Modern Vespa

My husband purchased a Genuine Stella back in 2006, 2005 model. He most recently started to rebuild a 76 vespa sprint I believe. We live on a small island and riding Stella has been a way of life for us. In early February he was killed in a car accident. I am determined to learn to ride our Stella myself now but unfortunately my fetet don't touch the ground, I am 5 foot. I found a forum on here that suggested the corsa or super low profile seats but will those fit on the genuine Stella? My father in law is going to try to finish the project scooter for my husband but in the mean time, I must find a way to ride again.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm sorry for your loss, Littlestlacroix. I think it's great that you want to ride the Stella. Though you may find some Stella owners here, you're likely to have better luck on modernbuddy.com

You might be able to put an aftermarket seat on it. Footwear with a heavy sole would also help a bit.

Also sorry for the loss. As for the seats, the ones you mentioned will fit. Any seat made for a large frame, P or PX vespa will fit. Good luck

Good tip about posts on Modern Buddy. Lot's of info there. My wife wanted to ride an LX150 but just couldn't feel comfortable on it (she's 5'2"). She ended up with a Buddy and has ridden happily ever after.

Another problem with the Stella and shorter people. Its not just the hight of the seat, but the width of the floorboard which you have to straddle. Theres really not much you can do about that.

My wife is 5'2 and she has the same problem with my S150. Last year at amerivespa afforded us a chance for her to try out some other scoots. Yeah the Buddy is a perfect fit but also Yamaha Vino's & Honda Metro's did just fine. I'd imagine a small frame vespa would do quite well you want to ride vintage. Good Luck!

So sorry for your loss.

For the bike..before you do anything, take the seat off the bike (or have someone help you unbolt it if you do not know how). That will give you the extreme version of how low the seat 'can' be. Fold a towel so it is maybe an inch or so thick, and place that on the bike where the seat would be. Can you straddle the bike now? If not, the bike is too tall.
If you can, you can take the stock seat to an upholstery shop and have them make the seat much thinner.

if you want to make the seat shorter and thinner, consider having a gel pad put in. I don't know the ratios of gel:regular cushion, but you can have a much thinner seat if you put a gel cushion in as it absorbs shock better than a standard seat. Narrowing it makes the biggest difference though.

Terribly sorry to hear about the loss of your husband. I'm sure that being able to ride Stella yourself would help greatly with your grieving,


I'm thinking that at 5' you are just too short to ride it, with just a cut down seat. But, how about adding a sidecar to it? Being on an Island and riding with a sidecar would be handy and not being able to touch the ground is no big deal.



http://www.americanscootercenter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=101&products_id=809

ASC just had these on special , yesterday, for $100.00 off if you pre order one.



They can usually get these to match the color of your Stella.

Good Luck,

One of these is your best bet....
http://www.scooterworks.com/Seat-Ancilotti-Large-Frame-P1998C551.aspx



Adjustable suspension might not be a bad Idea....

What tires are you riding? S1's might be a bit lower than the stock....you could fit a 3.00x10 instead of a 3.50x10. I've done it on my PX in a pinch, can't say it was a horrible ride.

if your 5' tall i dont think a corsa or ancillotti will be thin enough.... this might sound daft but have you flipped up the seat and tried sitting on it like that to see if you can really touch the floor..... if ya can work up from there but watch the petrol cap ....

dont tell the purists this but if you can take off the shocker, extension bolt and the rubber you can cut down the extension bolt and maybe take 1 3/4" out of it then the lower seat could work [or get a friend to do it]

if you want just about the thinest seat on the market try the http://www.sip-scootershop.com/EN/Products/31000000/Sport+seat+SIP+Classic+for.aspx it has a pad you can buy seperatly but id have a gel one made

So sorry for your loss - I hope you can get riding soon. That's a really nice goal and way to remember your husband.

NB: You don't have to be able to put both feet flat on the ground. I'm 5'2 and ride a GT; I can either put one foot down flat, or both feet on tiptoes, and it's fine.

Here's another take on it. Wear hiking boots with thicker soles.
http://modernvespa.com/forum/topic52256

So sorry for your loss. Nothing more to add because people have given you some good tips. Remember anything is possible. Good luck and post some pics of the stella when you get a chance.

Better late than never. I have nothing to add to the technical issues (of course I rarely do) but please allow me to extend my deepest condolences for your loss and my heartiest encouragement for your the successful completion of your goal.

I think Alice has a good point. My wife is 5'1" and rides a 250 GTS. She can't flat foot both sides but as long as you can get one down and handle the weight of the scooter on a lean you should be fine.

Thank you all so much, I will look into some of these options and hopefully be riding by myself soon. Thanks again for all the quick responses

I hope you're able to find a way to make this work for you.
My condolences for your loss.

I wear something similar to these and the thick sole gives me a bit more security than regular shoes or boots.

Littlestlacroix,

My condolences as well. My wife is about your size. She had similar issues learning to ride when I first bought my Bajaj Chetak. I ended up modifying another stock Bajaj bench seat by removing a bunch of the foam to lower it. It worked fine but due to the width of the floor board she pretty much had to dismount from the seat to keep from falling over when coming to a stop. We ended up buying her an LX150 which we had modified by removing some padding from the seat and lowering the rear suspension a notch. I have seen floorboards cut down in width but I would think that would weaken the frame.

By the way, my wife and I took the MSF Motorcycle Safety Course together before buying our scooters. This is really worth doing if you haven't already. IMHO, the best advice anyone could give here, anyway.

P.S. When I lived in Florida I once drove up for a nice weekend on Amelia Island (followed by some awesome guitar shopping in Jacksonville). What a beautiful place to be!

nope nope n errr nope its the spine that keeps the scooter ridgid the panels do help but not that much



sorry the piccy is so big