Do I need a New Battery for My Buddy 50?

kendoori

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

fried okra · Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 2:34 am Post subject:

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

Dooglas · Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 3:55 pm Post subject:

Stanza · Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 6:43 pm Post subject:

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.