Modern Buddy

It appears that there were 2 Genuine scooters participating in the 2021 Scooter Cannonball, a Royal Alloy GT150 and a Stella. Both were DNF. Has a Genuine ever actually finished a Cannonball? The Buddy’s really aren’t good candidates, but the Hooligan might be a contender.

I'm curious why you think the Buddies aren't good candidates? A Buddy 125 would be my first choice.

If I am reading the results right Genuine scooters have finished- Buddy 125 and Stella 2t.

EDIT: It appears that a Stella 4t also finished.

I don't know anything about this year's Cannonball, but I rode behind a Buddy for a while on one of the early Cannonballs. Riding at Wide Open Throttle all day, uphill grades, headwinds, and hot weather while carrying an American-size rider plus heavy gear on a scooter that was designed to carry a Taiwanese teenager weighing maybe all of 85 pounds across town - all those things together are really hard on that little motor. The Buddy I am referring to had a stuck valve and was still chugging along, but there are limits to everything and all the factors I've outlined above conspire to make life very tough on the Buddy's motor.

As I understand it, the Hooligan has more sophisticated electronics which don't like those riding conditions, either.

Also, bear in mind that there were some other modern scooters on the second Cannonball that had pieces-parts flown in, borrowed from showroom bikes at dealerships, scavenged from crashed bikes, and so on, to keep them going, too, and on the third Cannonball, I know for a fact that an invincible modern Vespa CVT belt self-destructed because I unwound the 8000 feet of Kevlar strands from the CVT in the broiling heat by the side of the road while everybody else ran around searching for a replacement belt, so it's not like other modern scooters were immune to problems.

The Cannonball is the ultimate reality check for any scooter.

IMHO, the Buddy is absolutely fantastic for what I want in a scooter: quick (not necessarily fast), flickable, tiny, and light. Those are all great things for my day to day riding. But 10 hours a day (or more) for 10 days? In the rain, on dirt roads, in high winds, a lot of the time in highways? For me, that would be too much (although that very fact kind of makes me want to give it a try!)
I am glad to hear that a Stella made it. I missed that somehow.

I would think the ease of access to components for routine maintenance would make a Buddy 170i a pretty good Cannonball candidate. It would just need some reinforcement of the rear rack hardware for the necessary cargo.

I think it is interesting that 3 Honda 125 Super Cubs completed the race. One of them finished second. Perhaps not my first choice to ride over 4000 miles, but they obviously did the job.

BTW, the results can be accessed here. https://follow.scootercannonballrun.com/scorecards