Buddy can cost near $30 each :shock: Theres a tool?!! And I've been usi...

Modern Buddy

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Re: Need some advice, stalled and not restarting Buddy