Modern Buddy

I got the proper rear rack for my 2016 Hooligan(https://www.scooterworks.com/Prima-Rear ... 12594.aspx)

It has been little over 6 months and I notice movement in the rear rack/topcase when I hit a bump. I looked at closer today thinking a screw had come loose. Instead I found the whole frame where the screw goes in has sheared off. How do you fix that?!?!?

I have to see a picture of what broke. I posted a long while back what I used to fix my Buddy when the nut that was welded inside the tube the rack bolts into cracked and came out. Wow, that was a long sentence. Anyways, I bought 2 of the metal expanding anchor nuts (will swing by the hardware store and see what they are actually called) and you hammer the base in, then when you put the rack screw in it, it will expand inside the tube. Was going to weld another nut in the hole but didnt want to remove the fuel tank or rely on my cruddy weld to hold, plus the top of the tube was all beat up. The expanding stop works great, still going strong. Only thing was I had to drill out the rack holes to fit the slightly bigger standard bolt. I dont know how to post pictures but I see that Buddy quit a bit. Not a big deal to remove a panel and snap a photo.

Now there is also a rear bolt (on a Buddy) that pokes thru the rear panel for the center support on the racks rear to bolt onto. I have had that crack also. Its called a tank strap. That was easy and cheap to fix. It was the 2 front ones (on each side of the seat) that required the stop nut solution. The first and second gen Buddy racks were junk, so I got tons of practice patching up broken stuff. Never looked at the Hooligan rack system in person.

I just took off the rack. It is worse than I thought. I ask about repairs but I'll probably just sell it. Genuine is dead to me now.

The left side looks okay


The right side, the pose the screw goes into came out. It had two or three side welds holding that in and could be repaired I think.


The back left is cracked


The worst is the back right, which the screw hole ripped right out.

The front 2 (under the white panels) can be easily fixed with my solution. Im not so sure about the rear 2. Looks like the whole threaded piece ripped out of the frame. Thats very interesting...... Both of my Buddy's have had flimsy rear racks crack, but I pre-reinforced the contact points on the second Buddy with lessons learned from the first Buddy. Is the rear portion a sub frame under there? Have never seen a Hooligan with the panels removed. I would assume that the ripped out piece in the rear is replaceable.

I cant find a Scooter Lounge style parts diagram anywhere for a Hooligan. Strange.

I looked at the service manual (on this site) and its really hard to tell if the far rear ripped out piece can be replaced, or if its part of the frame. If its part of the frame that would be a stupid design. We need to find a parts diagram for a Hooligan.

Beyond fixing or not - they are going to say you were carrying too much weight, meaning they have no liability. Anyone know what the Hooligan rear rack is weight tested for? I know on the Buddy it is very little (a lot less than you could carry).

Weight limits aside I have noticed that the front 2 screws will slowly back themselves out and that what causes the initial flopping around. They back out so slow that you will not notice it right away. Then the rack acts as a bearing puller on the front tube nuts while the rear mount get twisted back and forth. I thread lock the front screws in and put fender washers under the screw heads to spread the torque over the tube tops better, protecting the tack welded nut in the tubes. and protecting the panels from cracking a bit better. I have a good solution for the rear single screw that pokes thru the panel on a Buddy, but your Hooligan has different rear mounting points than a Buddy. I got almost 9000 trouble free miles on the Buddy rack so far. I do kinda watch what loads I put in the top case. Heavy under seat, lighter stuff in trunk. Genuine has some crappy made racks! I think Genuine has them made as PGO in Taiwan would not sell crooked/twisted/flimsy racks to a market that uses their scooters as much as Taiwan.

The sad thing is the only weight it carried was an empty top case. The only thing input in it was my helmet when I got to where I was going.

It also already had the fuel gauge, fuel sensor and gas tank replaced because of faults. So the warranty worked, but this just shows poor quality to have this many issues within 9 months.

Picture on page 22 of the Hooligan manual shows the rear bolt holes to be ears welded on the frame. Bit harder to fix than the front mounts (did that fix on a Buddy). May be a matter of welding some steel plate to the ears, drilling the plate and installing some rivnuts through it.

qynar wrote:I got the proper rear rack for my 2016 Hooligan(https://www.scooterworks.com/Prima-Rear ... 12594.aspx)

It has been little over 6 months and I notice movement in the rear rack/topcase when I hit a bump. I looked at closer today thinking a screw had come loose. Instead I found the whole frame where the screw goes in has sheared off. How do you fix that?!?!?

If the rear rack is a Genuine approved product, wouldn't your 2 year warranty cover repairs?

Bill in Seattle but currently wintering in Tucson
'15 170i Hooligan Titanium (with same rear rack)

That's rough. This week I had a Hooligan windshield break it's welded mounts off the handlebar.

Here are some pics. It looks like a pretty crappy design, and pretty disheartening.

Some things to note, due to the cantilevered design of the rack:
The 'rear' mounting points are taking all of the gravitational load (vertically downward), all of which is being supported only by the vertical 'ears' or sides of the thin metal tabs.

The 'front' mounting points are in tension and shear, but not supporting any downward load into the frame.

**Over torquing the bolts would wreak havoc on any of these connections: too much tightening torque at the front connectors will strain the tack welds. Too much torque at the rear connectors could bend/deform the sheet metal tabs and mitigate most of their structural load capacity.

I think the best installation approach would be minimum torque with medium blue locktite to prevent things from backing out.

Once the front bolts are loose, all the forces create bending in the thin sheet metal tabs at the rear and I'd say the frame doesn't stand a chance.

I had that same thing happen on a 125. I pulled off the plastic and used 3 stainless pop rivets to put the cap back in place. Really is a poor design for holding the rear rack.

I wonder if it would be possible to thread a bolt through the bottom of the forward mounts, with fender washers and a nut, to effectively create a stud to mount the rack to? So instead of screwing down through the rack into the frame, you'd slide the rack over the stud and secure with a nut. Then all the load would be transmitted to the tube frame rather than a few spot welds. I'll keep dreaming about a solution for the rear.

I have a tendency to overthink everything if you haven't noticed

A few minutes of time with a crappy old computer and an even crappier trackball....