Modern Buddy

A few months ago I was having issues starting my Buddy and was educated and counseled here on using Seafoam, and also that I actually could kick start my scooter. All was good until this morning. After not riding the bike for a month (where it was on a trickle charger), I tried to start normally. Nothing, just the barest hint of a clicking sound. I needed to go somewhere that was 7 miles away, so I just kick started, and after two kicks was off and running. On my return trip, same experience. Pressing the button essentially did nothing.

The scooter is 2 1/2 years old, and has about 1,400 miles on it. Sometimes I go weeks or more without riding, but always on the trickle charger. I may have read here that this may be on the edge of lifespan battery wise.

Is my battery gone? If so, can someone recommend a mail order replacement one. I live on an island so not easy to get on/off to go to part store etc... A

Sounds like a battery gone bad for sure.

You can test for this by jump starting from another 12V battery but without the donor battery coming from a vehicle that is running. Hopefully that makes sense.

Glad to hear there is another Buddy scooter on Sanibel.

fried okra

kendoori wrote: I live on an island so not easy to get on/off to go to part store etc...

Well sorta. Access to Fort Myers from Sanibel Island is pretty straight forward as I remember. Batteries Plus in Ft. Myers carries scooter batteries, as does Walmart and Tropic Powersports (which is the Genuine Buddy dealer).

The good news is that it's getting you extra familiar with the kick start. The other good news is that running the bike with a dead battery won't hurt anything. You can even run these without a battery installed at all, though that'll cut out the horn and turn signals.