Modern Vespa

I was linked to a site that had a Vespa 300 catalogue with some great promo photos.

I had forgotten just how great (sexy) the Vespa looks without a top box hanging off its bum.

If mine was not so useful and regularly used ( like every ride)...I would have it gone in a nano second.


Actually ...I can remove / replace it in less than a minute should I need the instant cool look. Must do that sometime now I think about it..

I agree. My wife has 2007 LXV 150 with a topcase on the rear rack and it always looks like a giant chicklet to me. It sure is practical though, and reasonably secure. I have a leather bag for the back of mine and like the way it looks much better. Not as practical though.

Growing up, a bike (any bike) with a top box was seen as about as uncool as it got. Nowadays I see them and, more than anything, recognise their undeniable usefulness and am instantly reminded that I'm getting older.

Not that old yet though.

+1

I think it is not the fact of a container back there but that shape, trying to replicate the cowl shape, but have it sitting in the air with no real connection to the body of the scooter.

More utilitarian shapes (closer to cubes) actually do look cool (at least in my view).

Currently using mine...


HATE..how it looks..


But for the winter its so useful for the extra luggage you need...

Can't wait to take it off...

Roll on spring.

Not a big fan of the look either but I use mine everyday.

Popped into my local dealers showroom a few weeks ago when picking up my GTS 300 after some work. They had these Libertys on display, complete with box marked 'hot food storage' straight for the delivery boys.

So top boxes might be bad, but they ain't this bad.

I'm scarred already...

If you can ever take off on that epic ride without all that junk in the
trunk.

The dealer installed our top case and it was a good two years before I noticed it has a quick release .
I took it to one of the Route 66 hot spots yesterday, the kind of place where I lined up the scooter with about 30 motorcycles, all parked in a row. The case stayed home while I took a few suckers money by racing them across the parking lot. No sport bikes, just those big Harley Davidson touring machines. Easy money!

Heh. I always had the feeling that some don't know how to ride their machines. When they do, you loose money

I'm definitely in the minority on this one. I like the Vespa top box. Despite the merits of many of the aftermarket one's, they just don't complement the shape of the scoot as I feel the Vespa one does.

Though it may appear to float a bit in space, its lines are similar to the rear cowls, and I've always seen some nice balance in the design with or without the box. A windscreen, especially a full, adds to this balance by continuing the line upward.

My scoot is below, with the fly screen mounted.

Arno, we have four Harleys, and only one of them will beat the scooter off the line. It's like an old VW bug: nothing in the world would beat one of those from zero to four mph. As long as the distance is REAL short, the scooter takes these guys. They only have 60-64 HP on a 900lb bike. Add a rotund rider and you have....easy money!
I would decline to race them over much of a distance, as I prefer the money flow to go only one way.

money flow

I thought you were talking about a < <P> >.

But I hear you. I can only tell from one old but big Harley that was next to me at a red light, and I certainly did not take off with delay, but from the start, he was ahead, and getting smaller quickly (and I was glad I wore my ear plugs)

Good illustration. The black triangle is it. The yellow one cuts off head, chest, and shoulders, and leaves a void behind, and the white triangle leaves an even bigger vacuum behind.

I like the look of the top box, on both my vespas. I think it balances it out, but maybe I'm just used to it! But even if I didn't removing it isn't an option -- that's where my wife keeps her helmet and I want it "always at the ready"!

-Dan

You are not alone, I love the way the Vespa brand top box looks on my 300. I feel it looks naked without it and wouldn't have it any other way.

I've never really thought about it. My Givi top box is useful, carries what I need to carry or protect, and I'm on the road, not a fashion show runway.

We leave our factory top case on the BV most all the time except when I'm planning to race big touring bikes. I don't know if it really makes much of difference, but I sure feel a lot faster with that stripped-down look.
The case is color matched and actually looks pretty good.

I like the looks of a Vespa without the top box but like someone said It comes in handy.
I thought about getting a rear rack, they look so much nicer.
Thing is you have to strap everything on and it gets wet in the rain, in Victoria it rains from Oct to June.

I only noticed it has a quick release a few days after I bought my scoot.
I dont leave anything in it case any thieves know how easy it would be to take it and run, they can break it open when they get home and there goes my $350 helmet.

I will have the brake and signals wired into my top box by spring with a quick release plug so I can take it off easily. That should ad some safety to it.
I think with a front rack and some straps under the seat I should get by on those days where I leave the Bulb off the back.
If my helmet fit under the seat it would change Everything.
Mega.

I don't like the look of a top box, although I fully understand its utility. I also understand from reading on this forum that a top box can effect the stability of the scooter. Now, being from an older generation than many of you scooter heads, I kind of like the casual look of textiles when it comes to containers. So I have an olive green canvass duffel bag which I roll up and bungee to my rear rack. If needed, I can fill it up and bungee it to my rear rack. Going down the street I look properly "easy rider" either way. No nerdy box for me! 8)

I don't like pants, helmets, gloves, dumb looking boots, or topcases. Eating all my fresh veg sucks. Ugly boxes on the arse end of my scoot make it useful. I read threads with pictures of pretty naked scoots and enjoy those, and use mine.

I like my top case for my GT200. It holds my helmet, hi-viz riding vest and gloves, etc. When I'm riding it serves as a "trunk". If necessary I use the bag ring over the glove box lid and a set of ROK straps to lash stuff down to seat and against cargo case back pad.

Underseat storage holds pump, tire repair kit along with a small draw string bag with fuses, cable ties, etc. - emergency stuff.

I also have same from my wife's Honda Metro.

In my humble opinion, from a utility standpoint 5 stars and aesthetics I would give it 4 stars.

You must like the way a pimple balances out a witch's nose, which is what a top box reminds me of, no offense. Of course I use a red "milk crate" from the container store which others might say is nothing to write home about.

I would have loved to have been a "fly on the wall" when some one suggested to any of the Vespa designers that ... we are going to design and sell a top box to sit in negative space off the arse of "your bike".

Vespa design displays well in art , motor vehicle and classic design museums...like Ducati, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, Bugatti etc, etc...but never, ever with an ugly top box

Ever seen a top box, roof rack or a tow bar on a Ferrari?.

I am going to remove mine tomorrow and see how long I can cope without it..for as long as I can... as an exercise in true Vespa-ist scoot lifestyle

Dream it...live it..

I posted this 5 years ago. Soon after I bought a top box and now I couldn't be without it.

Yeah, I did too. At least the crate pops on and off in seconds. But the look without the rear rack is even better. Never ends...

Did I got it correctly: some topboxes actually have a quick-release?

That is something I'd like to have in my Vespa topbox too (yeah, I removed it soon after I got my GTS). Has anybody modified the original topbox so that it would be easier to remove/attach?

BR. Sami

I just brought mine in and started taking it apart, I don't have the space under the reflectors for signals but their is a spot incorporated into it for a brake light.
I just have to get an LED strip and wire it in to the brake light with a QD.
Its a Givi Micro 2.
I also took off the mirrors and windscreen (that I still need to modify, its not from an ET4, made for round headlight), and it looks so way much better, kinda like a Black cat with her ears tucked back. Wish I could leave it that way.
I hadn't thought of taking the rear rack off altogether like someone mentioned, I would definitely need the front rack to do that, I don't mind riding with a backpack as long as I know to take it with me when I leave.
No matter how much better it looks without the top box its a handy thing to have.
Does anyone use saddle bags instead of a top box?
Mega.

Wouldn't be without mine......love the look and the added practicality.

Note how the nose mirrors the chin, the pimple is needed to complement the lone tooth. And we have balance.

My take on top boxes----they are necessary for: rain clothes/rubber boots/other junk----don't care how they look as they are behind me as I ride and I work on what is ahead of me, most of the time.

Vespa Box appears to be over priced. GIVI is expensive too----my GIVI E-46 has over 500,000 miles with hole cut in top for dog. GIVI disadvantage, heavy/clam shell design, which means loaded on side stand lots of junk can fall out if you are hauling freight....and open it.

GOOD TOP BOX: Stanley Tool box from WalMart @$15, 22" wide. Hi Vis yellow----add plate of wood inside, bolted solid----depending on rack, figure out 4 point mounting, either straight bolts (plate) or U-bolts tube rack and a couple of reflectors. AND Stanley box is not clam shell!

Remembering---box/weight behind rear axle acts like rock on back of arrow, not a handling aide on scooter.

Yes. Our factory Piaggio has a quick release feature, accessed from the inside of the case: insert key, twist, lift case. It only took me a couple of years before I discovered this feature.
Instructions? Who reads those?

Not a top case lover here. I have a rear rack and i think it looks good (up). That said my rear rack is off getting fixed and it seems bare without it. Just the grab bar.

I'll take cool over usefull any day.

Big fan of roll bags here. I think they look classier (but then, I've always liked the look of antique touring cars with actual trunks for the "trunk").

Perhaps a bit harder to make secure, but they hold just as much, and -- for touring -- they can be treated as actual "luggage" and easily taken into a room without unpacking for the night.

I have them on all three of my scooters.

SS your right about thee roil bag. Looks really classy when i put it on. I don't use mine much because i'm afraid it'll get nicked.

I've always had the same view regarding top cases and their tendency to take away from the classic appearance of a scooter. We'll...since then I've bought a modular helmet that will not fit in my pet carrier. There is not a place to store my helmet at work, so I had to get a top case.

I do like the look of the Vespa OEM case over other brands, but had heard many reports that the quality is sub-par compared to Givi etc. I did some research and I liked the features of the Coocase and installed one.

I had swapped my GTS seat, grab rail and tank cover for a GT200 seat and duckbill rack. I painted the rack black and I think it matches well with the scoot and the top case. I have since bought a back rest from a fellow MV member to match the seat that I'll be installing soon.

The top case does come off easily if I want a more classic look.

A Rubbermaid ActionPacker Storage Box - 8 gal., 19.9"L x 14.1"W x 12.1"H, $20 plus about $10 to mount using a pair of u-bolts.
Doesn't quite carry a 24-bottle case of beer, so that will need to be bungeed on the pillion.