Modern Buddy

I've had motorcycles since I was 16. The only scooter I had ever driven was one my grandfather had when he was no longer strong enough to swing his legs over a seat. Fast forward 25 years and my wife finally got tired of riding behind me so she took the motorcycle riders safety course and got her license. Then the search was on. She found and fell in love with 2012 Seafoam green Buddy 125 with 300 miles on it. We picked it up for a good price and she's been riding it ever since. In two years, she now has a little over 4,000 miles on it. We ended up getting a motorcycle carrier and it goes on the front of our camper and the scooter has traveled all over the country on whatever excursion we go on. She has named it "Cricket."

Earlier this month, she was cruising Craigslist and found a 2014 Matte black 170i and talked me into going to look at it. Needless to say, no one in Rochester, NY is buying scooters at this time of year. The scooter had 2000 miles and all service records from the dealer so we made an offer that we didn't expect him to take (I wouldn't) but he was glad to see it go. The plan for this scooter is to mount this one on the back of the camper and now the four of us (two boys) can go places without having to tow a vehicle behind us. I also have a dedicated track car that we pull around so now I will have a vehicle to run around the pits and to town if I need to.

Plans for Cricket...

It had a small incident on some loose gravel this fall so the body panels are being pulled off and the scratches repaired. My wife has been after me to pull them off anyway so she can get a little "creative" on them so once done, this will truely be one of a kind.

Plans for 170i (apparently I don't name vehicles)...

I never looked to see the dead lights on these scooters so I ordered off some LED lights last night and will mock up my own wiring for both scooters. I appreciate what Voodoo has done making their adapters and harnesses and if I wanted anything more than running lights I would have bought their kits without hesitation.

Pictures will follow shortly.

Wertles wrote:I've had motorcycles since I was 16. The only scooter I had ever driven was one my grandfather had when he was no longer strong enough to swing his legs over a seat. Fast forward 25 years and my wife finally got tired of riding behind me so she took the motorcycle riders safety course and got her license. Then the search was on. She found and fell in love with 2012 Seafoam green Buddy 125 with 300 miles on it. We picked it up for a good price and she's been riding it ever since. In two years, she now has a little over 4,000 miles on it. We ended up getting a motorcycle carrier and it goes on the front of our camper and the scooter has traveled all over the country on whatever excursion we go on. She has named it "Cricket."

Earlier this month, she was cruising Craigslist and found a 2014 Matte black 170i and talked me into going to look at it. Needless to say, no one in Rochester, NY is buying scooters at this time of year. The scooter had 2000 miles and all service records from the dealer so we made an offer that we didn't expect him to take (I wouldn't) but he was glad to see it go. The plan for this scooter is to mount this one on the back of the camper and now the four of us (two boys) can go places without having to tow a vehicle behind us. I also have a dedicated track car that we pull around so now I will have a vehicle to run around the pits and to town if I need to.

Plans for Cricket...

It had a small incident on some loose gravel this fall so the body panels are being pulled off and the scratches repaired. My wife has been after me to pull them off anyway so she can get a little "creative" on them so once done, this will truely be one of a kind.

Plans for 170i (apparently I don't name vehicles)...

I never looked to see the dead lights on these scooters so I ordered off some LED lights last night and will mock up my own wiring for both scooters. I appreciate what Voodoo has done making their adapters and harnesses and if I wanted anything more than running lights I would have bought their kits without hesitation.

Pictures will follow shortly.

Welcome to the forum. You can't go wrong with the 170i. You definitely made the right choice but being an MC guy you'll probably start lusting for a Genuine Hooligan 170i once you've seen one up close and personal. It happened to me and my '12 170i Italia is now history!

Bill in Seattle but currently wintering in Tucson
'14 170i Hooligan Matte Green
'15 170i Hooligan Titanium (AZ scoot)

Here is Cricket in the Outer Banks.



And here are two pics of my scooter as I unloaded it.

That is awesome - welcome and enjoy!

For local riding/short trips they are a blast yet once you start to ride at higher speeds/longer distances you will benefit from a windshield. I would say you will find more reasons to ride...

Each my wife, daughter and myself ride (between 2,500 - 9,200 annually) and we all three swear by them. Check out the gallery for any posts started by 'MYSCTR' to see pics.

I was waiting for a little shipment. It finally came this week.



The first thing I did was hook up the dead lights as running lights. I'm sure the pre made harnesses would save 10 minutes but I made my own in about 10 minutes and maybe $3 in wire and connectors. It actually cost me nothing as I already had the wire and connector stuff but if you went to Home Depot, be prepared to spend about $10 or so. It will have enough to do at least 3 scooters. While I was at it, I added a pigtail for power and ground as I have ordered off a couple Garmin GPS power cords that I will hard wire in as well. I got them here.

https://www.amazon.com/Garmin-010-11131 ... +gps+cords

I bought LED bulbs from superbrightleds.com. I got the brightest I thought I could fit and they are BRIGHT! They are $14.95 a piece so they are not cheap but they operate over a large voltage range so there is no need to buy a voltage regulator to keep them safe. You can get them here.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinf ... ofit/2622/

Here is a comparison to my buddy with the LED lights compared to the stock bulbs that came in the housings. It really is hard to tell the difference but I came in the shop last night and kept the lights off but turned on the running lights. I believe these two bulbs put out more light than the headlight.



I finally got to ride my scooter for the first time yesterday. I wanted to change out the oils and get them warm so since we hit 50 degrees yesterday, we went for a ride. First stop was Advance Auto since I was out of Sea Foam and I believe the gas in here is probably 2 years old. In all I rode 30 miles. I would have gone longer but I was only in a sweatshirt and wasn't wearing gloves so I cut it a bit short. A couple of observations. I think it's slower than my wife's 125. It really feels sluggish. It feels as though someone has put in very heavy sliders in. As you start out, it sounds like a manual transmission car as it will rev up then rev down rather quickly as the clutch engages. I will give it some time to see if this improves with some miles as this scooter hasn't been driven in two years. My top speed wasn't what I expected either. I could only get to 61 or 62 on the speedo so probably in reality about 55. I would have thought about 5 mph faster. I don't know how this scooter was broken in or ridden before so again, I'll give it a little time to get used to me.

Once I got home, I drained the oils. This still had the slotted oil filter so I hope this wasn't the original that came on it but he said he only took it to the dealer for service so hopefully the dealer was using this filter as a way to keep customers coming back. Just for completeness sake, here's what I use for oils. Is Amsoil better than everything else? Yes in my opinion. It's what I use in all my vehicles, race car included and I've never had an oil related failure. For full disclosure, im a preferred customer so I get the motor oil fit less than $7 a quart delivered to my door so it's really convienient. If I weren't an Amsoil customer, I'd get my oil from Walmart and be just as happy.



The first time I changed my wife's gear oil, I stripped out the threads by reusing the crush washer. Lesson learned. In my order, I made sure to get plenty of new crush washers. I'll use a new one every time. To repair, I used the Time Sert system. It is definitely more expensive than helicoils, but a far superior repair in my opinion. Do your research before you make your decision. Not to say that helicoils are bad, they do work but I've had a couple of catastrophic failures with them, none so far with these. It can be ordered through Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/TIME-SERT-Metric ... =Time+cert





I changed the air filter and spark plug as well on the 170. I did that to the 125 last year. Spark plug gap should be 0.6-0.7mm which works out to .025 inches. Out of the package, it was a little too tight.



I'm looking for a feeler gauge that reads .08mm so I can do the valves. Can't find it so it might have to wait till next weekend.

Thanks for the update. Er, that's not your home shop, is it?

babblefish wrote:Thanks for the update. Er, that's not your home shop, is it?

It is. I have been blessed with a good job and a great wife. It took me a year to build. I had the shell, siding, doors and concrete done by Mennonites and my dad and I did the rest. If you are bored, the build is documented here.

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showt ... ild-Begins

So I got to a few things this week. I received my Dr Pulley 11g sliders for both scooters. I don't know why my 170 doesn't feel as peppy as the 125 but it acts like there is really heavy sliders in there so I pulled it all apart. It appears it has the stock rollers in there. They were not too badly worn. I didn't expect them to be at only 2400 miles but I'm going to replace them anyway. I destroyed the gasket while taking off the cover so I ordered two new ones as the gasket on the 125 will most likely come apart as well. Since I was making an order, I decided to get Kevlar belts for both and keep the old ones as spares. Hopefully they will be here next week so I can finish up that part of the project.

Next was a valve adjustment for each scooter. I followed the directions here.

topic8312.html

Access was actually easier on 170 than the 125 because the breather disconnects right on the valve cover but there isn't a kick starter to turn the motor on the 170. As I had the transmission cover off, I could easily turn the motor by the variator so it turned out to be a piece of cake. The 170 did not need any adjustment, the 125 exhaust valve was a little tight.

I ordered off a Ram Mount for my GPS. I highly recommend these mounts for any motorcycle, scooter, snowmobile etc. as they are very sturdy and handle the abuse these vehicles put out. At the same time, I hard wired the GPS in with this cord from Amazon. I have installed these in every car I have.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004M ... UTF8&psc=1

I tapped into the wiring harness I made for the dead lights that I turned into running lights so it will turn on and off with the key and it will leave the 12V charging port free.



Next is repairing some damage from a tip over on my wife's scoot. Replacing the brake lever is an easy job anyone can do. The hardest part is removing the speedo cover and there are plenty of videos you can find which show how to do that.



Next is removing all the body panels from her scooter as she wants to "spice" it up a little. I'm not sure how this is going to go but I'm about halfway done stripping it. My buddy has a motorcycle lift and I got tired of bending over so I'm waiting to finish when he brings it over.

While the top cover is off, I ordered an LED headlight that babblefish recommended here.

http://www.banggood.com/Motorcycle-LED- ... 35011.html

For $19.00, I'm sure it's worth a try. If I like it, I'll order one for my scooter as well. The shipping is free so I didn't lose anything but time if I order another.

Thanks for the deadlight bulb link! They look super bright in the pics!

What your mileage on the Kevlar belt - we put one on our first scoot when we hit 10,000 and had it fully tuned up only to have it shred 1,400 mile later. Now we only use the stock/factory belts. You might ask for others who have used them to report here as a comparison to see if mine was just a bad belt or what.

When you get the LED headlight conversion, please do post how easy/hard it was to install in your Buddy and what you think about it. Warning: the shipping time from Banggood can be almost a month (hey, it's free!), so be patient. I've gotten things sooner, but just fair warning.

Plan on ordering the LED bulbs and dont really care if it takes awhile, as Im having issues with the Buddy 125 at the moment.

The dead light LED's are really, really bright. I'm sure I could get along fine at night if my stock headlight blew out. They were pricy at $10 a bulb. If you are only doing one scooter it's not bad but when doing two, it adds up quickly.

I have no problem waiting a month for the headlight bulb. It's snowing right now so I've got time.

Both bikes are currently running stock belts. From what I've read, the Kevlar belt was an upgrade. Everyone says get Dr Pulley sliders and a Gates Kevlar belt and you are good to go. Did I read wrong and get the wrong belts?

wow.... just wow! I jumped over to that bimmerforums link to check out your shop and holy guacamole that is an awesome build! Kudos to you and I am sure you are having a blast in there!

I received my LED light from Bangood.com this weekend. I slipped it in the wife's scooter and took some comparison shots. I have not yet tried to get the speedo cover back on so I don't even know if this will physically fit in there. The pictures are of output only. The bikes are on the center stand so they are aiming a little low but both bikes are the same distance from the door.

Stock high beam.



LED high beam.



Both on high beam next to each other.



As you can see, there is quite a bit of scatter from the LED. I'm not sure what it looks like while driving on the road. Who knows, maybe it lights up better. Also, there is only one way to put the bulb in and going from low beam to high beam only adds light under the main focal point of the light so if you get "flashed," it won't do you any good to put on your low beams.

Also, I changed the sliders and belt on the wife's scooter since I had a few minutes yesterday. I was able to take my scooter out for a few miles yesterday as well since we hit 55 degrees. The new sliders and belt have improved the bottom end a bit. The top end seems to be coming along slowly. I feel like the previous owner never went over 40 mph so maybe the motor just needs to run wide open a bit to loosen up. My wife took it out and stated it felt a little heavier and less peppy than her 125. Hers even has a basket on the front and trunk on the back to add a couple of pounds.

I just ordered an Hi/Lo beam HID conversion for my Blur. More information and explanation here: viewtopic.php?p=362126#362126

The painting experiment we were going to try to do on the wife's scooter was a bust so we will try again next winter. My test piece didn't turn out how we wanted so since spring is here and the snow is melting, I just put her scooter back together so she is all set ready to go.

The LED bulb and the top cover don't play well with each other so out with the LED and in with the old bulb. When these burn out, I will replace them with PIAA bulbs.

I took both scooters for a test drive. GPS on the same road five minutes apart showed the 170 1 mph faster than the 125. The wife and I went on a ride together and we got on a nice straight stretch of road. She was definitely a mile or two faster than me. I could keep up if I tucked in behind her and drafted NASCAR style but when I pulled out to pass, no go. There is an 80 pound difference between us. Both scooters have 11g Dr. Pulley sliders and a Kevlar belt. I'm hoping the 170 will loosen up a little after I put a few more miles on it.

Other than that, both scooters are ready for the next 1500 miles with hopefully nothing more than gas.

Throw the Kevlar away. Far away. Just had one disintegrate and lock up the back wheel w/ 1000 miles on it and an NCY tranny kit.

Don't be dismayed at the seeming lack of performance with your 170i. Throw a hill into the equation then see what happens. 

I am not too concerned with the performance of the 170, just surprised. I would have thought the additional 45cc would have made a noticeable difference between the scooters. So far, they seem pretty much identical with the 125 edging it out. If I want a powerhouse, I have my 1100 V-twin cruiser or the race car. This was bought primarily to get around while camping or the race track and surrounding towns when we are out and about. I have found myself using it quite a bit to run around the town though. Last night went on a 4 mile ride to the inlaws that turned into a 30 mile ride. I don't think that the 170 was really ever broken in properly as every time I ride it, it seems to run better and stronger. I am picking roads where I can ride WOT as often as possible for as long as possible.

As far as my Kevlar belts, I am not sure if there are cheap vs expensive ones, but I bought the not so cheap Gates belts so I will hope that they will last more than 1000 miles. I have the original ones as spares so if something happens, I'll only be down 15 minutes.

Wertles wrote:I am not too concerned with the performance of the 170, just surprised. I would have thought the additional 45cc would have made a noticeable difference between the scooters. So far, they seem pretty much identical with the 125 edging it out. If I want a powerhouse, I have my 1100 V-twin cruiser or the race car. This was bought primarily to get around while camping or the race track and surrounding towns when we are out and about. I have found myself using it quite a bit to run around the town though. Last night went on a 4 mile ride to the inlaws that turned into a 30 mile ride. I don't think that the 170 was really ever broken in properly as every time I ride it, it seems to run better and stronger. I am picking roads where I can ride WOT as often as possible for as long as possible.

As far as my Kevlar belts, I am not sure if there are cheap vs expensive ones, but I bought the not so cheap Gates belts so I will hope that they will last more than 1000 miles. I have the original ones as spares so if something happens, I'll only be down 15 minutes.

The key difference in the 125 and 170 is gearing and valve size. The 125 has a small valve/port head and lower gearing. Your 170 has a big port head and the taller gears. I have run both heads and both gear ratios in my bike. I ended up running the 125 gears because its more responsive and I rarely cruise over 50 mph. On a stock bike the 125 and 170 are really close for the first 15 mph in acceleration but the 170 is going to have more top end.

Gates premium belt. Bought it by mistake. Locked up the rear wheel at 50mph in 3 lanes of traffic and blew out my variator.

I swapped the stock headlight in one of our Buddy 125s for a PIAA, and was not really impressed with the change. The PIAA is whiter, but doesn't really push light much further than the stock bulb. While I might buy another if the stock blub goes, it's not an upgrade I would recommend.

However, I do recommend fiddling with the headlight aim to get it dialed in to your liking. The angle of the light, of course, depends on the rider weight and where they are looking at their normal cruise speed. I found the stock setting was a few degrees too low, and pushing it up a bit let me ride at 45 bmph on high beam without feeling like I'm outrunning the light.