Modern Buddy

Glad I live in Florida where I don't have to worry about this foreign phrase. Not even sure we get a winter here in Jacksonville. More like a late fall, then early spring...LOL

At least in Ohio we don't have bugs the size of squirrels.

djelliott wrote:At least in Ohio we don't have bugs the size of squirrels.

Protein!

DennisD wrote:

djelliott wrote:At least in Ohio we don't have bugs the size of squirrels.

Protein!

HAHAHA MUSCLE MILK!

SoCal has a year-round riding also. Stabil? Battery tenders? What are those?

Hey Chancerbeans, how about the weather today? I am very disgusted I couldn't ride to work today. Hopefully the really hot stuff will stay away for a while.

It doesn't get that cold here in the Mid-South, but I just plan on cranking the engine up once a week if it's too cold to ride. Otherwise I'll be riding as usual all winter long.

For those in really cold areas I would think letting the Buddy run for a few minutes every so often would beat any winterizing expense/equipment.

A battery tender is no more than $40

We get some wicked winters here in Oklahoma and I need to find some good winter gloves to protect my hands from the wind. Any recommendations? The best I've heard is snowmobile gloves but I haven't located an affordable pair yet....

yeah... but I have never had to board up for a hurricane
+ we get to ride snowmobiles in the winter
I love the smell of 2 cycle (year round) in the morning

ScootLemont wrote:yeah... but I have never had to board up for a hurricane
+ we get to ride snowmobiles in the winter
I love the smell of 2 cycle (year round) in the morning

Shorts year round.

I put my Italia in the shed today (sniff sniff)

I want to get a charger and found this one on Amazon


http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-VEC1 ... 793&sr=8-2

Any comments?

I'm with DJ.

I'll stick with the four months of blistering cold if it means no hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides, sandstorms, volcanoes, palmetto bugs, black flies, or scorpions. And I think I'm about as far away from a Disney theme park as one can be in the U.S.A.

Also, the winter layover knocks a bunch of cash off my insurance, and every spring, I get newly excited about scootering.

illnoise wrote: I'll stick with the four months of blistering cold if it means no hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides, sandstorms, volcanoes, palmetto bugs, black flies, or scorpions. And I think I'm about as far away from a Disney theme park as one can be in the U.S.A.

Amen!

I figured I'd just start mine up once a week and either ride it up and down a couple times in my garage if the streets are wet and snowy, or take it for a few blocks if it's dry. I can't leave it alone all winter; it'll get so lonely!

illnoise wrote:Also, the winter layover knocks a bunch of cash off my insurance, and every spring, I get newly excited about scootering.

Zuh? How does this work? And who do you have for your insurance provider?

I never winterize my bikes here in Denver although lots of locals do. With the strong winter sun, I can count on riding pretty regularly throughout the worst of the winter months (December through February). I'll ride anytime there's no ice or snow on the roads and the temps are above freezing, although I've been known to ride in temps as low as 7 degrees F. Typically, those lows are on my early morning commute and the afternoon temps will be well above freezing.

Plus, in Denver, you can always count on a bunch of "Indian Summer" type days sprinkled throughout the winter. Today, for example, it's 74 degrees. That won't last of course, but we'll still have plenty of great weather between now and March. And once March rolls around, the nice days begin to outnumber the bad ones. The only problem then is all the leftover sand on the roads and the occasional Spring blizzard.

Winterizing videos--featuring a Buddy!

http://www.justgottascoot.com/scooterville.htm

-K

Ahh rub it in while you're at it, why don't you?

ScootLemont wrote:yeah... but I have never had to board up for a hurricane
+ we get to ride snowmobiles in the winter
I love the smell of 2 cycle (year round) in the morning

Did you get hit by snow in Lemont last night? Got a few inches on the ground here in DeKalb, which feels like a ton more with the salt shortage... Think it's time for me to disconnect the ol' gal's battery.

I am a rather new buddy125 owner, Live up in Northern Vermont. I hadn't gotten around to winterizing, but watch the 1st part of the video today (that was linked above). So the part about ethanol breaking down, an clogging up the carburetor.. Should I be concerned if the scooter has been sitting for 2 months ?

If so, I can just siphon of the gas in the tank, put in new gas with the stabilizer, correct ?

Any thoughts or suggestions are most welcomed, and my thanks,

Incorrect. Draining gasoline from the tank wont help gas in the carb that has gummed up. That cant be drained. If you can run the bike, either at idle or ride it, I would get fresh gas, and put some stabil into it. It will help clean the carb when it burns with the gasoline. 2 months may do some gumming, but not as much as a whole 4-5 months with no stabilizer in the fuel.

Before winterizing the bike, one thing he didnt mention, you want to fill the tank up to full, and add stabil, about 1/2 ounce will do 1 gallon. You want to run the bike and ride it for a short while just to make sure the stabil get's into the carb too, otherwise just adding stabil to a gas tank, and forgetting it for 5 months, your carb will come out gummy and may not start up right away.

I've tried starting a scooter once that hadnt been used for a while, maybe just 2-3 weeks, it took probably 30-40 pushes of the electric starter to get it to idle, but then it would die when throttle was applied. Battery died. Kick started the bike, and revved it at the right time, and it lived and worked like normal. Took forever to burn and flush out the gummy bad gas in the carb. You dont want this happening in the spring when you go to ride your scooter for the first time.

I plan on riding through out the winter, but I wont be riding as much, there will be times where road conditions and snow will be everywhere for a week or two, and during this small vacation, I plan on adding stabilizer to the fuel on every fill up, just to be safe so when the bike is sitting there doing nothing all day everyday, it'll start up again.

As for the battery, best thing is to either ride once in a while and charge it up, or keep it on a tender all winter. I've had good luck with buddy batteries, the bike I mentioned earlier having starting issues still had plenty of juice inside the battery even though it hadnt been used for 2-3 weeks.