Buddy 50 1000 mile review

[Clydeo]

Back in April, I purchased a Buddy 50 from the great folks at Carlisle Cycle and Scooter. If you live in the Central PA region, check them out! They really know scooters! At the time, I was specifically looking for a 50 cc two stroke bike. Why? Because that's what I learned on, and I really think learning how to ride on a small displacement bike is best. I had heard about Buddy scooters before, but I had never ridden one. My internet searches did not reveal much useable information, which seems rather surprising for what Genuine advertises as their "best selling bikes." So, for what's it's worth, here is my Review of the Buddy 50, based on 1000 miles of riding it.

Let's start off with the things I don't like about the bike:
1. The headlights aren't bad, but they aren't great.
2. The front storage tray doesnt have secure storage.
3. I wish the gas cap wasn't under the seat
4. I haven't figured out a way to check the oil tank ( yes, I know there is a dashboard light to tell me when it's low, but I want to be able to check it myself just to be sure!)

That's about it.

Now the good stuff:
1. The bike is light, with a low center of gravity. Everyone seems to worry about seat height, but weight is a far greater issue. A bike that is top heavy will intimidate a new rider, and make him/her reluctant to ride. The Buddy 50 is about as intimidating to ride as a bicycle! And with the lowered seat, the seat height isn't an issue for much of anyone, anyway! The light weight and low seat height were primary reasons for us choosing a Buddy.
2. The bike is powerful enough FOR US. We live in a strange area. It is ten miles north of Harrisburg, the capital city of PA, but in an extremely rural area. Therefore almost all of our riding is either on quiet two lane country roads, or on urban surface streets, environments where the Buddy 50 excels. I have spent a lot of those thousand miles working out routes for my daughter where she will be able to keep up with traffic without any problem. Compared to my 1970's era Vespa Ciao's, the Buddy is amazing, easily maintaining a 40-45 mph 45-50 bmph) pace. In the city, The Buddy's incredible maneuverability allows me to move around more quickly than I could by car.
3. The scooter has an amazing ability to haul stuff. I can pack a weeks worth of groceries on the bike, using the rack, some saddle bags, and the bag holder. I love my motorcycle, but this is one area where the scooter wins hands down.
4. The Buddy is easy to ride, allowing the rider to focus on the road instead of the bike. My wife has a NEVER tried to ride one of my motorcycles, except on the back seat, but she will hop on the Buddy and ride it around and enjoys every minute of it. My daughter is doing very well with her lessons in a church parking lot, and is looking forward to getting her license, so that she can take it out on the road ( with Dad riding along for at least a while). It is almost TOO easy to ride, because it can easily give the rider a false sense of security. Riding is complicated: one needs experience to do it safely!
5. I like the brakes. I can pull a stoppie on my Ninja, which is fine, but not for a beginner bike. The Buddy 50 brakes are good enough to slow the bike down quickly, but one would have to pull really hard to lock them up. High siding a Buddy may not be impossible, but you would really have to work at it!
6. I really like getting close to 100 mpg. It is hard to be exact because the tank is so small that it is hard to fill it to the same place each time, but it goes about 100 miles before the fuel gauge hits empty, and then I can fill it up with around a gallon. I have used about a quart and a half in oil, I guess (see above).
7. I like having a choice between 2 seats, because if I had to ride it using the lowered seat my daughter prefers, I never would have been able to ride the thing 1000 miles! Having the optional lowered seat makes the bike more accessible to a wider range of people.
8. I love the front tray, even if it doesn't lock. It's a great place for essentials, such as gloves, coffee, sun glasses, etc.
9. Nothing has broken or needed adjustment in 1000 miles, so I can't be certain, but the bike looks really easy to work on. Changing the transmission oils certainly wasn't hard at all.
10. I like that the Buddy 50 is almost exactly the same thing as the Buddy 125 and 170i, so that in a year or so, when my daughter is ready to move up, she can easily move into a larger Buddy without the usual new-to-me-bike issues. My wife is already laying claim to the 50 when my daughter is done with it (but with a 70cc kit!).
Sorry for the long post, but hopefully someone will find it useful.

[jrsjr]

2. The front storage tray doesnt have secure storage.

Nice write up. About the storage, I'm not sure how absolutely "secure" the Gen-u-Bin is, but it's worth looking into if you weren't aware of it before.

Again, very nice review. Thanks for posting!