Modern Buddy

I went on a ride with about 50 moped guys yesterday. We went up in the hills to the Getty Museum. There was a lot of twisties in that area and one guy had a Derbi GPR and we were the head of the pack and even though I had more power I just couldn't turn like his because his is a sportbike 50. The buddy handles well except one little thing. With the Italia at least, turning is pretty consistent except for extreme lean angles. It seems you'll lean and turn at a consistent rate but go over a certain amount and it'll want to lean really fast it's then, usually on a left turn, that I'll scrape the centerstand pretty hard, hard enough to lose some rear traction and sometimes the rear will slide out a little. It's fairly disconcerting but I can recover from it, no crashing though, I feel for the mopeders who wiped out that day, thankfully no serious injuries. The worst part of the day was a lady in a new Land Rover tried to pass a guy using the shoulder in a single lane road and almost ran over 3 moped guys. That woman got a serious yelling at by him at the next light and when she was yelling she had children inside that just about did it, and the guy almost kicked her door in! What kind of an idiot would use having children as an excuse to drive recklessly? Oh yeah pot holes mid-turn suck. Booo pot holes! Hurray Beer!

ThisDude wrote:The buddy handles well except one little thing. With the Italia at least, turning is pretty consistent except for extreme lean angles. It seems you'll lean and turn at a consistent rate but go over a certain amount and it'll want to lean really fast it's then, usually on a left turn, that I'll scrape the centerstand pretty hard, hard enough to lose some rear traction and sometimes the rear will slide out a little.

What you've described is consistent with what I've read about the whitewall tires on the SI. Price you pay for being pretty.

50 mopeds?! Was this an organized ride? Just curious.

Dude, you really should be able to take any turn on the Buddy without scraping the center stand. I know you have some experience riding, so this may just be an adjustment thing, getting used to your new ride. I hit the stand my first time out on a Buddy; it leans much easier than other scoots.

I was on the onramp to the freeway this morning (oops...did I just say that ) and had the back end slide out on a right-hander...scared the crap outta me. I think the stock tires on these things really suck. I really need to get some Zippy's on there. I've scraped the center stand a few times too...not to hard to do, and also not to hard to take off! I just worry that someday I'll need it (parking in Santa Ana wind conditions, etc.) so it's kind of a catch 22 decision for me...

I wonder if it's possible to just grind the stand peg down a bit—an inch maybe? I'll have to peek at the Buddy when I get home.

And that's x-mojito50mod sliding on the stock tubeless and Dude on the tubed whitewalls... right? Have you checked the tire pressure?

yep, on the tubeless, and yep, the pressure is where it should be...it's just the compound they use is really hard, and the contact patch is kinda squarish...this coupled with the hot weather bringing the oil in the asphalt to the surface=no good for hard cornering. Eric, you've seen how I ride!

Yep gotta agree this time I took it again to a different canyon route same things but slightly less sliding because I lowered tire pressure to 18 front 25 rear. About what I ran in my Metropolitan. Gave me a better contact patch and ride but there's no way around the hard compound and funny profile of the whitewalls they are NOT performance tires. Under hard braking the front did lock up, plus on the italia even moderate breaking causes some tire squeal. I painted a white line across the tread to see how my contact patch was holding up, scary but I was right on the edge of the tread practically riding on the whitewalls, so for me no more ultra hard turns. Plus if you scrape the centerstand enough times it'll grind itself down, no mod needed lol.

Yep I have lots of experience, used to ride sportbikes a lot, got out before I killed myself. So I tend to push my scooters beyond their limits far beyond I reach my own. I'm talking taking 50 foot radius s-turns at 35 plus mph, no way I could hope to turn that sharp on a big bike. As for the moped ride, it's the myron's moped group. You can go to myronsmopeds.com to find out about the ride. If you wanna ride with them you can just show up, but the ride is 6 bucks to help keep the ride and myrons mopeds going.

I hijacking my wifes ID...but, speaking for the two of us. We both have noticed this problem. It feels like it comes down when you take a hard left turn, and I'm not only speaking of the center stand.

So you regularly ride your wife's pink buddy?

LOL...yes, I get that every time when I'm on it. It's very rare that I am, but I can't resist how stupid fun it is to drive. I do get on it quite a bit *in a whisper* giving my 3 year old daughter rides around on it with a motorcycle brain bucket on. She loves it and the neighbors enjoy watching. Not on any busy streets, just up and down the loop we are on. On those rare times I have driven it, it's been past the high school where I get all kinds of a typical profanities about my sexual preference screamed at me. I feel safe and secure about my manly hood and that I have a hot wife and Ducati Monster sitting at home waiting for me.

Oh, and some other bikers won't respond to the typical biker hand signal in passing, others do. And it isn't only the high school kids yelling PRETTY names! When my wife is on it, it's a completely different story, it's like she's some kinda superstar with the girls and women. She has already inspired at least 10 others to actually purchase the bike, just by riding it to work. Not to count all the others that say that they are going to tell their husbands or her that they want a pink one just like hers. Ok, so I'm rambling, I just caught myself. Enjoy the read

Well the other day I scraped the center stand taking a left hand turn......guess my confidence has been building on my ride to and from work........time to break out the grinder and do a little mod to gain some clearance........its fun to lean but I wont push it till i get better tires.........not too impressed with the stock tires.

best mod I can see is just remove the centerstand, use the sidestand only if you want supe leaning ability. And thestock tires are hard for durability. Continental Zippys and Michelin S1's are the best I know for not too much money. S1's tend to run cheaper too.

which are better? the contientals or the michelins? and as far as removing the center stand I mainly use that stand, if anything I will remove the side stand because I rarely use it, I am always nervous about starting the buddy on the sidestand or any scoot for that matter with the rear wheel on the ground........Just waiting for a friend or someone to walk up and goos the throttle like you could on a motorcycle and can see my scoot driving away!

Or one person posted that on a very cold day the rpms were up on them and said the scoot about took off on them...........much safer and more stable on the center stand and maintenance like changing the oil, filter etc is much easier on the center stand.......

Have I said I like the center stand yet? LOL!!! take care

ThisDude wrote:best mod I can see is just remove the centerstand

Ride On. The only thing that pisses me off about the buddy.

\eko

Oh, Conti Zippy 1s rock. Conti Twists rockier.

\eko

I got some Zippys put on the Buddy on Friday and scrubbed them in a bit on Saturday. I joined the Westside Scooter Club's Beach Invasion for the Sunday ride, which had a lot of twisties up in the hills, and the tires worked flawlessly! Love em. They're good and sticky and a HUGE improvement over the stockers. I highly recommend them to anyone who likes to get into the corners. Also, I added the short flyscreen, and so far I'm liking it. It doesn't make much difference at slow speeds, but when I'm crusing over 50mph, it definitly helps with top speed (about 5mph better on the same stretch of freeway I hit daily), stability, and rider fatigue (not being blasted in the chest).

BTW, nice to meet you This Dude.

Looks like you need to update your avatar to show your new windscreen there.

yeah, that's my first Buddy...the one that was totalled

Oh yeah I remember you said you had the racing stripe on there, you should put it back on, good for 5 mph you know.