Modern Buddy

Does any one carry spare tire? Where do you put it? Or do you go on hope I don't need one? And how easy are they to change?

These Buddy's have wheel set-ups more like a motorcycle than the scooters of old. The old Vespas, etc. had a wheel that you could remove 5 small bolts and the wheel would just drop off...one of the advantage to having a single sided front suspension system. They also had split rims and tires with tubes. The Buddy has a dual sided telescopic front end. You would have to unbolt the axle and slide it through to drop your front wheel to change it out. I'm not too sure how the rear is mounted...I suspect a cotter-pinned single nut and then slide the wheel off the spindle. Either way, it's kind of a moot point as the Buddy utilizes tubeless tires that are MUCH less suseptible to going flat. Just carry a tubeless patch kit (shove the plug in the hole and reinflate) and a couple of the CO2 cartridges that the bicyclist carry and be done with it...MUCH simpler and lighter.

--Keys

It's annoying that the manual doesn't cover how to change the tires... are we supposed to take it back to the dealer when the tire wears out? And even if I can figure out how to change it...do I really know that I changed it correctly? Don't want the wheel to fly off when I'm driving 60s..

You are pretty much expected to have the tire mounted wherever you will buy it...just like you would for a motorcycle or your car. A shop manual would tell you how to remove the wheel, and the tire removal would require either a set of "spoons" or a tire machine. Again, this is a tubeless tire, so a simple procedure ain't gonna happen. Like I said, carry a plug kit and some CO2 cartridges.

--Keys

Keys wrote:Like I said, carry a plug kit and some CO2 cartridges.

And I recommend replacing the tire ASAP. There's a lot of discussion about how far you can ride a patched tubeless tire. I dunno, except I personally witnessed a patched tubeless tire blow on a Vespa GT200 scooter at highway speeds. Not a good thing. The patch only lasted one day. Again, YMMV.

John is right. This is intended to be a temporary fix ONLY...just like using fix-a-flat in your car. Get it immediately to a shop.

--Keys

Thanks a bunch folks.

Bert

Tire repair facilities only patch tubeless tires from the inside now; no more plugs. I've gone 10s of thousands of miles on patched car tires.

A qualified repairer will know if there is structural damage.
A nail hole is nothing but a slash would be major concern.