Another 40,000 mile Buddy! Update: Now at 60,000 miles.

Robbie · Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2015 6:41 pm Post subject:

I'm with babblefish on this one......incorrect plug causing detonation.

When detonation is severe enough, long enough, the ring lands collapse as yours have.
The ring lands are the weakest point of the piston.

The cylinder bore in the photo appears reusable....unless you can catch a fingernail in the scratches in which case I would recommend replacement over a rebore.
If the scratches aren't fingernail catching deep a simple honing would be satisfactory....along with replacement rings and head, obviously.

Your photos show a well maintained engine that suffered a caused failure....but it definately is a fixer since no piston bits made it into the crankcase.

Research this plug business though.

Good luck,
Rob

scootERIK · Posted: Fri May 13, 2016 12:03 am Post subject:

As of right now it's not looking like my Buddy will be back on the road, at least as long as I own it. The cost of parts, labor and a tow are just too much for me to put into this scooter. I was hoping to find a crashed Buddy to pull the motor out of, but I haven't been able to find one. It's a little bit of a bummer since I was hoping to put some more miles on it.

I've started the search for another scooter, would like to get another Buddy but there aren't any used ones available right now so I might have to look at some other brands, sad face.

luckyscroller788 · Posted: Sun May 15, 2016 4:34 pm Post subject:

Erik,have you looked into new older model year Buddys? You can get a new 2012 buddy 125 (its even black) for $2200 or less if you don't mind driving a few hours away to get it.It still would have the 2 yr warranty as well.

Elvisinmypants · Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 1 Location: Fargo **09 Stella**

scootERIK · Posted: Mon May 16, 2016 8:45 pm Post subject:

scootERIK · Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 3:33 am Post subject:

My Buddy has been brought back to life! I bought a crashed Buddy with a good motor that I swapped over. Already have 400 miles on her. 50,000 miles here I come.

Black and Blue Buddy 125-

45,000 miles-

The donor scooter-

Syd · Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 4:24 am Post subject:

babblefish · Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 7:47 am Post subject:

Cool! And you got the new seat that you wanted, too!
What year is the donor scooter and what in the world happened to it?

scootERIK · Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 4:02 pm Post subject:

jrsjr · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 3843

Whew! It's like one of those organ transplant stories on TV. Shocked

Here's to another 40K miles!

Remous · Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 2:15 am Post subject:

how much did you get the donor scoot for?

scootERIK · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 3:27 am Post subject:

50,000.0 miles

Syd · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 4:32 am Post subject:

Nice.

babblefish · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 7:06 am Post subject:

Awesome! Congrats!

Dooglas · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 4:45 pm Post subject:

Belongs in the Buddy Hall of Fame! Wink

imgrubby · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 11:09 pm Post subject:

Way to go. Stay safe.

scootERIK · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:59 am Post subject:

And then at 50158.4 miles the odometer stops working(the speedometer is also not working.)

Not sure what the issue is yet. I checked where the cable connects to the front hub and that looked fine. Tomorrow I am going to pull the handlebar cover off and see if the cable came off the back of speedometer. I have a backup cable in case the cable is broken.

I really hope it is just something minor, it would suck if the speedometer/odometer is broken.

UPDATE: Problem fixed! The speedometer cable unscrewed itself from the speedometer.

scootERIK · Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 4:00 am Post subject:

This is the last picture like this, unless I can roll the odometer over but that will be a while.

Just the odometer-

babblefish · Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 5:47 am Post subject:

Awesome!!! Love how everything came up "5"! Bet you waited for the exact date and time to take that picture Laughing

You should have that picture printed as an enlargement and frame it.

Christophers · Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 8:17 am Post subject:

bgwss · Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 1:40 pm Post subject:

Awesome! So go get some gas and ride some more. Very Happy

Syd · Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 5:13 pm Post subject:

Good job, Erik!

GregsBuddy · Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 10:01 pm Post subject:

That is so encouraging. I just rode ~60 miles and rolled over to 8,000 and the thing is just like new. What a great vehicle!

luckyscroller788 · Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 10:51 pm Post subject:

cool, congrats Erik! I'll see you tomorrow... SCOOTOBERFEST!!!

k1dude · Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 11:53 pm Post subject:

GregsBuddy · Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 2:21 am Post subject:

Yes, but there's enough incriminating evidence in the way it failed to consider that it would've kept going...
Reading other high mileage discussions supports belief that one of these scoot's will go at least 55k.

scootERIK · Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 3:08 am Post subject:

57,000 miles and now it's 25 degrees out so I don't think I will get too many more miles this year.

A picture of where I hit 57k.

Syd · Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 5:58 am Post subject:

57k?

With the new-ish engine, how many miles do you expect your Buddy to go now?

scootERIK · Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 3:45 pm Post subject:

I feel like I have to try for 101,000+ miles*. At this point I don't really think that anyone will want to buy it.

This "new" engine has about 14k on it so it should be good for 20,000 more miles without needing any work. That will get me to about 80k and then I can figure out a plan for the last 20k. I plan to do a rebuild at the first sign that something is wrong and I am always on the lookout for another engine so I will have a backup.

As for the front of the scooter it is pretty much all original so I will probably have to do some maintenance like new wheel bearings and maybe a new fork or a rebuild.

*I bought it with ~1k on it so at 101,000 I will have put 100,000 on it. But the odometer is about 10% off so I might just have to push to ~111,100.

scootERIK · Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 12:38 am Post subject:

60,000 miles comes with a little bad news. The second motor is not doing so good. It has a loud rattle at idle(it seems to go away at higher speeds or at least I can't hear it.) After checking all the things I could I took it to the local scooter mechanic. He thinks it might be a bad connecting rod bearing or maybe crankshaft bearing. This motor has always felt a bit off to me(slow and not very peppy.)

The only sort of good thing is that between this motor and my old motor I might have enough parts to rebuild my first motor which would be kind of cool.

Or if anyone knows of a crashed Buddy 125 with a good motor for sale let me know.

Hopefully this is just a small bump on the road to 100,000 miles.

jrsjr · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 3843

Congrats! I hope you find another motor that runs strong enough to get you to 100,000. I'll keep an eye out.

Syd · Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 5:43 am Post subject:

Good work! Good luck with the engine.

scootERIK · Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2018 9:54 pm Post subject:

Quick update, I ended up pulling the engine and swapping in the engine from my backup Buddy 125. Already put 1,000 miles on it. Haven't taken the time to look at the bad engine since it is so hot out right now, and I would rather be out riding.

61k picture plus a bonus picture for anyone who like Buddies and bridges.

jrsjr · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 3843

Awesome!

dasscooter · Joined: 14 Feb 2016 Posts: 311

Now that you have the engine out, it's pretty easy to pull the top end and check for play in the rod. Check these as you pull it apart:

*Valve clearance
*Up and down play where the piston attaches to the rod
*Up and down play of the crankshaft itself.