Modern Buddy

This week I transported both my Buddy 125 and 170i for a 3 hour drive to the Jersey shore. I put my wife's fuel injected 170i in my pickup bed and my Buddy 125 on my Versahaul motorcycle carrier. When I got to my destination, I could not get my Buddy 125 to start whatsoever. This is a scooter than had never once given me a problem. Furthermore, there was gas leaking from the charcoal canister, behind the bodywork, above the muffler. This canister is not supposed to have gas in it. It is strictly for ventilation of gas vapors. After many attempts to get it started, I finally got it to start, but it would not idle and when I did give it throttle, it bogged down and wanted to stall. I called Bill Viney of Carlisle Scooters in Carlisle, PA and he advised me to try to keep it running and go for a good long ride to burn out the residual gas in the canister. After several miles of running it, it did finally straighten out and the gas did eventually stop dripping from the canister. Thanks to Bill, my wife and I were able to cruise around the town of Longport, NJ for the whole 3 days we were down there visiting family. Even though the bike only had 3/4 of a tank of gas in it, Bill theorized that the up and down jumping of the bike on the Versahaul might have caused gas to leak down into the tank's overflow hole and into the canister. Since the bike now runs fine again, I'm sure Bill was correct. Coming home, I put the 125 in the pickup bed and the 170i on the Versahaul and all was fine when we got home. Both started right up and ran fine.

The moral of the story is.....if you use a Versahaul or similar carrier to transport your scoot, be sure to leave only about a 1/2 tank or less of gas in your scoot's gas tank or you might experience the same phenomenon that I did with my Buddy 125.

I had the exact same problem with my Roughhouse 50 on the trailer, to the beach. Texted the my scooter shop during working hours, and got some tips.

Had to drain the airbox of gas, and hold the throttle wide open while starting. Finally she started up.

I had the same issue when I brought her back home, even though the gas tank was almost empty.

I think it is the vacuum operated petcock. The motions on the trailer cause some kind of vacuum pressure on the fuel lines, and gas gets sucked into the carburetor. If I was doing this often, I would consider installing a valve to turn off gas flow.

This is typical for a Buddy. Mine always starts at first touch but when trailered even a short distance it is very hard to start. Not sure if there is an easy sure fire solution to this problem.

Tazio wrote:This is typical for a Buddy. Mine always starts at first touch but when trailered even a short distance it is very hard to start. Not sure if there is an easy sure fire solution to this problem.

The easy solution is to ride everywhere instead of trailering your bike, of course!

I don't have this problem with a Buddy 125 on a trailer, and I noticed you don't appear to have the problem when your bike is in the bed of your truck. I agree that all adds up to the contributing factor being a fairly rough ride on the Versahauler as it bounces up and down out behind the back bumper at every rough spot in the road.

I've had no problems transporting my Buddies all over the country in the bed of my truck. This was the first time I put one on my Versahaul. The wierd thing is I did not have this issue with my 170i on the return trip, only my 125 which is carbureted.

The problem with using a Versihaul with a Buddy is it mounts on the back of the vehicle. It bounces like crazy back there and sloshes the gas all over in the tank. Gas gets into the vapor cannister which really messes things up.

I'd suggest siphoning almost all the gas out of the tank before transporting it with a Versihauler in the future.

It's much less of a problem in the bed of a truck since it bounces around much less.