Eric’s got photos of the Genuine Buddy 170i coming off the assembly line, and he also reports they’ve been approved for California. Fuel injection makes me happy, and a stock 170cc engine in such a small, light scooter should be nothing short of a thrillride.
3 thoughts on “Buddy 170i Update”
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Is the Buddy Blackjack dead? Did the Buddy 170 kill it?
I wonder if this Buddy will be close to highway-worthy? The color/graphics options for the 170i are fantastic. Genuine did a jam-up job… best looking Buddies out there, IMHO.
Swordsman, the 150cc Buddy is highway-legal in most places, but I realize there’s a difference between highway-legal and highway-worthy.
Highway-worthiness is related both to speed and basic engineering. I’d think the 170’s top speed would make it fairly useful for at least occasional highway use, but personally, I don’t feel very comfortable in highway traffic on such a small, light scooter. Other people do. Phil Waters rode a Buddy 125 around Lake Erie, mostly on highways, in just over 12 hours, but he’d tell you that’s not something you’d want to do everyday (and, technically, it’s not legal on a 125!). Personally, I’d prefer a bigger bike, I don’t even really feel comfortable on my Blur 150, and it has excellent handling. On the other hand, I rode the SYM CityCom3001 on the highway and it felt great. Again, different people have different comfort levels, and highways are different, too. To commute home on the highway, I have a left-hand exit on a six-lane interstate at 75 mph, highway-LEGAL means nothing in that situation if you can’t beat the traffic and comfortably cut through a few lanes.