The Genuine Buddy is, by some accounts, the most popular scooter in the US and like a classic sports car, it keeps getting refined and enhanced. The Buddy burst onto the scooter scene in 2006, entering with the same body available with a peppy two-stroke 50cc or a surprisingly performance-oriented 125cc four-stroke engine. The Buddy is known as the "BuBu" in its home country of Taiwan, where it is manufactured by PGO. The Genuine Scooter Company (based in Chicago) was looking for a small, fresh, scooter to add to its Stella line-up and they found a willing partner in PGO, whose wares were not widely distributed in the U.S. at the time. Of course, Genuine helped change the specification of all the Buddys that have come to the US over the years, and with that the breed has been improved. With each revision, it just keeps getting better.
To say that the Buddy is the most popular scooter in the US is a bold statement, but pause to think that since its introduction (with 50cc and 125cc engines), its also featured a 150cc carbureted engine on the way to its current 170cc fuel-injected four-stroke. Add in the fact that it's also been available in special models; the colorful "International" series (Pamplona, St. Tropez and Italia) and the rare and wonderful Blackjack performance variant. Ah, the Blackjack, resplendent in its flat black, chrome and red and packed with a performance-enhanced fork up front and gas-charged shock in the rear, along with a flashy front disk brake, sport exhaust and red-piped solo seat. It was an immediate sellout and many are disappointed that they missed it. The current lineup features 50cc versions of the Internationals plus the standard (non-International) 50cc versions, the 125cc Buddys and finally the new 170i version, the subject of this article. A friend and I set off to suburban Detroit one morning to discover what has changed for the Buddy for 2012.
Approaching the new Buddy 170i, one finds that it's almost exactly identical to the last 150cc versions of the Buddy. There is a new "chrome" Buddy 170i appliqué on the diminutive leg shield and on the haunches. The instrument panel is slightly different (with a new "engine" warning light), and the exhaust has seemingly been tweaked to provide a bit more noise than the last of the 150s (perhaps it's all 168 of those crazy ccs?). Whatever they did to the exhaust note, it's the right thing. The 170i sounds like a proper scooter - throaty, but humming with a balance of sound and vibration that seems to help move you down the road. The brakes are as strong as they ever were, with a front disk and a rear drum. The biggest visual difference is one that some people might not even notice; it's the addition of a spin-on oil filter and substantial finned oil cooler near the bottom of the leg shield as it curves under the scoot. It's protected by a strong-looking piece of steel, ensuring that the filter and cooler are protected in the event of a trip over a curb. Still, I'd be careful dropping that front wheel off much of a lip at all, especially at any sort of speed.
The engine starts with a brief touch of the starter, and that's a good thing. Like all injected scoots, the back-up kick start has been sacrificed, because if the fuel pump can't run and the injector can't fire, there is no way that the engine can run with just a kick. The message here is to maintain that battery, folks! It starts quickly and idles very smoothly, seemingly more refined than the 220cc engine in the Genuine Blur SS220i. Of course, the Buddy, even in its fire-breathing 170cc version doesn't represent the same raw, performance edge that the Blur has, either. Horses for courses?
The Buddy 170i moves off with quite a bit of acceleration, and I was able to keep up with my (admittedly a bit heavier) friend on my Blur 220i for the first couple hundred feet. The Buddy 170i isn't a high-speed demon, but 55 mph seems easily attainable in just a few seconds. The ultimate speed that I saw on this crate-fresh scoot was just a hair under 65 mph indicated. After a proper break-in, I have no doubt that given enough space, this scooter would comfortably cruise at 55-60, and perhaps, given the right conditions, probably hit a real 65 or so (GPS measured speed) flat out. It's no freeway cruiser, however, as the 10-inch wheels are spinning mightily at 60, and they are not big enough for the scoot to feel really stable at speeds much greater than 60. Life on a scooter is meant to be lived a little slower anyway, and on the Buddy 170i you won't feel like a top speed run all the time. The contrast between the Blur and the Buddy is dramatic, and as we switched scoots all afternoon we learned to appreciate both the power, handling and brakes of the Blur and the all-around panache of the Buddy. They are both extremely good scoots, and are almost entirely different. And although I love my Blur, I am trying to come up with a way to justify the Buddy 170i.
Handling on the 170i is indistinguishable from the 150s. It's an extremely light scooter, and with its incredibly short wheelbase (~48 inches) it feels like it could swap directions with a mere thought. Although I'm not used to such a small scooter, within a couple hundred yards, I was cutting through corners like a seasoned Buddy rider.
Genuine's philosophy with the Buddy is one of steady, subtle improvement. The addition of a few more ccs of displacement, the fuel injection (and enhanced oil cooling) and the little things like the retuned exhaust all combine to make a very good small scooter even better. I liken it to a modern version of the old Vespa smallframe ("smallie") Primavera, which, back in the day, came in a killer two-stroke, 125cc version. The Buddy 170i stands tall by itself, with perhaps not all of the manual-shifting chops of the hottest smallie, but for modern, real-world usability, handling and emissions, the redoubtable smallie is in the shadow of the Buddy.
On the downside, the unit that I tested featured a slightly stiff rear brake lever, and, well, that's about it. The engine started immediately, reacted like chain lightning, and purred like a particularly happy kitten, er, lion. We rode out probably close to 65 miles that day and through all kinds of traffic conditions, on pockmarked Detroit roads and suburban cut-through gravel and all the time the Buddy was begging for more. Now I understand why these Buddys accrue such incredible yearly mileage (some over 30,000 miles since its introduction). Like a comfortable old jacket, you just somehow find a way to wear it all the time. It's the same deal with the Buddy 170i, and it feels just as good as that comfortable old jacket.
I rode the Buddy 170i courtesy of the Genuine Scooter Company.
What's next: A touch of California in Detroit
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