Modern Vespa

1. The MP3 is incredibly fun to ride, and can be pushed (with some modicum of skill) through turns at death-defying speeds.

2. Three wheels or two wheels, tires still need to be scrubbed in when new. With only 3 miles on the clock, you can feel the front end of the MP3 slip ever so slightly when pushed through turns at death-defying speeds.

3. Hard break-in is teh r0x0r.

4. You can sneak around scooter restriction by convincing your wife that she needs a new scooter. Call it an anniversary present if you have to.

5. Piaggio quality control is, well, about what you all expect it to be.

6. If your scooter dumps large quantities of gas on the road, it will probably stop running shortly thereafter.

7. Roadside Assistance is abysmal. A pipe dream. An illusory promise carried on the wings of fairies. All you people who insist on leaving home with only a credit card and a cell phone are laboring under a false sense of security.

8. When waiting by the side of the road for three hours, it helps to have friends who will bring you beer and discreetly pour it into dixie cups so as not to draw too much attention from the locals.

9. An MP3 presents some unique challenges to any kind of towing or hauling operation.

10. The plastic body panels on an MP3 are a giant interlocking puzzle designed by mad sadist crack monkeys. On a bad day.

11. To re-insert the fuel nipple back into the gas tank, remove the small silver panel on the right-hand side, right next to where your foot usually goes. Shine a flashlight inside and have a good look at the elbow piece that's sticking out, insert it back into the hole, and use a long screwdriver to push on the top of the elbow until it goes back into its socket. Cross your finger.

Dude......

new toys again?

jelous.....

pics?

color?

*smile

R

8)

It's hers. Well, after it broke down, she kind of changed her mind, as in "Your scooter is pissing me off!". But still, it's in her name. Spent too much time being broken down and then trying to take it apart. Pics shortly. Black. What dealers were told would be red turned out to be burgandy. Silver kind of blends into the background. Black looks good with contrasting white reflective tape. Wish I could join you there right now, buddy. I heard you guys had a fantastic ride today. Wish I had gone.

Such a bike *could* be used to ride in the mountains......say on a Saturday....yes?

And go far?

On a sunny Saturday?

*could* happen....

R

8)

(missed the ride today.....work...eeee)

Indeed it could. Especially if the weather were bad. Assuming, of course, that it wasn't in the shop at the time.

You missed an EPIC ride. Top three of my limited scootering history so far. Your club rawkx. Or that the parts are available in the US.

At least you have a few spares in the backyard. And on their way. And one screaming hot "vintage" begging to be flogged. How's that working out for ya?

Jess, you're definitely a man of action not talk. After our test stints with the MP3, I knew you were as enthused as was I, BUT you bit the bullet and took the plunge. Now, I'm going to have to screw my socks on and buy an MP3 for my wife?

Oh, that's right I have a wedding to pay for this year!!!! Nuts! Maybe next year..........

Vespa announces the new MP4
The new 400cc Scooter will arrive in Oakland dealerships next wednsday.
I talked to the shop owner who said they were waiting for Jess to purchase the MP3 Before the MP4 would be released...
Yea Kidding of course..

So is the Orange Tiger Buddy for sale now or what?

Jess I "hope" congrats are in order. I am alos hoping the problem was a "freak" thing, and that it will now go and run like a top, Beale.

That sucks, but hopefully once you work the bugs out it you're happy and smiles again.

Jess that is cool that you have yet another scooter in your stable. I guess this bypasses the scooter restriction someone here put you on by putting in your wife's name! Good idea! Hope you get it back on the road soon.

dude, i am so proud of you for sneaking around scooter restriction!

Congratulations and I hope she'll be back on the road soon. Just so your wife will be happy, you understand.

Congrats, you now have a model that I have yet to see in person. I thought one might be had by you soon but not this soon. By definition of California law you do NOT need a motorcycle liscence to ride your new toy.

After removing no less than 30 or 40 screws last night in an unsuccessful attempt to get a better look at the problem area (which included, for some reason, the front fascia, the windshield, and the dash -- don't ask) I gave up and put everything back together. Then I got a better flashlight and shined it in the very small access hatch next to the problem area, and I could kind of see what was going on. There's a plastic elbow on the end of the fuel line, and the elbow has a plastic ring molded into it. The plastic ring pushes into a plastic socket molded into the top of the gas tank sender assembly, with several fingers in the socket holding the ring on the elbow in place. I pushed it back in as hard as I could, and then pushed down on it some more with a long screwdriver, as I couldn't get to a point where I could push from above it.

The plastics on the Piaggio line are really, truly maddening. Everything interlocks and nothing, it seems, comes off independently. I've never taken apart a Piaggio (non-Vespa) bike, so maybe there's a trick or an approach I don't know. It seemed from my layman's assessment of it, though, that the bike would have to be completely stripped of all plastic panels in order to get to the spot I needed to get to, right below the fuel filler door.

Jess, you know the look of the prototypes? Maybe you might want to go with that look until everything is ironed out. Just leave the cluster and front lights on it. Remove everything else.

Heh. Very tempting. Not so much to my wife, though, who has this strange idea in her head that I should try using something as it was intended before I mess with it.

I love the way everyone took your little ride on the MP3 as fantastic, when all I read is a nightmare breakdown/wrenching scene.

Sorry to hear about your woes......We had an MP3 on our ride yesterday - hummed along just fine for 250 miles

Jess - Glad to hear you have an MP3 in your stable! Bummed to hear it gave you such grief straight out of the gates.

I hope to see it next weekend at the 3 peaks challenge.

Dude the Atlantic 500 was the same way. Every single piece was "tabbed" and some of them were screwed on so at the very least you had to remove the screwed on parts to get to the tabbed, interlocked pieces to get at a panel for basic maintenence. you could have to remove the face to get to something near the cowls on the floorboard. There was exactly one (1) panel where that was not the case, that I recall. I never had the tumerity to attempt to disassemble, only observe.

Being the Evil Bastard you are, I'm not surprised you managed to get around your restriction. Here's to hopin' the darling wife likes "her" new ride (when it's working, that is)

(you so crazy!)

wait - actually. How would you put one on a trailer / truck????

Backwards tying ton the back wheel into a chalk.

You and the wife had the best attitude when I showed up (after 3 hours). Or was it the fact that I had the dixie cups? Anyway glad I could help the tow driver find his way up to Spruce through the back streets.

The hard part is the ramp. You need one wide enough to handle the three tracks. If it were me, though, I would probably put it in the way a normal bike goes in, but only use the chock on one front wheel. It looks like it would fit that way. If I only had a suitable ramp.

So does the wife actually like the ride? Or has the interest been passed to you now? Scooters are like kids sometimes - when they do good it's "my baby", and when it acts up, "deal with your child".

And when the hell'd you get the chance to buy it?!?! Are any of teh shops actually open on Sunday? I didn't think so...

So you're a glass-half-empty kind of guy.

I took it in stride, and didn't really get bent out of shape about it. My wife, who was riding it at the time, wasn't so enthusiastic. We had a second scooter, so we weren't trapped, but we also didn't want to leave the brand-new-that-day MP3 by the side of the road. I eventually left my wife with the MP3 and went home to improvise some kind of ramp for our truck, but while I was gone Roadside Assistance finally found someone to come out and haul the MP3 back home. I came back in my truck and helped the tow-truck guy figure out appropriate tie-down points (it's harder than you would think) and even supplied a canyon dancer to make it a little easier.

I decided this morning that I would shake-out my repair by riding the MP3 to work today. It is the task that I had always thought the MP3 was very well suited to, as my round-trip commute is 100 miles of 100% freeway. If it can survive that bumpy ride without the fuel line popping off again, it's probably going to hold.

I made the trip to work this morning without incident. Got it up to 85mph indicated, even. It's very stable at speed, and heavy winds don't seem to affect it nearly as much as they would affect an ordinary scooter. I even did a pretty fair amount of lane splitting, too -- the two front wheels don't present any particular challenge there, the handlebars and mirrors are still the widest points of the bike.

I did have problems with the Bott's Dots, though. When one of the front wheels hits a line of them while lane splitting, it will cause a bit of bump-steer (the vintage car guys will probably know what I'm talking about) which is a little disconcerting. If you straddle the line and let the back wheel hit the Bott's Dots instead, the back wheel will have a tendency to hop up, spin, and come back down, which is also very disconcerting. On a scooter, I would ride to one side or the other of the Bott's Dots, crossing the line as necessary. It's much harder to avoid the dots on the MP3.

So all in all, it performed very well as a commute bike. It's still a bit heavy as a city bike, though.

And when the hell'd you get the chance to buy it?!?! Are any of teh shops actually open on Sunday? I didn't think so...[/quote]

The walnut Creek shop is open 7 days. Is that the black one I saw yesterday? The silver one had the "sold" sign. Saw the leather seat/vintage red 250 and fell in lust! Thanks for the real world report on the MP3. Botts Dots, who knew?

Dan

That's right. I would have bought it at Rockridge Two Wheels (sister store to Vespa Walnut Creek) but they're closed Sunday and Monday, and I had to jump at it before my wife changed her mind. There were two black ones and one (sold) silver one when we got there just before opening time. We got one of the black ones. I was a bit surprised by it too. Never really bothered me on the scooter before.

Congrats and welcome to the club Jess! Hope you have many happy miles of trouble-free scootering. Shame about the start but just one of those things i guess.

I know what you mean about the build quality. I think the gibbon who put mine together must have been on drugs...badly fitting panels, massive uneven gaps between (chipped) windscreen and body, scratched handlebars....it's a good job the ride is so awesome to make up, otherwise i might have been annoyed!!