150,000 mile Buddy 125!

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Sat Nov 07, 2015 3:50 pm

lovemysan wrote:I've got a complete 125 top with maybe 5k miles on it I'd sell cheap. But if I were you big bore it. Do 150 head too.

I sent you a message.

Robbie · Post by **Robbie** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 6:41 pm

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 · Post by **scootERIK** » Fri May 13, 2016 12:03 am

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 · Post by **luckyscroller788** » Sun May 15, 2016 4:34 pm

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 · Post by **Elvisinmypants** » Sun May 15, 2016 6:01 pm

scootERIK wrote: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..

The tens of thousands of miles you have put on that scooter has you at least a couple thousand ahead. I'd have the engine rebuilt and scooter on. It does not matter what it costs. You are better off spending money on your scooter than someone else's. He's your buddy, pay for some surgery and spend some more years with him.

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Mon May 16, 2016 8:45 pm

luckyscroller788 wrote: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.

I'm looking for a used scooter to save a little $$. Ideally with 2,000-8,000 miles. I'm not even worried about a used Buddy with no warranty since they are practically bulletproof if you keep up on the basic maintenance.

Elvisinmypants wrote:The tens of thousands of miles you have put on that scooter has you at least a couple thousand ahead. I'd have the engine rebuilt and scooter on. It does not matter what it costs. You are better off spending money on your scooter than someone else's. He's your buddy, pay for some surgery and spend some more years with him.

Part of me would like to see if she could get to 100,000 miles. If I could find a parts sponsor I would go for it.

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Thu Apr 13, 2017 3:33 am

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 · Post by **Syd** » Thu Apr 13, 2017 4:24 am

scootERIK wrote: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.

The donor scooter-

Ouch!

babblefish · Post by **babblefish** » Thu Apr 13, 2017 7:47 am

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 · Post by **scootERIK** » Thu Apr 13, 2017 4:02 pm

babblefish wrote: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?

The donor is a 2008 that had ~1340 miles on it so the motor should have a lot of miles left in it. I am quite happy to have a fresh seat. Between the "new" seat and the "new" rear shock the scooter rides better than it has in 25k miles. I might even be able to use the fork legs, from what I can tell they weren't affected in the crash.

As for what happened, I have no idea. They lady who crashed it was hurt pretty badly, multiple leg fractures that took 6 months to recover from, and possibly other injuries. I tried searching the internet to see if I could find any info. I found one news report that might have been for the crash(not 100% sure, but it fits the time line) that was at a T intersection in a 35 mph speed zone. If that is the crash then my guess is someone turned left in front of her. I also think she hit a taller vehicle since most of the damage is fairly high up on the front. The front fender only has a few scratches on it. It is pretty crazy the amount of damage and where the damage is, for instance 2 out of the 3 tabs that hold the brake light in place were broken.

Another angle-

jrsjr · Post by **jrsjr** » Thu Apr 13, 2017 4:08 pm

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

Here's to another 40K miles!

Remous · Post by **Remous** » Fri Apr 14, 2017 2:15 am

how much did you get the donor scoot for?

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Thu Jul 20, 2017 3:27 am

50,000.0 miles

Syd · Post by **Syd** » Thu Jul 20, 2017 4:32 am

Nice.

babblefish · Post by **babblefish** » Thu Jul 20, 2017 7:06 am

Awesome! Congrats!

Dooglas · Post by **Dooglas** » Thu Jul 20, 2017 4:45 pm

Belongs in the Buddy Hall of Fame!

imgrubby · Post by **imgrubby** » Thu Jul 20, 2017 11:09 pm

Way to go. Stay safe.

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:59 am

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 · Post by **scootERIK** » Fri Oct 06, 2017 4:00 am

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

Just the odometer-

babblefish · Post by **babblefish** » Fri Oct 06, 2017 5:47 am

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

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

Christophers · Post by **Christophers** » Fri Oct 06, 2017 8:17 am

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

Wow!

So cool!

bgwss · Post by **bgwss** » Fri Oct 06, 2017 1:40 pm

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

Syd · Post by **Syd** » Fri Oct 06, 2017 5:13 pm

Good job, Erik!

GregsBuddy · Post by **GregsBuddy** » Fri Oct 06, 2017 10:01 pm

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 · Post by **luckyscroller788** » Fri Oct 06, 2017 10:51 pm

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

k1dude · Post by **k1dude** » Fri Oct 06, 2017 11:53 pm

GregsBuddy wrote: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!

He had to replace the engine at about 45,000 miles.

GregsBuddy · Post by **GregsBuddy** » Sun Oct 08, 2017 2:21 am

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 · Post by **scootERIK** » Wed Dec 06, 2017 3:08 am

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 · Post by **Syd** » Wed Dec 06, 2017 5:58 am

57k?

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

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Wed Dec 06, 2017 3:45 pm

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 · Post by **scootERIK** » Fri Jun 08, 2018 12:38 am

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 · Post by **jrsjr** » Fri Jun 08, 2018 2:19 am

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

Syd · Post by **Syd** » Fri Jun 08, 2018 5:43 am

Good work! Good luck with the engine.

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Thu Jul 05, 2018 9:54 pm

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 · Post by **jrsjr** » Thu Jul 05, 2018 10:36 pm

Awesome!

dasscooter · Post by **dasscooter** » Fri Jul 06, 2018 5:51 pm

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.

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:11 pm

Been running good for 2 months since I swapped the engine. Only maintenance I have had to do is oil, tires and a new belt, though I need to put in new rollers and a different clutch. From what I can tell the contra spring in this clutch is worn out so acceleration is terrible and it doesn't like to climb hills. If I remember right this clutch has over 30k on it. At some point I need to learn how to change the contra spring.

Also, I might need to swap out the seat. This one is getting a little soft so on longer trips it can get a little uncomfortable. It does have about 23,000 miles on it.

Picture time-

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Tue Sep 18, 2018 4:46 am

So it turns out that it wasn't a worn out contra spring or bad rollers making the scooter slow. I now believe that the problem is a hole in the diaphragm in the carburetor. I misdiagnosed this same problem before with the original carb from the crashed scooter. I haven't open the carb yet because I don't want risk making it worse, right now it runs but it's slow to accelerate. I opened up the other two carb I have and both of those diaphragms have holes in them. I bet more people are going to see this issue pop up on older Buddies and ones with a lot of miles. It's an easy fix but a bit pricey for a small bit of rubber and plastic, the part is about $40 plus s/h. Other gy6 diaphragms cost $6-10. I took a bunch of measurements and did a little searching on ebay and found one that I think is the same size, for way less money. I will report back if it ends up working out.

Even though it isn't running perfect it was still able to do a 260+ mile trip the other day with no issues. I did put on a newer seat since the one I was using was at almost 25k and was getting a little soft.

I also bumped up the PSI in the rear tire because the rear shock is getting a little soft.

A couple pictures-

And a quick video of two "water crossings" I did the other day-
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cu4ELNvoncA" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

If you are wondering, yes I got a little wet but that was from the water that came over the top of the handlebars. If you go a little slower you can stay dry while going through fairly deep water.

Rayc11949 · Post by **Rayc11949** » Tue Sep 18, 2018 5:36 pm

I was pretty amazed to see how this discussion went from high mileage, to inaccurate speedometers, to engine repair....
But, my scooter just turned over 1k and thought I'd verify speed and mileage. And as posted earlier yup speed is off by about 5 mph. and millage right at 9.8% inaccurate.
So, should I do my maintenance by actual mileage? or by what is displayed on the speedometer?
Although I wonder if the difference is enough to really matter...LOL

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Tue Sep 18, 2018 11:13 pm

Rayc11949 wrote:I was pretty amazed to see how this discussion went from high mileage, to inaccurate speedometers, to engine repair....
But, my scooter just turned over 1k and thought I'd verify speed and mileage. And as posted earlier yup speed is off by about 5 mph. and millage right at 9.8% inaccurate.
So, should I do my maintenance by actual mileage? or by what is displayed on the speedometer?
Although I wonder if the difference is enough to really matter...LOL

I do my maintenance based on the odometer. Mainly because that is the easiest way but you could go off of actual miles too that's up to you. I doubt it matters.

JettaKnight · Post by **JettaKnight** » Wed Sep 19, 2018 5:23 pm

Rayc11949 wrote:I was pretty amazed to see how this discussion went from high mileage, to inaccurate speedometers, to engine repair....
But, my scooter just turned over 1k and thought I'd verify speed and mileage. And as posted earlier yup speed is off by about 5 mph. and millage right at 9.8% inaccurate.
So, should I do my maintenance by actual mileage? or by what is displayed on the speedometer?
Although I wonder if the difference is enough to really matter...LOL

10% isn't enough to matter.

I have the same issue with my truck because of oversized tires. I just put a sticker on the speedo - "Speedometer reads low" to imform everyone that borrows it. (Owning a pickup means having lots of friends ).

babblefish · Post by **babblefish** » Wed Sep 19, 2018 9:45 pm

The odometers on my Buddy and Blur are pretty much dead on, as verified by my smartphone's GPS anyway. The speedometers, on the other hand, read fast by about 5 mph.

GregsBuddy · Post by **GregsBuddy** » Thu Sep 20, 2018 3:31 pm

The odometer on my 170i is accurate and the speedometer is off by ~11%. It's easy to calculate and respond to the indicated speed.
My scoot just turned over 12K miles of trouble-free fun! I do ALL of my own maintenance except tire installations. No was am I going to struggle with that task with a private moto repair person close by that I enjoy spending tire changing time with.

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Tue Oct 09, 2018 4:45 am

I was right that the diaphragm in the carburetor had a hole in it that was making the scooter run a little slow. BUT that wasn't the only thing wrong with the scooter. It has been slow off the line with bad acceleration from 30-40 mph. I was thinking that the carb was still the problem since the new diaphragm only helped a little and I had just gone through the CVT. But while riding today I felt something let loose. When it happened I thought I was running out of gas since I was on E. I got to the gas station and filled up, but now the scooter was shaking like crazy when accelerating and it was very slow. I figured the belt was going bad. As soon as I got the CVT cover off I could see metal shavings so I knew something wasn't right. I don't know what exactly happened or how, but from what I can see one or more of the variator slides(the 3 little U shaped pieces of plastic in the variator) had broken or fell out. I'm not sure if it was my fault or just old age. After the variator slides broke the ramp plate started to rub the 3 posts on the back of the movable drive face. I believe that the 3 posts wore through today which caused the scooter to start shaking and not accelerate. So the movable drive face is toast as are the rollers(they only had ~2700 miles on them.) Luckily I have two more complete variators, so I installed one of them and the scooter is running great.

It kind of sucks that the two problems happened at the same time, or in a row, and I didn't figure them out fast enough. But I figure I am lucky since I was able to get home and it was an easy fix.

A picture of a good movable drive face and the worn out one, the bad one is on the right.

A closer view but a little out of focus.

This all happened at about 68,973 miles so after I replaced the variator I went out for a test ride and took this picture.

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Wed Oct 31, 2018 11:13 pm

The last thousand miles were nice and uneventful.

Bonus picture from my ride home-

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 4:48 am

After a long snowy winter in Wisconsin I have been able to start riding again.

The last 2,000 miles were trouble free. But I do need to install some new tires, the back tire is bald and the front is cupping. Plus, I am long overdue for an oil change.

A picture from one of the few times I was able to sneak in a ride over winter-

Syd · Post by **Syd** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 5:22 am

I hope you have studs on!

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Fri Apr 26, 2019 2:23 pm

Syd wrote:I hope you have studs on!

No studs. I was planning on making a set of studded tires so I was checking on the ice. I never got around to studding a set of tires because most of the ice melted over the next week. Maybe next winter.

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 4:18 am

I finally found another engine! At 73k I pulled out the engine I borrowed from my other Buddy and installed the "new" engine(it has about ~1,500 miles.) I'm starting to get pretty good at making the swap. So far I have put ~300 miles on this engine and the seat of my pants says that this is one of the stronger engines I have had, though it might be because the first owner changed some parts in the CVT, I still have to open it up and take a look. I am pretty sure it wasn't run in over a year but only needed a quick carb cleaning(and an oil change) to get it up and running.

73,000

Doing a little tire testing while riding today-

scootERIK · Post by **scootERIK** » Sun Jun 30, 2019 4:46 am

75,000 miles! I really packed the miles on in the last few weeks testing and re-testing rides for Amerivespa. Plus today I did about 250 miles which was the first long day for the "new" engine.

So far the "new" engine is running great. It wasn't idling very good so I opened it up to raise the idle speed a little, but it turned out that I hadn't tighten the claps that hold the carb on enough. So I tightened them up and dialed the idle speed in.

This week I want to swap the stock stator for the NCY stator I had in the last engine, the stock stator still works but I trust the NCY stators more. I also need to open up the CVT. I think the previous owner installed lighter weight rollers(10g maybe,) the scooter is great around town but it seems to be running really fast(high RPMs) at 60 bmph. If they are lighter I will swap them for a set of 11 gram rollers.

I went back to the same location as 40k to hit 75k-