Modern Buddy

First off, I want to say Hey Ya'all..great board going here. @nd.. I have had serious scooter lust going on for the last year or two.; Now that I'm truning 50, the wife, my boss.. has said that I can get a Scoot for the big Barfday. So.. I had been lusting after Stella. I don't mind mixing my own gears, and the styling is ..classic. On the other hand..the reviews of Buddy have been ..Stellar..so to speak. Concearns.. speed, weight carrying..(im over 200) and ..environment.. 2 strokes are dirty.. and I know that on stella, its only a matter of time before the stock exhaust is off, and a pipe goes on...(only time will tell if POC will come up with a buddy pipe). Opinions?? I knwo Jess rides a stella fireball.. anyone else have any thoughts..thanks in advance, I'll hang up now and listen.

DeadPatroit wrote:and I know that on stella, its only a matter of time before the stock exhaust is off, and a pipe goes on...(only time will tell if POC will come up with a buddy pipe).

Oooh! I sat in line behind a Stella with a POC pipe on it yesterday at the MSF ERC. It sounded great! Phil said it was chrome plated stainless steel!? I didn't know you could do that.

Actually, the buddy sounded pretty good with the stock exhaust. A little throatier than I thought it would be. I heard something beside me start up, and looked to see what it was, and there was Michelle starting the Buddy!

"Oooh! I sat in line behind a Stella with a POC pipe on it yesterday at the MSF ERC. It sounded great! Phil said it was chrome plated stainless steel!? I didn't know you could do that."

If it had the POC pipe on it, it was a Bajaj. Pretty easy to mistake for a stella though, seeing as they are almost identical Phil started making those about a year ago... They make the Bajaj sound like an old Brit thumper..sort of like yer Vespa?? Oh and BTW..Dang that was loud.!! I played the .wav file. Now, if it sounded like a bunch of really mad bees(ring a ding rat-a-tat-atat) that could have been a Stella..but Im not aware that POC is actually manufacturing pipes for them.

I could be wrong..my wife tells me I'm wrong all the time(heh)

DeadPatroit wrote:I knwo Jess rides a stella fireball.. anyone else have any thoughts..thanks in advance, I'll hang up now and listen.

Not me. I ride a Vespa GTS, and of course now a Buddy. No Stella here, though.

jess wrote:

DeadPatroit wrote:I knwo Jess rides a stella fireball.. anyone else have any thoughts..thanks in advance, I'll hang up now and listen.

Not me. I ride a Vespa GTS, and of course now a Buddy. No Stella here, though.

Ellen does.

If you want a Stella, I think you better act quickly... I've heard from a dealer that they've discontinued Stella and they only have so much of them left unsold.

I love the way Stella looks too, and I've heard nothing but awesome things about its performance and quality. It made me quite sad when I heard of its discontinuation. If I had any previous experience with scooters, I would have seriously considered the Stella.

However, I'm considering the Buddy because I'm absolutely new to the scooter world (I wouldn't have to learn how to shift gears manually,) and I love its sporty-retro look and the compactness. It seems to be pretty much unanimous that the Buddy is an ideal scooter for someone new to riding. I travel and drive around a lot, and I've heard that its seat is comfortable for long-distance traveling. I also like the idea of having more storage space... I saw both a Buddy and a Stella at a dealer, and while the Stella has a glove compartment, the Buddy has an open storage slot and underseat storage. It's also lighter and has a lower seat height than the Stella, which probably helps a lot, considering the fact that I'm a small person. And, Buddy is more affordable

But the Stella has some really nice features that the Buddy doesn't have, like the all-steel body, awesome vintage styling, and a 150cc engine. It seems like you can get a ton of accessories for it too. It looks almost exactly identical to Vespa PX150, but I bet the price tag is a lot different between the two!

Oh, and one more thing:

.: real friends don't let friends use Windows. :.

Those words will be replacing the motto on my family coat of arms.

Like Steve said.. That would be me with the Stella Fireball!
Its hard to compare the two as they are 2 different beasts.

The Stella is loud and smelly and a lot of fun to ride.
After my warranty was up I added a Sito+ pipe. Definitely a lot louder. But it really helped.

The Buddy is quiet and a lot of fun to ride. I'm amazed at the power of that little scooter.

Picking between the 2 really depends on the type of riding you plan on doing.

I live in the sticks so I do a lot of riding on long stretches of rolling hills at higher speeds. The Stella is great for that.

Riding downtown in stop and go traffic can be very annoying and very painful on the wrists. I still dread coming up to a red light on a hill.
That's where the twist and go's really excel.

ellen wrote: Its hard to compare the two as they are 2 different beasts.

The Stella is loud and smelly and a lot of fun to ride.
After my warranty was up I added a Sito+ pipe. Definitely a lot louder. But it really helped.

The Buddy is quiet and a lot of fun to ride. I'm amazed at the power of that little scooter.

Picking between the 2 really depends on the type of riding you plan on doing.

I live in the sticks so I do a lot of riding on long stretches of rolling hills at higher speeds. The Stella is great for that.

Thanks, Ellen. Now I need to ride Chris' Stella again, and compare it with my Buddy. I'm afraid I'll want both!