Buddy 50 Brake ????

argus30 · Post by **argus30** » Thu Jul 07, 2011 10:03 pm

This is my first real post on this forum. I am an avid reader, but not so frequent poster.

I bought a new 2009 buddy 50 in June of 2011. Here is my situation.

I am burning through front brake pads on my buddy 50. I am replaced my first set at 1600 miles and am now ready to replace them again at 3800 miles. After reading some threads on this forum, it seems like the 50's go through front brakes a whole lot faster than the others. BTW, I am about 155 pounds and do mostly in town driving.

Here is my question: Is it worth it for me to buy the more expensive brake pad from EBC rather than the stock pad? The price difference is about $15. Does anyone have an opinion about the EBC? Do they last longer?

I feel like I am destined to pay for new brakes every 1600 miles and that makes me cringe. I have spoken to my genuine dealer and they seemed unconcerned about the entire ordeal. I took the scoot in this afternoon to inquire about getting my brakes checked for some type of other defect and/or issue and they merely confirmed, that yes, I did need new brakes. athankyou dealer.

So if anyone has any advice or opinion about this, I would love to hear it.

Dooglas · Post by **Dooglas** » Thu Jul 07, 2011 11:10 pm

Hmmm, is there any difference between the disc brake on the 50 and on the 125? The 125 brake seems quite long lived and it isn't obvious to me that there is anything about the 50 that would cause it to go through pads faster than the 125. Course, your own riding style will have some effect (40 mph with your hair on fire

)

TVB · Post by **TVB** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 1:30 am

I've got 10K on my 50, and I'm still on my second set of front pads (unless my dealer replaced them without mentioning it during one of my occasional "yo, fix him up for me" services). But it's the number of stops, not the number of miles that really matters, and a sizeable minority of my riding has been on the open road.

One thing to make sure you aren't doing is pulling the brakes while you still have the throttle open. That just burns extra gas and pad. Also, even though the front brake is the strong one, make sure you're giving the back one its fair share of the work too.

argus30 · Post by **argus30** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:39 pm

I feel like after the first set, I really concentrated on using both brakes equally. Most of my riding is stop and go in town riding so I can understand the pads wearing faster than if I was cruising. I don't think I hold the throttle open and brake at the same time. I will pay closer attention to that as I ride.

I will probably go with the more expensive brake pad to see if it makes any type of difference.

jasondavis48108 · Post by **jasondavis48108** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:52 pm

my riding is 99% stop and go and I accerate as fast as the scoot will let me so I'm always stopping from the scoots max speed. I run through brake pads about once every 1500 miles. Nothing to do about it really, they are very small pads and if your riding is mostly in stop and go traffic then you make a whole lot of stops in 1500 miles. At least they are easy to replace

I have a how to up here somewhere on how to change the front brake pads, I can't imagine having to go to the shop to have this done every 1500 miles. Especially if the Buddy 50 where still my only scoot.

Ray Knobs · Post by **Ray Knobs** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:54 pm

when u put the new ones on did the wheel spin freely or was there any drag?

argus30 · Post by **argus30** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 5:48 pm

I am not sure about the drag after the 1st replacement. I have the next set on order and once they arrive, I think I am going to take it to another shop. I am not all too comfortable with my dealer's shop. They are a Harley dealership that started selling Vespas and Buddys a few years ago. They don't really have a scooter mentality.

I really would like to try to replace them myself, but my fears of really screwing things up prevent me from doing it. Is it really pretty straight forward to do? I have seen the how-to thread. Maybe I will muster up my inner mechanic and give it a go.

jasondavis48108 · Post by **jasondavis48108** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 10:17 pm

argus30 wrote:I am not sure about the drag after the 1st replacement. I have the next set on order and once they arrive, I think I am going to take it to another shop. I am not all too comfortable with my dealer's shop. They are a Harley dealership that started selling Vespas and Buddys a few years ago. They don't really have a scooter mentality.

I really would like to try to replace them myself, but my fears of really screwing things up prevent me from doing it. Is it really pretty straight forward to do? I have seen the how-to thread. Maybe I will muster up my inner mechanic and give it a go.

If you have any tinkering experience at all then the jobs is very easy. I am no mechanic and there's lots of stuff I may well leave to the good folks at Scoot Around Town, but replacing the front brake pads was a snap and I didn't have a decent service manual to work from. I took lots of pics so I knew how the thing went back together and made sure I torqued everything back down to spec. I also rode it up to my awesome local dealer to have them give it a quick look just to make sure I didn't do anything really stupid the first time

as for brake pad drag, I noticed a very slight drag the first time I replaced the brakes & it freaked me out but my local shop said it was normal after replacing the pads so I didn't worry about it. Now if it were more than a very slight drag then you'd need to figure out why it's happening and deal with it.

viney266 · Post by **viney266** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 10:31 pm

when you get the new pads installed. Make sure you mention to the mechanic that you are going through front pads rather quickly. That way he can double check and make sure nothing is dragging.

I run EBC's on my bikes, too. So why not the scoot? I"d give "em a try and see if its any better.
Be sure to let us know.

argus30 · Post by **argus30** » Sat Jul 09, 2011 3:05 pm

well, I ordered the EBC's and will attempt to install myself. Fingers crossed all goes well.

I will follow the how-to and report back with by experience. I feel like I am somewhat mechanically inclined so I hope it all goes well.

Thanks for all of the info and tips!!!

argus30 · Post by **argus30** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:19 pm

So I did it! I replaced my front brake pads last night.

Thanks so much to jasondavis48108 for the tutorial. I got a little freaked out and frustrated at times, but I took some deep breaths, re-read the how-to and finished the job.

I am pretty proud of myself for doing it. As jason mentioned, there is a slight bit of drag, so I am going to monitor that and hopefully it goes away as the brakes get settled in.

Thanks for help and the information. I hope the EBC's last longer that the stock pads. I will report at time goes on.

Thanks again!

jasondavis48108 · Post by **jasondavis48108** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:26 pm

argus30 wrote:So I did it! I replaced my front brake pads last night.

Thanks so much to jasondavis48108 for the tutorial. I got a little freaked out and frustrated at times, but I took some deep breaths, re-read the how-to and finished the job.

I am pretty proud of myself for doing it. As jason mentioned, there is a slight bit of drag, so I am going to monitor that and hopefully it goes away as the brakes get settled in.

Thanks for help and the information. I hope the EBC's last longer that the stock pads. I will report at time goes on.

Thanks again!

I was freaked out the first time I did it too, but the pride in a job well done was well worth the initial stress. I'll be interested to see if these pads last longer too.