Modern Buddy

I ride a Buddy 50 in a very small town in Western Wisconsin. (My 2nd summer so far.) I notice it really struggles to electric start below 50 degrees F... and doesn't much want to kick start below 40F. I'd like to get as many days out of it as I can...

a) Is this normal Buddy behavior? (I've kept it serviced)

b. is there anything I can do in colder weather?

Thanks a bunch!
Ogden Rogers
River Falls, WI

I've recently encountered some cold start issues too. I also wonder if this is a "normal behavior" given the recent colder temps.

I was surprised to read the problems in starting your scoots.

I can understand the scoot having trouble when it gets 'really' cold below freezing. Still, 40- 50 degree weather or even around freezing shouldn't stop your Buddy from starting from a non-technical view. I believe that Taiwan (where the PGOs are built and has a large scooter population) can have a cold season so I would imagine that the Buddy is built to still start in a somewhat colder climate.

In Chicago, where I grew up, we would sometimes take car batteries inside on nights when we expected morning temperatures to be in the teens or lower.

I'm sorry about your starting problems and I look forward to reading the responses of the boards technical gurus.

Are you keeping the battery on a tender?

The engine should start, but when it's cold it may just take a little longer or require a little bit of gas to get going.

My Buddy 50 has been a little reluctant to start (sometimes on the second try) in the sub-40ºF cold mornings lately, and idles fairly loud right after it starts. But so far no actual refusals.

I've had (non-Buddy owners) friends tell me they have issues with their 50cc scooters below a certain temperature. Having never had one, I got nothing to tell ya.

Have you tried searching the forum? Surely there's a thread or tidbit from the past few winters. Might have to delve back a little or get creative with your search keywords.

Seems like there's a common element of you all having 50cc Buddies (2-strokes). Now I'm not as familiar as I'd like to be with a 2T, but perhaps there's a cold weather oil you can use in the pre-mix to help it along. Other than that, it might just need a fatter jet to compensate for the denser air.

Just some ideas. It might be worth looking around in the RH/Rattler/BC section to see if they have similar issues and to a lesser degree the Stella posts.

I know on the 4 strokers, they like a little thinner oil for starting up and although it's not necessary, a larger main jet does help with colder weather. The 125+ Buddies can compensate by upping the idle speed a little bit to get a little longer of a riding season out of theirs before putting them away for the winter. Some of that must translate to the 2 stroke version, I'm just not sure of the details on it.

A related question, this will be my 125's first winter. If I am still riding it every day, more or less, is there anything special I need to do to for the battery or fuel system or anything to get it through a Portland winter? How long would would it have to sit in the cold without running before I'd have to worry about anything?

takora wrote:A related question, this will be my 125's first winter. If I am still riding it every day, more or less, is there anything special I need to do to for the battery or fuel system or anything to get it through a Portland winter? How long would would it have to sit in the cold without running before I'd have to worry about anything?

If you're going to ride it everyday or close to it, about all you'd want to do is tweak the idle speed and mixture on the carb and get some good winter/foul weather gear.

If you're going to run it for a little while longer into the cold weather but end up shelfing it for the winter, I'd just up the idle speed and leave the mix alone.

The winterizing stuff applies mainly to those that are putting them away for months at a time. The biggest problem there is the battery draining (from not being charged by riding) and the ethanol in the gas gumming up the carb passages from sitting. If you're riding it through the cold, those should both be non-issues for you.

Lostmycage wrote:

takora wrote:A related question, this will be my 125's first winter. If I am still riding it every day, more or less, is there anything special I need to do to for the battery or fuel system or anything to get it through a Portland winter? How long would would it have to sit in the cold without running before I'd have to worry about anything?

If you're going to ride it everyday or close to it, about all you'd want to do is tweak the idle speed and mixture on the carb and get some good winter/foul weather gear.

If you're going to run it for a little while longer into the cold weather but end up shelfing it for the winter, I'd just up the idle speed and leave the mix alone.

The winterizing stuff applies mainly to those that are putting them away for months at a time. The biggest problem there is the battery draining (from not being charged by riding) and the ethanol in the gas gumming up the carb passages from sitting. If you're riding it through the cold, those should both be non-issues for you.

Awesome, thanks very much for the info!