Modern Buddy

Hey fellow buddy fans, I recently got my Pamplona 150 up and running again. Decided to come back to the Ole' forum and see what I've been missing. I was finally able to remember my old username and well here I am.

So...what happened with the girlfriend who was supposed to ride the Pamplona?

Amazingly, nothing much has changed with the Buddy lineup except the 150 engine has been replaced with a "170i" fuel-injected model. Maybe there was a little design change to the key/ignition unit on the newer ones?

So...what happened with the girlfriend who was supposed to ride the Pamplona?


Wife, and kids happened, as well as a couple moves and life in general. Which had alot to do with me basically with my not riding.

HMBscoot wrote: ↑Thu Sep 01, 2022 2:05 am Hey fellow buddy fans, I recently got my Pamplona 150 up and running again. Decided to come back to the Ole' forum and see what I've been missing. I was finally able to remember my old username and well here I am.

Very cool that you kept your scooter all that time.I ended a 15 year no motorcycle dry spell when I bought #14 last summer. Got back into scooters this summer because my teenage daughters wanted to learn to ride, forgot how fun and convenient for the city they are, luckily I didn’t hold onto my Riva 180, I really tortured that old beast in the 80s

Changed the oil and rode in to work the next day scooter felt a little bit smoother and I was able to hit 75 mph on the freeway for a little bit. Sticker under the seat indicated oil last changed about 10 years ago!

Glad your 150 is back up and running! What type of maintenance was required to get it going?

Well not too much actually, I've not been active on the site, nor actively riding but I would pull the buddy out a couple times a year to verify it would still start and run. The last time it sat the longest and bot only killed the battery but the carb was a bit cloged and would not start. I opened up the air box and sprayed carb cleaner into the intake while cranking the engine over with jumper cables connected to my car. After a while it started up and would run a few seconds then die. I repeated this til I could keep it running with the cars battery but as soon as I disconnected the cable it would die. I replace the battery, used carb cleaner to get it going and then took it out for a ride got some fresh gas in it and as much hard riding as possible now running good. It still seems a little cold blooded and need me to keep a little throttle to keep it running at first so a proper off the bike carb cleaning is probably still needed but it's running well enough for me for right now.

Glad you made it back! I recently snuck back in myself after bringing my dead '08 Buddy back to life. They're too much fun to stay away from forever...

It's like a class reunion in here. Only not awful!

Nice to hear about these older scooters coming back to life. And even better to hear of people getting excited to ride again. How long do tires typically last? I'm guessing it probably depends on environment the scooter was stored in.

Neil82 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 2:47 am Nice to hear about these older scooters coming back to life. And even better to hear of people getting excited to ride again. How long do tires typically last? I'm guessing it probably depends on environment the scooter was stored in.

The big concerns with tires on a stored scoot are if there's any moisture on the ground below, if they're not kept inflated, if they're resting on the same spot for a long time, and if they're subject to a lot of weather (high heat, low cold, lots of swings in temperature, too humid, too dry). Then it depends a bit on how long they've been in the environment.

If they're someplace not subject to all those conditions and kept (mostly) inflated, scoot is rolled around once in a while so they're not resting on the same spots, I'd give the average good-quality tire a few years. The industry standard recommendation for motorcycle tires is six years, but that can be more or less based on condition and all those variables.

Anything at ten years old should be replaced no matter the circumstances.

You can't rely on how they look, though! I once needed a temporary tire while waiting for a replacement in the mail and swapped out one that looked good, but I wasn't sure of the age. This is what happened after one day of riding on it.

ericalm wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 6:44 pm It's like a class reunion in here. Only not awful!

Right? Nice to see some old faces!

Well I'm off the buddy and on the stella for now. The buddy front brake is dragging and from what I've found. I needs to change the brake fluid an possibly the line. It the original fluid from 2008

Kaos wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 1:04 am Glad you made it back! I recently snuck back in myself after bringing my dead '08 Buddy back to life. They're too much fun to stay away from forever...

I actually had some of the mods I remembered you did in mind when I came back here. Was going to ask around if there had been any improvements since those original BBK were out. What I found was a some tumble weeds in these rather quite forums.

glad your getting yours up and out again as well. Wish I had your knowledge and skill in my back yard I'd love to have my Pamplona turned up to 11 like yours.

HMBscoot wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 3:24 pm

Kaos wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 1:04 am Glad you made it back! I recently snuck back in myself after bringing my dead '08 Buddy back to life. They're too much fun to stay away from forever...

I actually had some of the mods I remembered you did in mind when I came back here. Was going to ask around if there had been any improvements since those original BBK were out. What I found was a some tumble weeds in these rather quite forums.

glad your getting yours up and out again as well. Wish I had your knowledge and skill in my back yard I'd love to have my Pamplona turned up to 11 like yours.

There have been quite a few improvements since I started digging into the Buddy engines all those years ago but most of them have been made by the custom Ruckus guys lately.

There's bigger kits now. You can take the Buddy engine up to about 190cc now if you don't mind some case modifications. You can bolt on the FI from the Buddy 171 for some fuel system improvement or do a Megasquirt install like I did on my motor swap if you want extreme control. There's some mount extensions I think will fit but haven't tried yet if you want a bit of a stretch. And there's a lot of new rim options too!