New Member on a Buddy 50

[buddy50li]

Hi all, My wife and I just picked up a 2021 Buddy 50 Little International in Italia green. We have never owned anything on 2 wheels, other than something you peddle. Although, I have driven friends dirt and street bikes over the years, so I'm not a total noob to this. I learned a few things during the purchase that I was not aware of. Specifically, the pricing element was not all that straight forward. Oh well, live and learn!

It's a fun little scooter. It came derestricted, which kind of surprised me, in a good way. I'll have to GPS the speed, since I heard the speedo is probably off >10%. I had it up to 45mph, very briefly, so I'm guessing closer to 40. I don't really need it to go any faster, so I'm not planning any mods, at least yet.

The biggest issue is getting my wife to not be so afraid to drive it. Me trying to explain things only seems to make it worse. We're looking into classes for her, so she can learn some basics. For now, she just rides it in our cul-de-sac, or hops on the back.

Anyway, this looks like a good resource for all things scooter! I look forward to learning from all of you.

[aeroxbud]

Welcome to the forum.
That's nice it's not restricted.👍
Training for your wife sounds a good idea. People think mopeds are easy to ride, and impossible to hurt yourself on. Not true.
Just the confidence of will give her, will be money well spent.

[FrankenMech]

Check your local laws, some states do not allow riding double. Helmets and safety equipment are advised even for slow speed. Slamming into the street even at 10MPH is rough on people.

[buddy50li]

Mar 23, 2021 10:23:01 GMT -5 FrankenMech said:

Check your local laws, some states do not allow riding double. Helmets and safety equipment are advised even for slow speed. Slamming into the street even at 10MPH is rough on people.

Thanks for the warning about riding double. I live in IL and can not find anything specific to that, except the seat must be large enough for 2. Even though IL does not require them, we are in the process of finding decent helmets. I just don't want one that makes it more difficult to monitor my surroundings.

[jbjhillbilly]

Congrats on the purchase. They’re fun bikes!

Two tips I give new riders:
Keep your eyes up - people have a tendency to look at the ground directly in front of the scooter, or fixate on the speedo. The issue with that, besides not seeing things far enough ahead of you, is that your body’s balance is directly related to your head position. It’s your gyroscope (my kayak instructor taught me this in a class learnt to roll the kayak). That means if your head is down, your body will want to follow. Down in this scenario (you can watch kids on bikes/skates/razors do it all the time).

The other is to not fixate on hazards, but instead force your eyes to seek an escape route. Again, your body tends to follow your eyes (learned this the hard way snowboarding). So if you don’t want to hit it, quit looking at it! Turn your eyes and head, and your body wants to follow.

Motorcycle Safety Course in your area is worth it’s weight in gold.

[geoffh]

Welcome to the forum,high vis clothing and keep your distance from the cars in front and stay away from buses,trucks etc they won,t see you.

Geoff

[Zino]

Welcome to the forum
you started with a very solid scoot

[Deleted]

Welcome! Lots of great stuff to learn here from lots of really good people. As others have said. Totally solid scoot. Only things I would add:

Distance is your friend. When at a stop, give yourself space from the car in front to get out of the way in case they start backing up. This happened to me.

Loud horn is helpful. The standard horn has a hard time breaking through the quiet cabin of modern cars and if they are bumping the tunes on top of it, they won't hear you. See above, this also happened. I blew the horn as the started to back up. They didn't hear it.

Lastly on helmets, I recommend the full face helmet. I know they are not always the most comfortable, but protect your moneymaker (face) and stay pretty. 30mph to the dome with a helmet is bad enough, but you don't want to to make a chance on 30mph against an unprotected mug.

That's all I got. Scooting is a massive blast. You're gonna love it, especially since nice weather is just around the corner. Have fun!

[90GTVert]

A rider course is a great idea. Till then, or even as extra practice, I found laying out some cone courses to be helpful in learning to control 2 wheelers. Just a cone weave can do a lot of good. My father crashed a scooter once and ran into the grass without any major incident when he first started riding. He didn't get the whole concept of leaning. I took him to a parking lot with cones and it made a big difference for him. Examples below, but the cone weave can start out something like 15ft apart. If that's easy, try 12ft. Then go for 10ft. If you just want to challenge yourself, you can keep moving them closer. Soccer cones like I use can be found pretty cheap. When I first started I was using water/soda bottles.

[pinkscoot]

Genuine scooters are great and Buddies rock.

[wiscootsin]

I let a neighbor try out a scooter 2 weeks ago. He braked at 5mph and fell over, blacked out and went to the ER with a concussion. I've started acquiring a variety of sizes of helmets since. He's all good.

Don't mess around.

My wife learned on a Honda spree. small, slow, and easy to figure out. Also you can go ahead and crash it and it barely matters, yet still fun to ride around on. A restricted buddy would be easier to learn on.

[buddy50li]

Mar 24, 2021 9:13:41 GMT -5 wiscootsin said:

I let a neighbor try out a scooter 2 weeks ago. He braked at 5mph and fell over, blacked out and went to the ER with a concussion. I've started acquiring a variety of sizes of helmets since. He's all good.

....

Wow, that's scary! I'm glad he's ok. 

I don't know if this is common everywhere, but we found that the state of IL offers free 20 hour beginner courses to any licensed resident that wants it. They even supply the bikes and helmets. We're signing up as soon as possible.

[Deleted]

That's awesome! Totally take advantage of that.

[repherence2]

Mar 23, 2021 9:43:15 GMT -5 buddy50li said:

Hi all, My wife and I just picked up a 2021 Buddy 50 Little International in Italia green. We have never owned anything on 2 wheels, other than something you peddle. Although, I have driven friends dirt and street bikes over the years, so I'm not a total noob to this. I learned a few things during the purchase that I was not aware of. Specifically, the pricing element was not all that straight forward. Oh well, live and learn!

It's a fun little scooter. It came derestricted, which kind of surprised me, in a good way. I'll have to GPS the speed, since I heard the speedo is probably off >10%. I had it up to 45mph, very briefly, so I'm guessing closer to 40. I don't really need it to go any faster, so I'm not planning any mods, at least yet.

The biggest issue is getting my wife to not be so afraid to drive it. Me trying to explain things only seems to make it worse. We're looking into classes for her, so she can learn some basics. For now, she just rides it in our cul-de-sac, or hops on the back.

Anyway, this looks like a good resource for all things scooter! I look forward to learning from all of you.

a coworker of mine told me about the first time he rode his friends moped.  his friend made him grip the throttle with his wrist down low.  he said it was hard and uncomfortable to throttle the moped.  

i totally understand why his friend told him to do that.  the first time i rode a moped i was going too fast, i freaked out, pulled too much trottle, slid my friend's honda Elite and bent the front rim.  "Wrist low" ensures that if they panic, they wont end up Pulling more throttle. 

[Deleted]

ah yes, the dreaded Whisky Throttle. I am guilty of having done that a time or two. Low wrist is a good trick for avoiding that.