Modern Vespa

Tell us about your longest scooter ride ever.

- Why'd you do it?
- Where did you go?
- Did you expect it to take as long as it did?

Hmm, I rode 140 miles in a day once. Rode 35 miles to meet up with my scooter club, and then rode from Overland Park, KS to Weston, MO (the home of the McCormick Distillery). Rode about 70 miles with the club and another 35 home. That was with my Peugeot.

Then another time I was reviewing a Diamo Turista 260 down in Texas and I rode to Galveston from Houston. Don't know how many miles I put on that day, but at least 100.

Longest was from Dewey to Phoenix, AZ and back. It was to meet with the Phoenix chapter of our club Scarabs SC. 300+ miles round trip. Stayed overnight.

Longest Day trip was from Dewey to Cave Creek, AZ for "Up The Creek 1" a day ride put on by the Scarabs Prescott Chapter, 280 miles in one day also to meet up with the Phoenix chapter. 5 scooters from the Prescott area meeting up others for a grand total of 17 scooters.

My wife, Jennifer and I have rode on several 200+ mile day trips. I have put over 6000 miles on my '05 GT in 4.5 months.


Photos from "Up the Creek 1" Oct 15, 2005

Longest vespa ride was this weekend, took my new (to me) primavera around the block a few times. What a blast, made all the more exciting because I don't yet have my license, the bike isn't yet registered in my name, and no insurance on the bike. Once I get all that taken care of, we'll do some longer trips together.

Longest scooter ride, not on a vespa, was a few years back on the greek island of Paros. We rented and did a day trip around the island. Saw some huge rock quarries, some really cool small towns, lots of olive trees and a lot of very cool beaches. Here's a pic of my girlfriend (now wife) and I.



I had assumed that Laura would ride on the back with me, but she wouldn't have it. She wanted her own scooter. Atta' girl.

those were the days...

i have ridden Napa to Santa Barbara 3 times (375 miles)

another fun one was from San Diego to Hollywood then over to Santa Barbara (220 miles)

i have ridden Napa to Santa Barbara 3 times (375 miles)

Wow! That's quite a ride. What's the route like for that?

this last time coming home i took highway 1 with my friends Rolf & Josh
it added some extra miles & time

i prefer 101

My buddy Jed took I-5 then cut over to the coast @ magic mountain

i prefer 101. My buddy Jed took I-5 then cut over to the coast @ magic mountain

I have to say, you all are braver than I am. I haven't taken my GT on the freeway. In fact, just barely touching 60 on San Pablo Dam Road, I was pretty much in fear for my life. Not that the scooter was unbalanced or shaky or anything, but I'm still a relatively inexperienced rider. Plus, the wind really caught me offguard -- I didn't anticipate that level of wind resistance.

So, how fast of a speed do you average on a freeway, then? Are people pretty much trying to run you over at all times, or only occasionally?

im a heavy guy at 275 & slow scoots down a bit
but i hold 70 on the speedo
Freeways can be pretty scary at first just got to hold your lane & keep your eyes open

I'm NapaCoach's friend that rode down I-5 and over at Magic Mountain.

I started in Sacramento, rode down I-5 to Magic Mountain, then went to Ventura and up to Santa Barbara, then headed back home to Ojai that evening.

The total for the day was 490 miles. After the weekend rally I rode home, and the weekend total was 1100 miles. The GT200 handled the freeways like a champ.

I'd like to do an Ironbutt (1000 miles in one day) ride but the weather is getting unpredictable, so it might have to wait till next year.

Welcome to the forum, Mesmer!

Mesmer=badass
welcome Jed !

I once did 650 miles over a weekend from Seattle, Washington to Moscow, Idaho and back.

I avoided the freeway and went on two lane highways. The biggest problem was planning gas stops. There's not a lot of 24 hour gas stations in Eastern Washington when you're not on the freeway.

I don't think I could have ridden 1150 miles like Mesmer though.

MM

Last week I rode from Fallbrook to San Diego, over to Torrey Pines, up the coast to Oceanside and back to Fallbrook, 100 miles on the nose. I haven't had my first service yet, so I didn't want to open it up on the freeway. I was surprised by the wind a little too, because my ET had a small flyscreen, and I never really felt the wind that much.

I'm going to buy the mid sized windscreen at Motorsport Scooters when they're back in stock, or if Bobby has one I'll buy it there. It looks way cool without the black trim around the edge and the four chrome retainers.

My ride was motivated by the Endless Summer Rally this past september. Also the chance to meet scooterbobby, since i'd been buying all the parts for my salvage title GT200 from him.

The next long ride might be for the Las Vegas rally. It would be at least 1200 miles roundtrip plus any rally miles. NapaCoach and RobertSF are talking about doing it, I can't commit to it yet though.

Strange.

We live in a small country and do the longer mileages, you live on a continent but don't seem to.

My longest single journey, Stevenage to Fort William on a standard T5. - 500 miles one way. 13 hours.

Longest in 24 hrs, Stevenage to Girvan, 400 miles each way, 800 miles in 24 hours.
8 hours to, 8 hours at the do, 8 hrs home. Again on a standard T5.


Longest on the GT, only 230 so far, Stevenage to Exmouth. It felt about as hard as 50 miles on the T5. I could ride it forever.

My longest ride so far is about 100 miles. It took about as long as I thought it would. We rode from Temecula to Oceanside and back obviously. Three of us went and we have done that ride since. It is a very fun ride. We also rode from Santa Barbara to Sovang by 101. first time on the freeway. That was a most excellant ride.

The day I persuaded mrs. mongoose to get her LX, we put about 125 miles on our scoots just running around town. Some of it, we two-upped on my ET while her son rode her LX. He wants a scooter now, too.

Today was my very first actual ride - 16 miles! - and I lived to tell about it!!! My LX 150 was wonderful, although there were some fairly strong winds, at least for a little scoot that size. It is a little different than a parking lot. I think the fact that I'm much better on the straightaway than anything else tells me it'll be awhile before I'm ready for prime time, but what a ball!

There was enough wind that going up a fairly long hill with full throttle, it maxed out just under 50 mph per the speedometer, but since 12 mph was my all-time high before today, and I spent almost every moment terrified, that's perfect for me. Got it four weeks ago today and have a whole 115 miles on it, which I wasn't sure I'd ever see!

My longest ride on the GT was about 400 miles (to destination, overnight, and back). I went with 6 other scoots from Minneapolis to Duluth, MN. It was quite an adventure. There were 2 Bajaj, 4 Stella's and the GT. Several repairs were needed along the way (none for my GT luckily), but everyone made it.

http://scoot.net/gallery/2005/09/duluthblisterrun/
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Yeah but you're doing it.

You'll be surprised how quick you gain confidence and increase the distance.

Enjoy.

It was only about 90 miles each way on back roads but it was a lot of fun. Even rode with some Harley types for about 10 miles until they turned off.

Every day of the Cannonball Run 2004...

Wow I am impressed. Some of you folks are very hard core riders! My longest one way ride is 110 miles. Longest for one day was around 150. Much more than that and I got a sore but, Beale.

I took a 600+ mile round trip last year and a 300 mile round trip this year.

The 600 miler was mention in the Milwaukee News Paper as they were doing an article on Vespa sales and Milwaukee Vespa. It rained the first day and I got a hotel half way and road the rest the next day.

It was from Racine Wisconsin to Fence Lake Wisconsin which is just past Woodruf. This is pretty much across the length of the state and back.

I took regular hiways all the way there however on my way back I road on Interstate 41 for about 45 miles. Averaged an indcated 75 to 79 MPH. (Dropped to 69 mph on one long hill.) I figured out that I don't like riding in the rain and I don't like riding on unfarmilliar winding hiways at night. My return trip was all during the day light hours.

My first weekend with the scoot I did this ride:

http://www.pashnit.com/roads/cal/RedwoodRd.htm

Thinking it was the easy way to get to San Leandro. Then came back via E.14th, which is probably even scarier.


Most of the time I just scoot around town. As soon as I find other scooterist, I want to do the Lick Observatory Ride, maybe Monterey. I want to throw the scoot in back of the truck and go somewhere for a day trip.

Done the Run From The Scum rally a couple of times down in Cornwall.. both times on a PX200 (once running in!!)

350 miles there on the Friday, 20 odd miles messing about on the Saturday & 350 home on the Sunday...

I live in New York City. Mostly just hit Manhattan and Brooklyn for rides.
However, last week several of us from our Club rode up from downtown Manhattan to New Paltz, NY - round trip 230 miles filled with great views of the Hudson River, twisty turns and lots of speed!

Good stuff!

Only 350? Letting the Brit side down there Solid.

You're from Essex yes?

You never done a Scottish rally? That'd be at least 400ish from there.

Hoping to get into Scotland on the scoot next year... fly up there fairly regularly with work...

700+ in a weekend isn't too shabby though !!

If you get the chance, make it more than a weekend.


The first 350 - 400 are fairly average. Get more than 50 miles past Edinburgh or Glasgow and the roads just get better and better. You'll be grinning from ear to ear

Wouldn't mind going back for another go but I don't think I could handle the getting up there nowadays. Not as young and foolish as I was back then.

'bout 900 mi round trip, from SF to LA and back, 4 riding days so around 230 mi each day (give or take).

SF to Morro Bay day one, Morro Bay to SB (stopped at Scooter Bobby's!) to LA day 2, then 2 days break, then nearly the same trip back.

Took the 1 all the way down, until it turned into the 101, etc. Biggest freeway hit was an 8 laner.

Took exactly the amount of time I expected it to - I planned meticulously and decided by the time I made it back that I didn't need to plan that much at all.

I have the whole thing more or less documented in my blog with pics. :p

Bringing this thread back from the dead.

Today was my longest ride since I bought my scoot.

I left my house and headed to the other side of Cleveland to Vespa Cleveland. DemonLarry had ordered a replacement rack for my top case (the original was welded crooked) and I took advantage of Repsol's free T-shirt deal. Hung out for a while there jawwin' with Larry, Scotty, and a couple of customers.

Then I headed south to Tim's house. Tim is a member of the Vespa Club of Cleveland, and was looking for people to go riding with. Since he was only about 10 miles south of Vespa Cleveland, I thought I'd join in. We had a great ride through the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area, which is a system of parks that connect with Cleveland's excellent Emerald Necklace Metroparks, and follow the Cuyahoga south toward Akron. The park follows the famous Ohio and Erie canal, and has turned the towpath into a wonderful multi-use bike and walking path. The roads along the river are rolling and winding. There were a zillion motorcycles out today.

Got back to Tim's house, and then I headed home via the rolling roads south of Cleveland that eventually open out into farm country in Medina and Lorain counties. Once back in Lorain county, I headed north toward home.

Total miles: 121
Total time: 6 hours
Fill-up to fill-up: 72.75 MPG
Size of smile: HUGE!

I finally figured out that this was an unearthed "vintage" thread after reading just about all the great stories.

I'm looking forward to playing hooky once it dries out around here and having a really long ride. So far, my longest ride was 88 miles on country roads west of the twin cities. The purpose was to get used to some speed on my GT. It took me over 2 hours since I stopped at a tiny cafe in a small town for a brunch. (I love small town cafes!)

Thanks for exhuming this thread, Steve-- sounds like you had a great day! How's demonlarry? Tell him to stop in & say hello-- 8)

We had glorious weather through yesterday, up around 80F. Today: drizzly & chilly April is the cruelest month. . .

--Deborah

What route did you take to Duluth?

Here's an update. I did about 300 miles per day for a couple of days.

Wow. Ancient is right -- this is topic #8. Very early example, note the rod-type shift linkage.

My longest ride was probably today. I did 95 miles on the Head To The Hills Iron Butt ride to Mount Diablo.

You really needed the Anti-Monkey Butt powder....!