Modern Buddy

I’ve had my buddy 125 for almost 2 years and over 7000 miles. My mechanic tells me it’s time for tires at a total cost of about $300. Since I’ve been doing most of my own work I’m thinking wrestling 10 inch tires shouldn’t be to bad?
Thoughts ideas, suggestions.
Anybody use the tire removal tool from harbor freight?
I was thinking of getting white walls. I’ve looked at a lot of the posts here but most are a bit older. Anybody suggest brands or places to buy them?

Check YouTube. There are dozens of videos about changing 10" tires with about $20 worth of tools. It's not brain surgery.

The word around here is that current whitewall tires aren't very high in quality. Unless you absolutely have to have "the look", I'd avoid them.

Can you pull both wheels yourself? Some ACE hardware stores near me that have service sections will put them on for $10 each off the scooter. I do all my own tires. Even car tires. You can break the scooter bead in a bench vise. All you need is 3 motorcycle tire irons to get the tires off and on. Search modern buddy. This has been discussed in depth in the past. You will find video links etc. A set of Kenda tires will set you back around $60.00. Look on Craigslist in your area for motorcycle mechanics. Some Discount Tire stores will mount them if you bring the wheels in. $300 for the pair sounds steep to me. If you don't know how to pull and re-install your wheels, get used to writing checks. Take some time, watch videos, go slow and pull them off.

Is this place near you: https://kansascity.craigslist.org/aos/d ... 62515.html

Check trailer shops for tire mounting. The expensive part is getting the wheels off and on the bike.

Thanks for advise I have looked at several YouTube videos and the biggest concern seems the scratch marks etc done to the wheel. Never thought about going to a trailer repair place. That is good idea! I’ve watched the videos posted here on wheel removal and it doesn’t look to bad. I’m going to try anyway. First gotta buy some tires lol

What year is your Buddy? Front tires usually last longer than 7k. Biggest issue when mounting your own tires is getting the bead to set. If you use dish soap, and let the wheel sit in direct sun for an hour before you work on it, you do very to no damage to the rim. The hotter the better for dismounting and mounting tires to the rim.

Wrestling little tires onto rims is harder, I think, than big tires. Rims are easy to scratch, so I cut my old tires off with a $20 Harbor Freight oscillating saw, and bring the new tires and rims into my local motorcycle shop. (I have Bluetooth tire pressure senders in my tires, making self-mounting additionally complicated.)

Rayc11949 wrote:Thanks for advise I have looked at several YouTube videos and the biggest concern seems the scratch marks etc done to the wheel. Never thought about going to a trailer repair place. That is good idea! I’ve watched the videos posted here on wheel removal and it doesn’t look to bad. I’m going to try anyway. First gotta buy some tires lol

For the $300 the shop charges you could buy two tires for $80 and use the savings from doing it yourself to buy brand rims every second set of tires.

You have to ask yourself if a couple small scratches in the rim are worth paying a shop ~$220 in labor. I have been mounting my own tires for years and I wasn't very good at it first and the scratches I have put in the rim haven't affected the bead from seating. Plus, they aren't noticeable from 10 feet away. There are things you can do to minimize or even prevent scratching if it is really important to you.

I really like these tire irons, I suggest getting 3 or 4. You can get them at most motorcycle shops and a lot of websites for $12-15 a set. - https://www.motionpro.com/product/08-0006

Here is a picture of one of my oldest rims that I have installed lots of tire on, by lots I mean more than 10.

The HF mini tire changer looks like a great deal and has excellent reviews. At $36 with a 20% coupon I don't see how you could go wrong. That and some tire spoons and you should be good to go.
My only experience changing tires on a Buddy were removing tires that were rusted to the rim because a scooter shop had put tubes in the old tires allowing water to get in at the valve stem. I had to take an angle grinder with a wire wheel to clean up the rust then painted the rims. A Shinko SR425 110/80 mounted and seated easily on the front but a 130/70 was very difficult on the rear, in fact a quality tire place (Les Schwab) spent at least 20 or more minutes trying to seal it on the bead, they finally took it to a back room and did something to it that seated it. I'd never bother going with the oversize tires in the future. I found using Murphys oil soap made mounting tires much easier than Windex or dilute dish soap.

PS the prior owner of my scooter had all work done at a highly regarded scooter shop in Seattle. I found missing exhaust gasket, missing and wrong screws resulting in cracked air cleaner cover. Not impressive expecially for what they charged for their work (I have the receipts).

PNWbuddy wrote:The HF mini tire changer looks like a great deal and has excellent reviews. At $36 with a 20% coupon I don't see how you could go wrong. That and some tire spoons and you should be good to go.

I thought I read some posts about this tire changer not working very good with scooter tires. I could be mistaken but it might be worth doing a little research before buying.

All I use to change a tire are 3 tire irons, a 1.5 foot long 2x4(to break the bead,) and a bottle of soapy water.

Buy the tires, remove the wheels from the scooter, take wheels and new tires to a shop that handles small tires (e.g. trailers or motocycles), pay the small price for the them to change them.


Whitewalls suck; I'll never go back to them.

I just went though the same ordeal. Bought new Michelin S1 100/90-10 tires. My old tires were the original whitewalls. Removed both wheels myself. You have to remove the exhaust pipe first to get the back wheel off. Then found a local scooter service shop to change the tires. Cost me $45. Reinstalled the new wheels myself. Reinstalled the exhaust pipe. Done!

Service options without lead times due to the pandemic were very limited. One major scooter shop in the area was booked thru the Summer and were not taking any service appointments. The only mishap was ruining the exhaust gasket during exhaust pipe re installation. Had to buy a new exhaust gasket to rectify.

BayStateScooterist wrote:I just went though the same ordeal. Bought new Michelin S1 100/90-10 tires. My old tires were the original whitewalls. Removed both wheels myself. You have to remove the exhaust pipe first to get the back wheel off. Then found a local scooter service shop to change the tires. Cost me $45. Reinstalled the new wheels myself. Reinstalled the exhaust pipe. Done!

Service options without lead times due to the pandemic were very limited. One major scooter shop in the area was booked thru the Summer and were not taking any service appointments. The only mishap was ruining the exhaust gasket during exhaust pipe re installation. Had to buy a new exhaust gasket to rectify.

Those are the tires I run.


For some reason, the exhaust has been a thorn in my side - I've always had trouble with those exhaust studs.

I have replaced the rear tire on my Buddy. I removed the wheel and got the old tire off but I could not get the new tire on the rim so I took it to a local tire shop (automobile tire) and they mounted the tire for $10. I was very happy.