Bent Break Lever / Performance Upgrade

virgincollege · Post by **virgincollege** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 9:18 pm

Hey y'all,
Back in March I picked up my first scooter -- Buddy 125 with ~500 miles on it for $1,000 -- and she's been riding smooth everyday. I'm in love.

Unfortunately, during a brief lapse in judgment, I tipped it over in the driveway -- breaking off a mirror and bending the left break lever (thankfully it had cowl protectors on it when I bought it). The break lever still engages, but it's shifted down compared to the right one. The metal isn't bent...it's like the base just got bumped down. Should I worry about getting this fixed? Any way I could fix it myself? I could take pictures if needed.

Secondly, since I got the buddy for cheap and am already obsessed with riding it, I'd love to give it a performance upgrade. My problem is that I really don't know what's good or what works, and there isn't much information available on the internet. If you had 400-500$ to spend (including labor for installation) on strictly speed/performance enhancing upgrades, what would they be? Prima Pipe? Higher cc cyclinder kits? Show me some wisdom. Thanks guys!

strambley · Post by **strambley** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 9:26 pm

the piece of plastic where the mirror screws into and the brake lever is attached - that is actually a clamp that surrounds teh handlebar. See if you rotate it so it is back in alignment. I did the same thing awhile back and I was able to pull up on the brake lever until everything was back where it should be.

I would like to hear about other people's performance suggestions as well though!

Tocsik · Post by **Tocsik** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 9:59 pm

strambley wrote:the piece of plastic where the mirror screws into and the brake lever is attached - that is actually a clamp that surrounds teh handlebar. See if you rotate it so it is back in alignment. I did the same thing awhile back and I was able to pull up on the brake lever until everything was back where it should be.

+1 to that. That's what I did.
As for upgrades, you might want to wait until you have about 1500 miles on before you do much. Most have seen a definite uptick in performance at about that mark which probably means that's the true "broken-in" mileage.

virgincollege · Post by **virgincollege** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 11:18 pm

Yeah I've read some posts about that. I'm at 1,300 so should be getting to that number soon. I'm sure I'll notice a difference, but I wouldn't mind dishing out some extra money for a true upgrade. I've been reading about cylinder upgrades because I carry around friends pretty often, so it looks like that would help with hill climbs and maintaining a solid 50mph speed. Just some more powerful acceleration would be fun as well.

fossel · Post by **fossel** » Sat Jul 28, 2012 2:07 pm

I used a piece of pipe and got it back to almost perfect .Im the only one that knows I crashed,I bought used and it came with a crash bar.It will save your scooter from damage! A bent break handle was all my damage,and a fractured ego