Modern Buddy

We here at NoHo Scooters have been thinking of ways to customise the Buddy. We took the shop's orange 125 that I have been riding. We of course started with ditching the DOT signals and adding the Buddy front rack. This week we took it further and installed a set of Continental 350X10 white wall tires and a modified Cuppini rear rack/backrest combo originally made for the Vespa LX.

Installing the tires require switching to tubes. The rack had to be cut in a couple of places. The arms that come down to attach on the sides of the seat had to be bent. Overall its a clean conversion.

Awesome, Mike. When we were in there last week picking up Buddy #2 I commented how nice I thought a pair of white walls would look on my little pink scoot.

Sweet! I really like the look with whitewalls I think that it could be improved even more by changing the brown plastics for something with a bit more contrast- in this case something off-white would probably go very nice with the tires!

How much modifying did you have to do to the back rack?

Looks great!

The whitewalls make it look like a sneaker!!

Love it.

How to "mod" an Asian scoot! The whitewalls look nice. Hm, any tubeless whitewalls that fit the Buddy?

castleton wrote:The whitewalls make it look like a sneaker!!

Love it.

I thought the same thing!

Hm. I like the look of the Buddy better clean, without addon racks.

I think it would look "cleaner" with black accents: black inner panels & floorboard, black grips, black seat.

2 cents.

castleton wrote:I think it would look "cleaner" with black accents: black inner panels & floorboard, black grips, black seat.

2 cents.

Dunno about "cleaner", but I think I'd like it better that way. Maybe next year I can sneak some $$ into the budget for Buddy cosmetic changes. From what others have said the color parts are not real expensive and should be pretty easy to change out.

I'm in the process right now of changing the interior panels and seat on my pink Buddy to black. I have to say it ran right around 200.00. I've also added a Pink Cammo Seatcover from Crystal!

Hi Mike,

the tires look fantastic! I remember talking to you about that and you saying that it was a real pain to do because of the angle of the nozzle. Did you find a specific tubed tire that just goes on more easily?

Also, how safe do you feel they are compared to the tubeless stock tires? If you're pretty confident in them, I would love to see about getting a set of whitewalls on my Buddy!

Is there just no one who makes tubeless white-wall tires? And why is that?

Whitewalls are WAY Cool !!!
Chrome and whitewalls are a great combination.

Whitewalls look cool. How do they perform compared to the stock tires? They look like they'd be better in the wet.

ECS

SirLexelot wrote:Also, how safe do you feel they are compared to the tubeless stock tires? If you're pretty confident in them, I would love to see about getting a set of whitewalls on my Buddy!

I can't speak for these particular tube tires, but I will say that in general tubeless tires are safer. Tubeless tires are recommended by the MSF and NHTSA. Good (and maybe even not so good) tubeless tires will not blow out when punctured; instead you get a slow leak. I was able to (cautiously) ride my scoot for several blocks after removing a 6" screw that had punctured the rear tire diagonally (making 2 holes). Tubeless tires are also supposed to be easier to repair in some instances (can be repaired on the rim).

There may be some advantages to tubed tires. I dunno. But I sure like the looks of the whitewalls.

As far as I know there are no tubeless 350X10 whitewall tires. There are 10" tubeless whitewalls that will fit the Vespa ET4, but they are a different size width and I dont think would be safe. All vintage Vespa and Lambretta scooters use tube type tires. The modern Vespa PX150, Genuine Stella, and Bajaj Chetak/Legend also use 350X10 tube type tires. Standard 350X10 tubes work fine.

The rear rack was modified by cutting the bracket that normall attaches to the under seat on the Vespa. We also cut the bracket where it would mount over the taillight on the Vespa. A hole was drilled so it could be mounted on the stud on the Buddy. The arms had to be bent to fit the mounting points on both sides of the seat. If you look at a standard Vespa LX cuppini rack and compare it to the above pictures you should be able to figure out what was modified.

We have a new line of less expensive whitewalls that we are really pleased with. Quality seems to be right on par with the continentals. Very clean looking whitewall at a great price.
http://www.scooterwest.com/item_detail/ ... hinko/993/
Mike, hit me up if you want some of these to check out.

Hey Max. Keeping with the tubed vs. tubeless discussion, which are these?

Tube type. They are extremely similar to the continentals.

Max,

How do the Continentals and these Shinkos perform compared to the OEM tires? Traction, cornering, mileage, etc.

I would say similar mileage, better wet traction, and the dry traction probably isn't as good, but I doubt that the buddy can lean far enough to truely test the limits.

Motorsport Scooters wrote:I would say similar mileage, better wet traction, and the dry traction probably isn't as good, but I doubt that the buddy can lean far enough to truely test the limits.

Alas, the Buddy is a leaning machine. We hadn't had it for an hour before Ericalm hit the kickstand on his first turn.

If that's your goal, I would go with some zippy1's.

I too have scraped the kickstand and the centerstand to the left and the centerstand to the right. The Budd will flat lean over in a turn like a sport bike if you want to.

Hmmm. Maybe I could take it easier riding....

ECS

Forget whitewalls, check out these things!




Available here, though a) they won't fit the Buddy and b) I wouldn't recommend using them even if they did fit.

I had shinkos on my 06 Bajaj Chetak. They were much better than stock. They didn't turn yellow like the Savas do.

I have actually seen a tutorial online (somewhere...) on painting your blackwall tires to look like whitewalls. There are also white plastic inserts you can buy to make fakewalls. It's really just not the same!

Mike - Bret emailed me a photo today and what the shop's Buddy looks like now. I like the whitewall tires and mirrors. Since the rear chrome rack is impossible to find I was trying to think of other options. I am sure we will be by the shop soon. I can't wait to see your Buddy in person.