Modern Buddy

I have never had so much trouble both checking and filling air in scooters and motorcycles so different than my cars over the years. My old 1990 Camaro and 2002 Chevy can go six months to a year without loosing any air. Both my Buddy 50 and Hooligan require weekly checks and regularly loose air. On top of that, the valve stems have to be held in place with one hand and filled with my compressor nozzle with the other hand. This is also true when checking the air pressure carefully not to let any air out. Instantaneous action is needed or else if your check is too slow, you'll loose air. What a pain in the you know what, and on top of that the valve stems on the rear tire are a bitch to get to.
All this is almost impossible with a hand pump. Just try and attach any kind of hose fitting, threaded or clip on and your screwed. My Harley is almost as bad. Near impossible to get to the valve stem on the rear tire thru the brake disc, spokes or belt pulley. Am totally pissed with constantly fooling around with tire pressure. Takes a lot of fun out of the whole scooter, motorcycle experience.
Thanks for listening, Greatgrandpop

Practice makes perfect! I felt the same way when I started with the Buddy. If you wanna see a stupid location for a air valve, try putting air in the rear tire of a Spyder RTSE5! Now Im pretty good at it! Little scooter tires do seem to need monitoring a bit more that larger car ones. If you think you are loosing air more than usual, bump the pressure up a bit and spray the tire/bead/valve stem down with soapy water and look for bubbles. I like when the inside of the rim corrodes and the bead leaks, or you never change the valve when doing tires and the valve dry rots at the base-leaking during rotation.

Seems to me if you have to keep checking and filling air every week, something is not right. It's been almost 3 months since I replaced my tires and I haven't had to add air since. Previous to that, I checked the air pressure maybe once every 2-3 months or whenever I remembered.
You might have a bad air stem or valve. Maybe a pin hole in the tire or foreign object thats buried? Worst case, a cracked rim. Try spraying soap water around the air stem and valve to check for bubbles, around the tire bead and tire, then the entire rim itself.

ahorsewithnoname wrote: This is also true when checking the air pressure carefully not to let any air out. Instantaneous action is needed or else if your check is too slow, you'll loose air.

You might want to try a different pressure gauge, I can stick mine on and hold it on without loosing air. I use a fairly cheap digital gauge.

What kind of PSI do you run? I know that I loose air faster if I try to run my tires softer. I even had a tire go from 23 lbs to 6 lbs in a day, filled it back up to 27 lbs and it has held with no problems.

It could be that the inner core of the valve is loose. The cap sometimes has a slotted end that fits into the stem and can be used to tighten the core.

As to having to support the stem when filling or checking the pressure, yeah, those OEM 90 degree stems are a PITA. I always replace them with solid aluminum bolt-ons. Since they don't flex, you don't need to brace them. Here's a selection guide if you're so inclined:

https://www.kurveygirl.com/shop/product ... qplba2e3q3

Yeah, the OEM valve stems on my 2009 were total crap. You had to support them, and I was terrified I'd crack a leak.

At my first tire change, the shop replaced them with bolt-in 90-degree stems that are solid as a rock.

I have had no trouble with a small dial-type gauge (Slime brand) that you see at the checkout counter of just about any auto-parts store. It fits the Buddy wheels and stems just fine.

I agree with Charlie55 that the problem very well may be the loose inner core.

PeteH wrote:..... I was terrified I'd crack a leak.....

The older I get, the more I worry about that too.

charlie55 wrote:

PeteH wrote:..... I was terrified I'd crack a leak.....

The older I get, the more I worry about that too.

george54 wrote:the problem very well may be a loose inner core.

I'm starting to worry about this as well.

Dooglas wrote:

charlie55 wrote:

PeteH wrote:..... I was terrified I'd crack a leak.....

The older I get, the more I worry about that too.

george54 wrote:the problem very well may be a loose inner core.

I'm starting to worry about this as well.

Mine has it's own zipcode...

change valve stems with each new tire since the rubber can age and crack. The cost is negligible.
I put a lot of miles on my scooter so changed the stems every-other rear tire and with each new front tire.
Also, have 90 degree valve stems put on instead of the straight ones; at least for the rear. The Honda Goldwing valve stems are a direct fit for our scooters and you can pick 'em up locally rather than waiting for online delivery.

ahorsewithnoname wrote:Both my Buddy 50 and Hooligan require weekly checks and regularly loose air.

Yeah, plus 1 on the "that ain't right" notion.

My back tire used to lose pressure every few months or so (not weekly), and that was a PITA. I got a new tire put on due to tread wear and bonus: the air pressure stabilized. I almost never have to add air now.

There are so many different sizes, does anyone know what size stems a 2014 Hooligan 170i takes?