Modern Buddy

So I just recently started riding a buddy 125 and there is a high pitched noise that is making me concerned. I know what the scooter should sound like because my girlfriend has the exact same scooter. The one I'm riding make a high pitch whine when I accelerate and engine brake. The noise does get louder the more I accelerate, higher rev=louder, and goes away when I'm at a stand still. The noise only starts when the scooter starts moving. It almost sounds like turbo spooling up or when you engine brake a car in first gear. The sound does seem to be coming from the cvt. Could it be the drive belt or does it sound more like a bearing? oh and the scooter only has 2200 miles on it.

If the rear tire rolls smooth then its not the bearings its probably belt slipping something like that I'd pull cvt cover and blow out the clutch dust and scuff up the clutch pads

Could still be bearings even if the rear wheel rolls smooth.
My scooter had a high-pitched whine and had to have the rear bearings replaced...twice.
Not the wheel bearings but the transmission bearings.
Put your scooter up on the center stand and rotate the rear wheel by hand. Try to get it going pretty good and listen for the noise. This won't narrow down the problem to clutch bearings, needle bearings, wheel bearings etc, but you should be able to determine if the noise is coming from the rear wheel or from somewhere in the transmission area.

Here is some reading from my second replacement and additional input from other members.

Could be a variety of causes. Most likely:
Belt rubbing, clutch or other transmission issue.
Bearings.
Rear brake rubbing/partially engaged.
…and others, but I'd try to rule those out first.

And here I was thinking someone started a thread about my wife.

Rob

Rob wrote:And here I was thinking someone started a thread about my wife.

Rob

Your divorce lawyer, maybe?

ericalm wrote:

Rob wrote:And here I was thinking someone started a thread about my wife.

Rob

Your divorce lawyer, maybe?

Ha! Lets hope she never sees this.

Rob

I was thinking maybe heard me when I sensed that someone, somewhere in Oregon, was enjoying a sweet, sweet scooter ride while I was stuck on the bus.

Thanks everyone for the replies! Got home propped the scooter up and took the cvt cover off. Spun the wheel and everything work/sounded fine. It turns out the cvt cover gasket has an edge that sticks out quite a bit and the belt rubs against it, leaving a wear line down the center of the belt. Besides the slight wear line on the belt it looks new. The only thing that worries me a little is that there is grease on the teeth of the belt. Is this normal?

feetchermancj wrote:Thanks everyone for the replies! Got home propped the scooter up and took the cvt cover off. Spun the wheel and everything work/sounded fine. It turns out the cvt cover gasket has an edge that sticks out quite a bit and the belt rubs against it, leaving a wear line down the center of the belt. Besides the slight wear line on the belt it looks new. The only thing that worries me a little is that there is grease on the teeth of the belt. Is this normal?

Not normal. Is there grease on the outside of the clutch or pulleys?

Also, look on the inside of the transmission cover and the bottom of the case to see if the belt was rubbing anywhere there.

No rubbing on the case and no grease on the clutch or the pulleys/variator. There was a little grease around the kick starter on the inside of the case.

So I do believe the grease came from the kick starter. I know for sure that the noise is coming from the drive belt rubbing the gasket. I found some posts on some cvt forum saying that this is a common problem and to just remove the gasket and replace it with silicon. Anyone try this?

i dont see why there's a gasket to start with since its dry

This thread is a couple of months old but resurected it because I am having this issue as well. Tried many things to get it and finally went to talk to the Sportique guys.

The answer (for me anyway) is gearbox noise, plain and simple. As they wear in, the gears develop some play. This happens to all scooters but the '06 is evidently known for making noise. I have had it apart (several times), down to taking the gears out and looking closely at the teeth, and the gears show no abnormal wear.

I have 4200 on it and it started at about 3500. It only whines when a load is place on the gears (accel and deccel) and at speeds 30+ mph. It gets louder when it (the bike) is hot from a long ride but it is always there. I'm going to try a thicker gear oil to see if it makes a difference but, as long as there is no "grinding" noise, it appears it's just something that Buddys can do, especially the older ones.

Just thought I would post my findings for others. Enjoy and YMMV.