Modern Buddy

So, I'm checking the air pressure in my tires and generally nosing around trying to figure out if it's my imagination that the front has been a little... unsteady lately (it probably is), when I notice this:



It's a shaped piece of thick wire, hanging loose around the line for my front brake, broken off roughly at the end. I removed/loosened all of the tupperware from the front end, trying to figure out what this used to be attached to, but couldn't find where it could have broken off from. It sort of resembles a wire on the other side of the wheel which keeps the cable for the speedo/odo from wobbling around too much. My only hypothesis is that it's supposed to do the same thing for the brake line, and was attached to something that used to be connected to the circled bolt hole. But I can't find it in the Buddy parts diagrams. This bike's a 50, but this area of it shouldn't be much different from the 125.

By the way, the parts manual came in handy in trying to solve Ye Olde Extra Parts Problem as I reattached the plastics. I had two bolts that I could not remember where they'd come from, but I was eventually able to decipher the parts diagram to locate the holes they belonged in, and got the whole thing reassembled before the sun went down!

A sort-of unrelated question: In my exploration I noticed that the rubber accordions that cover the pistons of my front shocks are breaking into sections, so they no longer cover them. They looked clean, and its pretty well-shielded by the plastics, though perhaps not from rain splatter. Is this something I should worry about?

You've stumped me. I looked at mine, and I don't see anything like that at all. I even looked way up inside under the plastic. That's my theory - this part was somewhere upstream, under your plastics. However, since mine is a 150, it could be totally different.

Just ran out and checked on mine since I have a 50 too. The black wire is mounted up under the front fender on the fork to keep the brake line from hitting the tire. If you look up under the fender you should see a bracket attached to the fork that held the wire up.

The other threaded hole on the fork has nothing in it at all. I'm not sure what it's there for but it's never had anything in it.

I was looking there, but couldn't find anything like that. Is the bracket something that could have fallen off (leaving this bit)?

Regardless, it doesn't sound like something I need to worry much about. I just wonder how long it was dangling there. (I bent it and pulled it off before putting the bike back together.)

yeah it definitely could have fallen off. It's just a piece of sheet metal that wraps around the fork and is held on with two small bolts with hex nuts.