My new-to-me 2008 Buddy St. Tropez adventures

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babblefish
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Post by babblefish »

k1dude wrote:Scooterworks used to carry a fancy NCY shock that looks just like yours for the Buddy 50/125/150/170, but now they only carry one in basic black. I wonder why Scooterworks discontinued the fancy sliver/gold/black version.

They also used to carry a gold/silver front shock, now they only carry white/silver. Why did they discontinue both the gold front and rear?
Cost cutting, probably. It's cheaper to paint something black thereby covering up any flaws on the surface of the metal. Anodizing requires more work and and a flawless surface finish.

Oh, and the front shocks I'm getting are silver and titanium color, which I happen to like better than the white/silver.
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babblefish
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Post by babblefish »

OK, another boring update.

Just installed the NCY front forks. These are the earlier one's that are titanium color and polished aluminum with the clear anodized coating, not the current cost cutting painted version.

Thought it would take longer to swap out because I assumed all of the front end plastics would have to be removed. Nope. Just had to unbolt brake caliper, remove front wheel, and remove front fender. Easy peezy. The top pinch bolts have to be completely removed in order to pull out the fork legs, not just loosened because they sit in a groove machined into the fork legs to prevent the forks from falling out in case the bolts become loose. Good idea.
As a precaution, I used blue thread lock on all of the bolts when reassembling. All of this was done with the Buddy sitting on it's center stand. When the weight of the front wheel is removed, she tilts back on her own onto the rear wheel. Just to be sure she stayed there I added a bit of weight to the rear rack.

Great improvement in ride quality and handling precision. Front end went from squishy and occasionally topping out to firm and controlled. Much less front end dive when braking too. Should have done this swap sooner. Combined with the YSS rear shock, I'm ready to take on any sport bike. OK, maybe not...

She runs like a top and hasn't given me any troubles. Still using the battery that sat for a year and a half without being used or charged. Only potential worry is that I have to add engine oil (currently using Mobil 1) every 400 miles or so. Does anyone else have to do that?

Ordered some aerosol touch-up paint from Scooterpaint.com to fix some of the body work. Hope the color matches up.
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Stanza
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Post by Stanza »

How much oil are you adding every 400 miles, how many miles are you up to at this point on the odo, and what weight of oil are you using? You might be getting into blowby, or the valve seals might be starting to give up the ghost. Now that you have the upgraded suspension, maybe a top end kit is on the horizon?
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k1dude
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Post by k1dude »

It bums me out that I can't get the yellow anodized NCY forks or rear shock anymore or I would've done the upgrade as well. I have an orange Buddy, so the yellow would've been great. A silver fork and plain black rear shock would just be boring on the orange. Especially when it costs $470.

The oil burning is a bummer. That's not normal.
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babblefish
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Post by babblefish »

Stanza wrote:How much oil are you adding every 400 miles, how many miles are you up to at this point on the odo, and what weight of oil are you using? You might be getting into blowby, or the valve seals might be starting to give up the ghost. Now that you have the upgraded suspension, maybe a top end kit is on the horizon?
The oil usually drops from the top of the hash marks on the dip stick to the bottom. I might have exaggerated the miles a bit. It's probably closer to 800 mile range. I use 10-30 oil. There is no visible smoke in the exhaust.
The scoot has about 12400 miles on her.

I don't know the condition of the piston rings nor the valve seals but I have a feeling the previous owner may not have kept up with oil changes or even checked the oil level because when I got the scoot, there was barely any oil in the crankcase and what was there was like tar. Not too worried about it at the moment because other than the oil consumption, she runs pretty good.
I'll order a couple of replacement valve seals and I have a 58.5mm BBK sitting on the shelf ready to drop in. Actually, I just remembered that I have the old head from my Blur that's been ported and polished. Perfect.
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Stanza
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Post by Stanza »

10w30? Doesn't the service/owner's manual spec 10w40? Might be too thin at higher temperatures now that the engine has some miles on it. Of course, if you've been running it this long on 10w30, you must be doing something right....
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k1dude
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Post by k1dude »

The manual recommends 15W-40.

I use 5W-40.
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babblefish
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Post by babblefish »

I just recently started using 10-30 Mobile 1. I normally use semisynthetic Castro 10-40.
I haven't seen 10-40 in Mobil 1 and besides that, I live in San Francisco. The temperature rarely gets pass the 60's. Maybe for a couple of days in September and October. For 80% of the year the temperature at night is in the 50's except in the Winter where it can drop into the 40's and sometimes 30's. Because of this, a thinner oil, particularly a synthetic is perfect fine around these parts.
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buzzvert
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Post by buzzvert »

Nice job! Finally got around to reading your build thread and bumping it needlessly. :D

I think I'm with ya on suspension upgrades. My wife's new Buddy 125 is a hovercraft compared to this one with 9000 on the clock.
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babblefish
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Re: My new-to-me 2008 Buddy St. Tropez adventures

Post by babblefish »

Hi all. Haven't been on for a while, but I'm still alive and kicking and still riding my little Buddy. She has a little over 20K miles on her now and still running strong, though I may be riding on borrowed time because I haven't touched the rollers nor the belt since I bought her. And the rear brake shoes could probably stand to be replaced. Anyway, I use a large (forget the size) Givi topcase on the rack and sometimes overload it with stuff. 30-35 pounds is not unusual for me. I have two large cats so I buy a lot of cat litter and food. I think the max weight limit is suppose to be 25 lbs. I broke the rack once as mentioned in an earlier post and after a heavy duty repair, it hasn't given me any problems again. And the paint hasn't flaked or worn off and there's still no rust. Rustoleum is good paint. But now, the factory support bracket that the rack bolts to under the body work and bolted to the main frame shattered into two pieces which allows the rack to bounce around up and down. I was going to weld the original broken one back together and call it a day but decided to just buy a new bracket and add some reinforcement. Came out well and does not flex at all. I think this should be able to easily handle all the loads I can stuff into the Givi case. Heheh.
The rear plastic body work is pretty beat up and is falling apart because it has gotten very brittle due to age so I'm going to buy all new panels to install before reinstalling the bracket. New panels aren't too expensive and since I'm planning on keeping the Buddy for a while, it's worth it. They're even available in the original St. Tropez color.
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