Modern Vespa

I'm considering adding rear crash bars to my GTS while it's at the shop getting repaired and repainted. Opinions on the quality of the Logoscooter , Cupertini, fa italia or Faco crash bars?

User to have the logoscooter bars.
Good quality, but not compatible with aftermarket exhaust.
The attachment screw in the rear hit my exhaust on every bump.

OEM crash-bars have looked to provide the best protection, and to have the best quality chroming when I looked at the alternatives.

I have the OEM ones right now and really like them.

I had the logo scooter and had to manipulate them quite a bit to get them not to rub on the scooter, I was not impressed...

You should invest on some crash bars for your legs first. At least that's what I thought you meant when I saw the title of your topic. I keed, I keed. But it's good to read that your recovery is going well.

8)

OEM. Love them.

But can't lean as far as I'd like to.

I want leg shield bars too

I think the OEM ones look the best. Thankfully I haven't had to test the ones on my GTV yet.

I cast my vote with the OEM bars, also. I had the FACO bars on the 250, but I prefer the Vespa bars. They seem more robust , albeit more expensive.

Have also been considering the logo scooter bars. Like the look the best and they spare the side reflectors. Double win!

OEM seem like second best, for me, but appear a bit clunkier than logo scooter. Not sure why.

I got a Faco windscreen and the chrome on the mounting hardware is rusting. If their crash bars are anything like the windscreen chrome I'd stay away from them.

Good feedback, thanks, as for the reflectors I ditched them years ago and certainly will not put them back on after the scoot is restored.

I'm not wild about the OEM crash bars look, a bit more intrusive than I have in mind while the single Cupertini is a bit too minimalistic.

I like the Logoscooter bars though they're sitting in a corner of my garage waiting to be reinstalled. I prefer the look over the alternatives and I didn't have any issues at all with installation.

Add me to the list of OEM owners and appreciators.

As seen on a GTS. I prefer the build of the OEM.

None of the OP pictures show the OEM crash bars, but I see that other owners have filled in the gaps.

My turn.

I hadn't seen the FA Italia crash bars before. I like them (what I can see of them, anyway).

From a technical perspective, the OEM crash bars are likely to come unfastened from underneath the bike in a crash, unless you use a bolt that goes through the seam, instead of just clamping to it.

Jess,
Could you elaborate. I'm a total noob who subscribes to the school of paying someone more experienced than I to fix my toys. I did find my OEM lock nuts underneath had been loose a few weeks ago and did tighten them, but you seem to be describing affixing them to the bottom structure of the scoot somehow. Is this a correct assumption?

After reading a number of threads here, I chose the OEM. The common complaint about the FACO, even something mentioned on the ScooterWest website, was the mounting hardware cutting a coolant hose if not carefully installed. The Cuppini bars are minimalist and didn't seem to offer any protection. I take Jess's point about how the OEM bars affix, but I look at the bars as tip over or "ding" protection. If you have a full out crash, I wouldn't expect any bars to stand up to those forces.

I'm sort of leaning towards the FA Italia ones myself.

The look of crash bars is not for everyone. It is a matter of taste, and protection. And bars look different on different scoots, of course.

A buddy of mine, Marcus, dropped his 1977 Rally P200E (Burgundy) coming down Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado. He was going too fast for the loose gravel on the road around a hairpin turn. I was right behind him and watched him go down; the scooter kept going down the road into a rocky outcrop. If those rocks weren't there, the scoot would have fallen off the cliff. My buddy had his left leg, hip, chest, and arm shredded, but recovered. His Rally 200 wasn't that bad. The cowlings were dented and scoured, and there was a minor crack. Stickers covered those flaws. Marcus gave up scootering after that. I had the same model in red, and I tried to avoid mentioning my scooter after that incident.

But that got me interested in crash bars. I wanted something which had reasonably good track record at protection (highest priority), did not require modifying the scooter, and looked good.

By the way, I would rather have stress transferred to bars on the other side of the scoot, than have the Unibody take the punishment, and perhaps distort. Bars can be replaced. That's why I have thought about, but dismissed the idea of drilling bolt holes all the way through the bottom anchor points.

That is why I chose the OEM crash bars for my GTV. Here is a picture with some comparison comments:

I have actually crashed with them -- slid along the pavement, even -- and the crash bars did their job. A good set of crash bars that mount properly with a real, genuine mount point will take a fair amount of abuse. They won't save the bike from a T-bone, but they can very easily protect it from a slide.

The front mounting point for the OEM bars is a seam on the underside of the bike body. They use set screws to clamp a bracket to the seam. From a strictly mechanical standpoint, that's not very secure, and won't stand up to the forces that crash bars are likely to encounter. Even a simple tip-over could easily break loose that front mounting point.

Vintage red matthew drilled holes in the seam, and put the screws all the way through it, presumably with nuts on the other side. That would be an acceptable way for that front part to mount. Otherwise, they're almost useless.

Some more discussion of this topic starts here: https://modernvespa.com/forum/post1552445#1552445

I did go down with logoscooter bars. They did save my scoot,
Was At low speed though, About 40 km/h

My experience has shown the Vespa bars on a GTS to be far from useless and the standard underside mounting has held it's own.

My bike has landed on it's sides 3 or 4 times while parked.

I think the bike was probably lifted partially by the crash bars when being moved on to the sidewalk, by guys who really needed the street space.

The front washed out in deep gravel around a sharp right turn at about 15 mph.

I was cut off by a taxi on my left coming across my lane and stopping to pick up a fare on my right. I slowed to probably around 20 before I ran out of room between the encroaching cab and a parked car, striking the front right fender of the cab, with the bike going down on the left then sliding under the parked car with the right side striking the underside of the rear bumper.

In all instances the bars stayed put.

I've seen that pinch-bolt style of clamp come off in a crash, and the bike took the brunt of the abuse. It might not happen, but it clearly can happen. Drilling through the seam virtually guarantees that it won't. As insurance goes, it doesn't get much cheaper or much more guaranteed.

Why wouldn't you drill through the seam?

Piaggio branded here and it protected scoot completely when it when over in soft blacktop.

Yep. That version has pretty good attachment points, plus the added benefit of one side being connected to the other side via the hoop over the tail light.

I didn't because I hadn't thought or heard of either the issue or solution.

I may when I get around to re-installing them, although I'll have to figure out how to accomplish on the sidewalk with limited tools.

Nonetheless, they have proven repeatedly to be far from useless, even as designed.

Had you confirmed proper installation of the bars prior to seeing the crash with failure?

They were installed by a shop I trust. None of us knew about the pinch bolt issue at the time, though.

I've got the Vespa-branded ones on my GTV, and have since about 6 months after I got it. So far...

Pro:
I love the look. I'm a bit addicted to chrome bits for this particular scoot. The way these bars are mounted has also frequently given me a few extra tie-down points for bungee hooks when carrying odd-shaped loads on the passenger seat or rear rack (especially when all I had was bungees too long for the job). I did have a relatively low-speed drop a couple years ago, and while the cowl did receive some scratches in the process, it's obvious the bars took the brunt of the impact. I'm sure it would have resulted in a dent, had I not had those bars on. The rear mounting points did shift significantly from the impact, but the pinch bolt bit in the front did not. (I haven't drilled through the metal for the bolts, but I did screw them on tight enough that I doubt they'll go anywhere due to any impact that wouldn't total the bike regardless.) The chrome is very good quality, and has even held up well around the areas that were scraped off during my accident.

Con:
They were a bitch and a half to install. Had to be modified slightly to get things to fit correctly. Most expensive ones available (at least when I ordered them). They slightly reduce the mount of leg space I have towards the rear of the floorboard when putting my feet down at stops. This isn't likely an issue for anyone not as vertically-challenged as myself.

I vote for the Vespa one.

I had a slow spill on a right turn on a wet road. Scooter skidded 15ft away from me. The crash bar took all the hit - not a crash to the cowl.

FWIW, I decided on the F.A. Italia crash bars and ordered them from SIP along with a bottle of Vespa wine and a few patches to meet the minimum shipping to the US dollar amount.

Pics of your restored and newly chromed scoot should be good, but not as good as knowing you're mended and riding again.

In theory I'll get my scoot back the end of this month but who knows it will be ready then or not. I heard last week they are waiting on the new glove box assembly - the only actual part that will be replaced. I suspect it will be August, possibly September before I'll be riding the GTS again. Partly because I need to rebuild strength in my legs and partly because we'll be heading up to Breck hopefully before it is ready to be picked up.

If I'm not riding again before leaving Houston it may have to wait until I return when school resumes since I'm not sure the BV 500 is the best scoot to start back riding with of the ones we own. The Buddy would be best.

Are Vespa and Piaggio branded idebtical attachments?

The F.A. Italia crash bars have arrived and been taken over to the Vespa dealer who told me that the unpainted glove box has arrived so work has begun on repairing my GTS.

Yes, I know I am becoming annoying asking the same question repeatedly (this is third thread) but....are OEM bars only available through a Vespa dealer?
any idea of cost?

You can buy them online Scooterwest has them as does SIP.

Vespa Texas sent me with pictures of my GTS now that the dents are gone, paint done and crashbars installed. Still have few things left to do like replacing the windshield, Vespa badges, Didge floor rack and front rack but I thought you might like to see what the F.A. Italia rear crashbars look like installed.

Sleek.
Has a nice "tailored" and tight look. The rear crash bars and the front fender bars line up nicely.