Modern Buddy

Hi, I'm a new Buddy owner. On Sunday I had a lesson on my new Buddy and during a part of it where we were doing figure eights the center stand caught on the aspault and flipped me on my side. The instructor couldn't figure out why, she said I looked really good I was only going about 20mph and not leaning all that much. It scraped a few other times in the lesson, but we couldn't find anything that appeared wrong. I was dissappointed and kinda felt betrayed buy my Buddy!

Today when I got to work, I put it up on the center stand and something didn't look right, so I got down on my knees to take a look.

I don't think they attached it properly at the dealership! It's not that something came loose, I think they didn't bolt the right pieces together.

So can someone out there show me a closeup pic of a correctly installed center stand? Please? I've looked at the service manual and can't find a diagram.

It should "Hug" the transmission cover

Heres a picture


Another


Also, the dealer shouldnt be the one who installs the stand, it should come already attached from the factory, only 1 way to bolt it on. It's odd though that is kept scraping. I'm thinking your spring is weak and isnt keeping it up and folded properly, or it's getting stuck somewhere before properly folding, OR coming down when riding for some reason.

It's common for people who are experienced to grind the stand down when leaning real heavily, but a light lean should no where near touch the stand.

Hmm, the pics aren't close enough. The bolt that holds the two pieces of the center stand, the brass one, does it bolt into the holes.... shoot, lemme go take a pic of mine. I don't think I can describe it

webshots album, can't seem to load pics.
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563897019pUcWsm

Would appreciate any input. Thanks.

i just went out to look at mine, and mine is bolted on the same way...

have you checked to see if your bolts are loose? that might cause some variance in how it goes up or flops downward when it's supposed to be up...

The photos look to me like the stand is on correctly. And you can see the scrapes on the center stand.

Were the figure eights in a trough or really worn in pavement?

Looks fine to me. I'm thinking, it's lose when riding and sometimes bump down, or maybe the way you leaned somehow was catching onto it.

The pavement was a bit uneven, but nothing drastic.

I was leaning, mabey too much for a scooter? It hasn't scraped since, but I'm a bit nervous about leaning it now. When it happened to really caught on something, not just a scrape. There was no way to recover, it was just boom.

She recommended that I remove the center stand.

I will go over it again tonight, but nothing seemed loose to me.

I know you weren't doing figure 8's on a hill, but watch out for turning on hills.

My neighborhood gas station is on a hill. You have to make a right off the main street to get to it. But the right turn is a steep hill. So if you're going faster than about 10mph, you have to lean too much into the hill which takes away at least 10 degrees of your lean available to you. I could easily see scraping your stand in that scenario.

I strongly advise against removing the center stand. It's much more stable than the sidestand and should always be used when starting the scoot.

There's a chance you may have just leaned it too hard. I hit stand my first time on the Buddy. My wife had been riding for a while when we took the MSF and she hit the stand during the course also (and got praise for her quick recovery, natch!). The Buddy is very easy to lean—a little too easy sometimes—but you can take very sharp lefts without laving to lean it quite that far.

I agree with eric, I have read on other threads that when folks try to warm up the engine on the side stand, the rear wheel will actually engage sometimes and your scoot can actually take off on its own. Centerstand is very important in order to not have this happen to you.

hmmm, so is it less lean and more turning of the handlebars than a motorcycle?

During the lesson it scraped 2-3 times. Both left and right. Those didn't unbalance me at all, just made noise. The last time, the scoot kicked right out from under me.

I guess I will have to think on it.

this is actually common on alot of scoots- i did a 360 the 1st time i found this out. the Buddy is an easy handling bike that is capable of more than its lean angle allows, my Jog was the same way- where my Malaguti is capable of nearly laying on its side before scraping the stand.

lean clearance gets overlooked a lot and it bites people every now and then before they realize it can be an issue. even though the Buddy can handle high speed turns, the center stand wasnt designed to accommodate it. just slow down more before a turn and go in with a less severe lean angle.

voodoosix wrote:this is actually common on alot of scoots- i did a 360 the 1st time i found this out. the Buddy is an easy handling bike that is capable of more than its lean angle allows, my Jog was the same way- where my Malaguti is capable of nearly laying on its side before scraping the stand.

lean clearance gets overlooked a lot and it bites people every now and then before they realize it can be an issue. even though the Buddy can handle high speed turns, the center stand wasnt designed to accommodate it. just slow down more before a turn and go in with a less severe lean angle.

wheres the fun in that

Ember wrote:hmmm, so is it less lean and more turning of the handlebars than a motorcycle?

No, just less lean. Countersteering is still key. Smaller wheels, shorter wheelbase—you might just not have to lean it as hard as a MC. I have less experience on motorcycles, but a Buddy has all the lean it needs to make sharp turns at reasonable speeds.

I've scraped several times in a left turn. I soon realized that if I leaned more with my body and less with my buddy, I could still make the turn at the same speed, but the scraping was less likely to happen.

What do you tighten on the centerstand to get it to spring back up?

Just curious.

Last Fall I brought it to dealer for oil change and they tightened something up because I mentioned the centerstand didn't seem to be the same.

Whatever they did it was back to the way it was when I first bought it.

Now, it is doing it again...have to assist it with my foot to get it to pop back up in place.

Let me guess, it was while you were turning left, correct? If so, I had the same problem. I have posted it elsewhere. I was making a left at 20mph, caught the center stand and down buddy and I went. Very humbling.
I'm trying to find to photos I took of my center stand at the time. Yours, however, look very familiar.
I've been told that you just have to be careful turning a Buddy to the left because of the way the center stand is made.



Howard

ryder1 wrote:What do you tighten on the centerstand to get it to spring back up?

Just curious.

Last Fall I brought it to dealer for oil change and they tightened something up because I mentioned the centerstand didn't seem to be the same.

Whatever they did it was back to the way it was when I first bought it.

Now, it is doing it again...have to assist it with my foot to get it to pop back up in place.

This my friends is the key, if you dont check the stand before riding off there is a good chance you could crash. This seems to be a problem with the stands, the springs are weak and wont pull the stand up sometimes. If you were scraping turning right then this was most likely your problem. I myself have thoroughly tested the buddy's limits and turning right the only thing you can scrape is the pipe. Also not to be rude but weight can play a factor on how low the stand sits while riding. More weight = more lateral force while turning

a couple of things i've mentioned before so sorry about repeating myself.

a couple of weeks ago i took the experienced riders course and talked to the instructor about scraping. he suggested that it be avoided because unlike other bikes where the pegs scrape and absorb the shock on scooter or at least the buddy he said whatever scrapes will not absorb the shock and could cause the scooter to skip out from under you.

which mine did several months ago on the right side when it skipped out fortunately i didn't loose control, well except for the moment while the back wheel was in the air and only had an andrenolin rush to contend with. the tires were lower than usual.

after that i keep my back tire at 28-30 and thanks to one of yous guys i lean a lot more with my body than before.

i've toyed with the idea of taking my center stand off too, but it's to darn handy in public parking.

ScooterTrash wrote:

ryder1 wrote:What do you tighten on the centerstand to get it to spring back up?

Just curious.

Last Fall I brought it to dealer for oil change and they tightened something up because I mentioned the centerstand didn't seem to be the same.

Whatever they did it was back to the way it was when I first bought it.

Now, it is doing it again...have to assist it with my foot to get it to pop back up in place.

This my friends is the key, if you dont check the stand before riding off there is a good chance you could crash. This seems to be a problem with the stands, the springs are weak and wont pull the stand up sometimes. If you were scraping turning right then this was most likely your problem. I myself have thoroughly tested the buddy's limits and turning right the only thing you can scrape is the pipe. Also not to be rude but weight can play a factor on how low the stand sits while riding. More weight = more lateral force while turning

I recently crashed my Vespa due to the stand not springing up all the way. The spring, I think, is okay. I think the problem is friction/dirt in the cylinder. Gotta figure a way to take it apart and grease it.

I'm taking it in for maintenance within a week or two and will ask what they do to tighten the centerstand. Whatever it was it did not sound like it was complex.

My center stand often doesnt go all the way up when I roll the bike off it. Ive made it a habit to kick it back lightly with my foot as I drive off just to make sure its up. I usually only scrape it when leaning in an off-camber left turn or riding 2 up. At slow speed you dont need to lean it as much as a motorcycle to make tight turn. My advice to new riders is try to take it slow at first and gradually increase your speed and lean angles as you gain experiance. Im lucky enough to ride through a windy, hilly section of road on my daily commute. Over this last year Ive developed a good sense of how far I can lean before I make contact. I still take it easy on unfamiliar roads though. The rear wheel skip is a scary feeling.

ryder1 wrote:What do you tighten on the centerstand to get it to spring back up?

I had the same problem and it got to be quite irritating. I just used a little bicycle chain lube on the hinge part of the centerstand and haven't had a problem since.