When will my little buddy poop out on me?

[new2buddy]

After doing some calculations, I do 50 miles round trip 5 days a week on the buddy. Ok, make it 3 for the rainy days I can't ride in to school and have to take the dreaded bus. Thats 150 miles a week. Thats 600 miles a month. Thats 7200 miles in a year, and I have 2 years left of school. Will this thing last me that long? OIt would be nice to show people my buddy with 50,000 miles on it, but I know that's probably not gonna happen. Still, it would be worth it for the looks alone.

[weaseltamer]

i'm a new buddy owner myself, at 1600 miles right now, and i haven't heard/read or gotten the impression in any way that these don't have longevity. i was aiming for 100k unless something catastrophic prevents that...

[ericalm]

If the Buddy's well-maintained and parts are replaced when worn out then you should be able to get those miles—and more—on it.

Aside from basic maintenance (oil change, gear oil change, cleaning air filter), you'll need to have your valves checked periodically and will probably need to replace a number of things along the way: spark plug, rollers, belts, tires and so on. Most of these things really start to wear down around the 6K mile mark. But keeping it in good condition, the engine should last a good, long time. How long? Well, maybe some of the Asian BuBu owners or European Ligero owners who lurk on the site can say... Provided they haven't modded their scoots out so severely none of it's stock anymore.

[San Francisco]

After doing some calculations, I do 50 miles round trip 5 days a week on the buddy. Ok, make it 3 for the rainy days I can't ride in to school and have to take the dreaded bus. Thats 150 miles a week. Thats 600 miles a month. Thats 7200 miles in a year, and I have 2 years left of school. Will this thing last me that long? OIt would be nice to show people my buddy with 50,000 miles on it, but I know that's probably not gonna happen. Still, it would be worth it for the looks alone.

15 to 20 thousand miles on a scooter is not that much. Getting up in the 30k to 50k range starts to put wear on the engine,
which is your main concern. At some point the engine internals just wear our from all the friction and "explosions," so to speak.

What ericalm says is key. Above all else, get the oil changed every 1500 miles or so. Changing the oil
really prolongs the life of these little engines. So change it religiously.

All the other maintenance needs to be done on an as needed basis. For example, here in San Francisco brakes
and clutches get a good workout. So in SF brakes need to be replaced often. And I am always smelling drivers burning their clutches.

I would venture to guess that if you did nothing else but change the oil every 1500 miles or so
that you will have no problem getting to the 25,000 mark.

[BoneGirl]

My husband and I are getting about 1,000 miles/month when the weather cooperates (dry ground). So far so good. I picked up a drywall screw at 4,500 miles and decided to get new tires (cheaper than mountain bike tires!). We're at 6,000 miles now and looking to do a big inspection of the scooters at this interval. I agree that we should be pretty good with regular maintenance.

[lou76]

...new tires (cheaper than mountain bike tires!)

plus mountainbike tires dont fit very well on a buddy... happy coincidence!!!!!!
i am about 100miles short of 8k, and have not had to replace much, just tires, oil, plug, and today headlamp bulb(finally burned out)...
the air filter and belt will be replaced in the next 1k or so, weights and brake pads soon, also... oh, and the ornery plug wire will eventually get replaced, but it is running solid without the cylinder-side seal...

[peabody99]

does the maintenance schedule in the manuel make sense to anyone? The 1500 oil change sounds reasonable (I have already had my second at 1300 miles), but should the gear oil and air filter be changed every 1500 as well? I would love to get a realistic maintenance schedule.

[Corsair]

I would love to get a realistic maintenance schedule.

Definitely agree with your there

[ericalm]

does the maintenance schedule in the manuel make sense to anyone? The 1500 oil change sounds reasonable (I have already had my second at 1300 miles), but should the gear oil and air filter be changed every 1500 as well? I would love to get a realistic maintenance schedule.

Here's the official maintenance schedule, which is not the same as the one in the manual:

Below is the email I received from Genuine today:

Sarah:

The optimum schedule is this for Buddy 125 and Blur is the following:

Change oil and perform first service at 200 miles. This includes a valve clearance inspection. Scooter people aren't typically familiar with valves, but people who are experienced with motorcycles (and four stroke engines in general) know this is a part of regular maintenance.

After the first oil change, you can go 1,000-1,500 miles (I recommend 1,000) if you use regular oil. If you use synthetic, you can go 1,500-2,000 miles between oil changes (I recommend 1,500).

Inspect the valve clearance every 4,000 miles, adjust if necessary.
-The standard valve spacing is between 0.06 – 0.10mm with engine off.
-When the spacing is too small, idle speed will become unstable and you can burn up the valves.

-When the spacing is too large, loud noise will occur and the scooter will run poorly.


This is all in miles, and straight from the factory.

Thanks!!!

Brett Ratner
Genuine Scooters Dealer Development
877.MY.STELLA

From this thread: viewtopic.php?t=428

[San Francisco]

By the way people, the reason the first oil change [at 200 miles] is so important is because the piston ring seats into the cylinder wall during that time.

The oil gets dirty with little bits of metal, etc. that accumulates during this seating process.

If you do NOT change the oil at 200 miles, the little bits of metal and dirty oil rubs against the cylinder wall and acts like sandpaper. It will screw up the piston ring and cylinder wall.

SO MAKE SURE TO GET THE OIL CHANGED AT 200 MILES!!!