Modern Vespa

Since Modern Buddy seems to have gone down, and might not be returning, things are looking grim for that community. I am debating whether we should create a "Home for Wayward Buddy Owners", or some such, here on MV. It's definitely outside of our wheelhouse, but I also feel some responsibility here, having started the site (almost as a joke) before giving it to Eric.

Then, as now, I don't have the capacity to run another forum, so I am unlikely to put up a new site. But a forum area here on MV wouldn't be much of a lift.

Opinions?

As long as the link is below the MP3 Discussion forum I'd be good with it.

In all seriousness, I have actually owned a Buddy or two, and if I recall correctly they each had two wheels and were quite scooter-ish. In a good way.

I've seen what happens to a scooter forum site when other marques are added - interest wanes across the board and only diehards are left. Last posts in each section can be years old.

How busy was the MB site? Perhaps just an "Official Modern Buddy thread" in General Discussion would suffice?

It's a fair point.

Two observations. On the up side there appear to be quite a few Buddy owners who are already members of MV. On the downside, as a "past" MB moderator I can report that postings on MB have been down over the past several years.

I started posting at Modern Buddy when I first got back into scootering. I didn't own a Buddy, but the community was a lot of fun. My posts were originally geared towards troubleshooting advice but it was easy to move into general banter. Took me a few years of intermittent lurking on MV before I started posting here.

My posting there dropped off in 2017 due to a string of "family life events", namely the less-popular kind. Work intensified around that time as well. Both wrenching on and riding on scoots essentially ground to a halt for me.

Our local Genuine dealer closed in late 2019 for personal reasons. There is another shop in town, but they're a multi-marque deal with a focus on Italian and German sportbikes; they carry Vespa as a requirement and intermittently stock Genuine products.

I got involved in a different facet of scooting in 2019, when Howard Rains pitched the concept of The Scooter 'Zine. The exercise of researching scooters and writing from both technical and storytelling perspectives was a slog at first, yet it became more enjoyable as time passed. As a knock-on effect, it made posting fun again.

I started getting back to club riding in late 2020. Great time to be a rider due to the decreased traffic. Attendance for our monthly rides had definitely suffered due to the impact of the pandemic. Another observation that Howard made was "Where had all the Buddies gone?" A large portion of our club's composition had been 125/150/170i models, yet now they were never seen. We did joke about being a "red Forza" club when about five members with similar taste stepped up to that model. It wasn't until our 2023 rally that we had a Buddy in attendance. We found it striking how something that had been so common had now become so rare.

I didn't own a Buddy until 2022. It was a cheap 50cc with issues, which led me back to Modern Buddy for research. I documented the heck out of the build (which is still ongoing) to give more context to others looking to make a Buddy 50 twice as fast. I also started referencing my old research into the 4T Stella and filling in the blanks on some technical details I'd lacked in the past, hoping to help the others who also were struggling with the repair-parts puzzle.

Today, I own three Buddies. This is pretty ironic, as I'd told Howard years ago that while it was an interesting scoot, it wasn't my cup of tea. Prior to writing a detailed review of the 4T Buddy lineup for the 'Zine, I'd only ridden a Buddy once or twice and in either case, it was once around the block to check a tune-up. The current fleet are all rescue mutts, left at a repair shop or given up on due to the to the cruel math of costs to repair versus the perceived value.

The '09 St. Tropez has been an eye opener. It's not going to shift your world like a GTS will. I find joy in it's light weight, flicky handling and physical unobtrusiveness when taking in a good road. It still boggles my mind as to why someone gave up on a clean, 3100-mile scooter that's so much fun to ride and needed so little work to come back. I've had this scoot since November; the other two are recent acquisitions.

.The '08 Pamplona was a college kid's beater scoot with broken and mismatched panels. Under the plastics, it's in surprisingly good shape. The minor mechanical issues are 90% resolved and I'm about 65% done with sourcing and installing replacement body panels from eBay and The Scooter Lounge. It has 10K on the clock and many good miles left to travel.

The '07 Sunset 125 was procured two weeks ago. It was another customer abandon, with 20K on the clock and "low compression". It's pretty complete but was very muddy and had a few scars indicative of failure to keep the rubber side down. I've washed it and pulled the battery to test/charge it. It'll have to wait until the Pamplona is done before I crack into it, but it likely won't be the big problem it was flagged with. While cleaning it, I noticed the witness paint on one of the valve cover bolts was undisturbed. I'll borescope it to confirm, but I bet it'll run OK with that long-overdue valve adjustment and a good pilot circuit cleaning.

To sum it up, I finally have lots of Buddy stuff to discuss, and MB might be no more. Fate is a cruel mistress.

I loved my Liberty, just had issues with the servicing dealers, so I went back to a 2023 Buddy 125. Yes, I ordered a simple version of a Buddy by choice. That being said I also noticed attendance down on Modern Buddy when I got another Buddy (Have owned 3 in the past-2 125's and a 50) but as soon as spring started others started to creep back into the discussion.

I mainly use my scooter for commuting and its my main form of transport. I rarely go on weekend rides and rarely ride for pleasure. My commuting puts around 8000 miles a year on it. All of us Buddy owners have the following issues:
Rear rack made of chewing gum and our various fixes.
Stator failing with little warning.
Finding unloved strays and bringing them home with us.
Spark plug boots cracking.
"Interesting" performance options (Prima and NCY hit and miss stuff mainly).
Sharing tips and tricks to remove panels if needed.
Maintenance tips and higher mileage findings.

Is it worth bribing Jess to save our souls? Outside of the Buddy community do we really need each others help? How many of us are looking at other scooters and are we intending to keep our current Buddy's if we buy something else?

Nice post AZ. Our Buddy saga started in 2007 when my wife picked out a new Buddy 125 as her first scooter. She still has that scooter and it has given good service. We also have a Buddy Kick 125 which I ride around town on errands and on rides with my wife. That Kick is my recent revelation about Buddy scooters. It is a fuel injected 125 that is the real sleeper in the Buddy line of PGO built scooters IMO. It a smooth starting, smooth running, and reliable little guy that comfortably fits the small to medium sized rider. It has all the attributes of fuel injection including bouncing back quickly from winter storage.

I'm kinda interested in the Kick. When I got the Sunset, the dealer had described it as a Buddy Kick. While the first thought through my mind was "I really don't need another project now!", the allure of the Kick was strong enough to take a look.

Solid scoot, the FI system is more advanced than the 170i was. Altitude compensation is another perk of fuel injection. It has a 4-valve cylinder head, which is great for making top end power. Dual disc brakes is an attractive feature too.

Taida has part numbers for big bores for the Kick, known in Taiwan as the J Bubu 100/115/125. You can get a 61mm cylinder without boring the engine block, which would push displacement up near 170cc. I'd reached out to my Taiwan connection to see what the aftermarket support looked like, since the Kick / J Bubu is still a current model.

It turned out to not be a Kick. The dealer was desperate to clear it out of the back lot and the price was hard to say no to. It didn't help that I'd become fond of the St. Tropez.

Sunset panels are hard to come by, but I have a few tricks to try. That color scheme is far more handsome in person.

I have a backup plan in case I can't clean it up enough or if the engine is worn down. Howard's wanted a unique scoot to take to events that The Scooter 'Zine is sponsoring. I have a few things he could borrow, but it would make sense to use something that has at least one hydraulic brake and parts availability.

We'll see how it all plays out when I get to wrench on it.

Keep on riding and enjoying your Buddies!

Is there room enough for me? I'll miss the MB site, if it's really gone. There was some good info. Random tidbits, for when you need it.

I started with a 50cc Buddy a few years ago. Felt like a kid again, cruising the neighborhood. Before long, I wanted to venture farther, so upgraded to 170i. Maybe someday I'll graduate to a proper Vespa, they sure are pretty!

I'm happy to see some familiar folks here on MV. I've been lurking for a bit, and decided to jump in with this little crew of Buddy riders.

I regret the loss of the Modern Buddy website, even with its recent diminished traffic, as a very useful compilation of experience over a long period of time that featured a relatively high level of discourse. The Buddy FB page is a disorganized, largely unsearchable assemblage of mostly bad advice, frequent repeats of basic and sometimes dumb questions from individuals too lazy to do Google searches, and lightly moderated by a well-meaning individual who cannot possibly keep up with the dreck. It is really unfortunate how modern internet discourse seems to be migrating towards that unstructured, underinformed Facebook model and I hope MB as a forum can reappear in some form with its content intact.

Good forums seem not to be democracies; they require a benign dictator like Jess to lay down the law and set the standards, and to be singularly satisfied with the result. I think there are people in the Buddy community who could do that going forward if EricAlm has had enough of it - a decision for which nobody would blame him after having done it very quietly for such a long time.

My impression is that Buddies and their extensions like the Kick have actually been selling pretty well over the past few years. Is that not the case? You really can't do better in the 50cc gas category than the two-stroke Buddy or Roughhouse.

This.

Agreed. I will also add that any of the FB forums are constantly monitored by scammers. Don't believe me? Put up a WTB post - you will be inundated by responses telling you that they have that exact item for sale and can you send the money thru palp*l friends and family or Zelle, etc...? FB is an absolute waste land you don't want to wander into without your guard being up.

I've been a member of MB since 06. Even though I haven't logged in for a while I still dropped in for some tech info now and then and still have my 06 125 (161). I think that would be the greatest loss, the compiled, info, tips, tricks and tweeks.

On the other hand thanks for setting it up and I'm glad it was so useful for so long. Nothing lasts forever.

Unless you can somehow pull the vast archives of past posts from MB, I don't really see the point. I always viewd Modern Buddy 2nd only to Modern Vespa for help, participation and quality of forums. I solved many scooter problems (Buddy and others) with the help of that forum over the last 12 years. I am still proudly sporting the MB sticker.

I've got one sticker. Didn't have a Buddy when I got it. Now I have three, yet still one sticker.

First world problems.

Word on the grapevine is that there were technical difficulties when renewing the site registration. Eric is working to resolve them.

Thank you Eric!

I'd be happy to have a Buddy sub forum on this site. As long as it doesn't kill the Jess and the moderators time-wise. It may even help sway some folks into a Vespa at some point.

There's always archive.org:

https://web.archive.org/web/20240511223656/http://www.modernbuddy.com/forum/index.php

Wow, you sure know stuff!

I just got a Buddy Kick recently, and had been trying to sign up for Modern Buddy, but never received a reply. Guess now I know why

Anyway - that site was great and held some answers that I couldn't find anywhere else online. It will be missed, if it is gone.

And I'd love a forum to chat with other owners!

Speaking of - trying to hook up a Viofo MT1 dashcam, and following the (terrible) instructions resulted in me draining a battery. So, does anyone know what the heck I'm supposed to hook the blue (ACC) wire to? The positive battery terminal is not the answer, as I learned the hard way

Yay Eric, indeed! I joined in '06 or '07 when gas prices were high but money was easy. Buddies were everywhere. MB went through an update a couple years ago and I lost the ability to log in. But I would mourn the loss of Modern Buddy.

If you do a 'whois' on modernbuddy.com the nameservers come up as:
Name Server: NS1.PENDINGRENEWALDELETION.COM
Name Server: NS2.PENDINGRENEWALDELETION.COM

The registrar is networksolutions.

Updated Date: 2024-06-11T09:24:23Z
Creation Date: 2006-06-09T06:21:34Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2025-06-09T06:21:34Z

I'd recommend starting with the service manual. It can be found and downloaded here:

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/3134245/Genuine-Scooter-Company-Buddy-Kick.html#manual

Start on page 184, that where the non-EFI wiring diagrams start.

Going by those and looking at the key switch, the orange wire looks to be switched power. It feeds several other systems, but I would try intercepting it with a fused lead to power your dashcam.

If any Buddy folk here have any Buddy manuals, please email them to me and I'll make a place for them at manuals.wotmeworry.org.uk.

This is looking like the end of the road.

I would think add the archive to the wiki section of MV or something along those lines, at least all the information will still be accessible.

For my part I wish something along those lines had been done with the archive info from Stella Speed.

Guess who's back, back again?

MB's back, tell a friend...

You can find some here: http://www.modernbuddy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=17349

And just like that, Modern Buddy reappeared. Huzzah!

Life improves for the Genuine Nation!

I've taken the liberty of copying all the files at http://www.modernbuddy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=17349 and uploading them to https://manuals.wotmeworry.org.uk/ModernBuddy/ just in case they might otherwise get lost.

Thanks jimc for backing up the files from modern buddy

Is the site down at the moment? I haven't been able to reach it for a few days. Or it's a browser issue on my side.

I think it's been unreachable since Tuesday. Hope it's not gone for good!

So, it's not the first time MB went down?

Dangnamit!

Well, I might need an update on your Pamplona project, if you'll indulge me.

It goes down from time to time, and by the good graces of the Lord, it comes back up.