Modern Vespa

OK, I guess we should be proud of our years of experience & not worry about the rapidly increasing number. A few more aches & pains to deal with , but if I was born on Feb 29, I'd only be 17 1/2, which is how old I feel when I'm riding my Vespa!

I started ~50 years ago on dirt and trials bikes, mostly Yammys. I rarely rde on the street and then illegally until about 4 years ago. That's when I found my first dead Vespa and got it going to ride to the beach so I didn't have to park a car a couple of miles away in the hot sun.

Seems like since then, elderly semi-dead Vespas just keep appearing and begging for another chance to play. I can relate to that.

I've wanted a vespa since the mid 60s. (Sears Allstate , right in their catolgue) got my first motorcy le in 1971 and waited until 2014 to get my first vespa.

i am 32yo but been riding sprint veloce since 1997 so i guess i am still young wonder if i born earlier as my dad ride his sprint veloce since 1980

keep the spirit young and cheer

63. Been riding older British bikes since I was 15. Started with a 250cc BSA, since then several Triumphs (I still have one I've owned for @40years), a Norton, lots of BSAs mostly 441 Victors in various configurations. In 2010 I bought a Stella, the first scooter I've ever ridden or owned and my first bike that has turn signals LoL.

I'm 44 and started riding at 16, in 1986. My first scooter was a '76 Vespa 90. I was just getting into the Mod scene at the time, which was flourishing in the Los Angeles area. I sold the 90, got a Sprint with loads of chrome and a P200 motor. I sold it and got a 62 LI125. I restored that (as much as a 19 year old can restore a scooter in 1989), covered it with mirrors and lights, and rode it a lot.

I stopped riding around '91 when I sold that Lambretta and left the scene.

Three to four years ago I got the bug to wrench and ride again, so I bought a Lambretta, then another, then another, sold one Lambretta, then bought my '76 Rally 200. I like the Mod look, but prefer the classic lines and original paint (where possible).

When I posted I had 50 years riding, I thought that would some sort of record, now I see some real senior riders out there.

Respect To you Gents.

Grumpy

I'll be 46 in 13 days (get me something good! ) got my 1st P200 in '83.. bone stock, burgundy P200 w/ all the crap.. huge box on the back, the giant fairing and wind shield. 1st things I did was take all that stuff off, nab a hubcap from a Mercedes near my high school.. man I thought it was the coolest thing in the world..

... until I started seeing other bikes down in SD.. then it was just a boring burgundy P w/ a nifty hubcap. :/ lol I sold it to a girl who crashed it into a retaining wall in my Mom's driveway trying to learn how to ride it.. D'oh! Then it was a burgundy P w/ a nifty hubcap and a bent front fender. Good times.

u gettin old Brother C hope i can give you a pics as gift

Haaa.. True! Thanks Ebeth! Yeah send all your pics to the Old Man!

i'll roger on that and hope the other senior's will like it as well

have a nice day and cheer

I'm 45. Been riding only 5 years when I bought my PX. Loved Vespas since my early teens and used to tear around on my mate's VBB without a licence. I've still got a PX brochure I got from a dealership in the mid eighties. I could never bring one home as my older brother had 3 mates killed on bikes and my parents told is if we brought a bike home we could get out. When I did move out I went travelling for 10 years then marriage and kids got in the way but got there in the end.

You look pretty good for an old fart. Ill be 44 this August myself.

Sometimes when you are an old timer it's better to down tools and get some beauty sleep.

That dog really needs to learn how to relax.

OK..I'll fess up. 57 for a few more months...been riding for...crap...what were we talking about?

Yeah I'm still a deadhead hippy with hair down to my ass Bertha on a scooter tattooed on my leg and 4 piercings in one ear.

For my 50th birthday I told my wife I was either going to buy a Burgman 650 or get a 30 year old blond.

"You better buy a new bike...you're not mature enough for a 30 year old."

I also said to her once. "Here I am..a 55 year old man playing with scooters and deciding what stickers to put on." Her response "As it should be."

You must really stress out your neighbors in Boca. I always sit up straight when riding past the Boca exits. I need to look closer at my stereotypes!

Boca really isn't what most of the world thinks it is. Most people that say they live in Boca are outside the city limits. I'm inside.

My house, built in 1963 with no AC (yes I have central now) is not a mansion and the neighbors...especially the NASCAR mechanic next door, don't mind when I fire up the 2Ts

To the locals Boca is pretty much just another little Florida coastal city. The EXPENSIVE little towns are the ones the world doesn't hear of..oceanfront Hillsborough, Gulfstream etc

And no...I'm not a broker, breaker whatever, it's 12 hours a day in steel toed boots for me!

I'm a bisexual unemployed alcoholic barfly living in Key West mooching off sugar daddies when not lounging on the non existent beaches.
Florida does a brilliant job of pretending to be what outsiders expect.

Man I saw more gay dudes in Key west than all of Sydney and that's saying something

Oh that's not a crisis! That's a new bike!

Midlife crisis is winding up in critical care with them telling you before two surgeries that.."we will do everything we can to save you left leg"

The sick part is thinking "Well...at least the brake on my vintage scooters is on the right"

Two words: Wilton Manors.

Key West's time is past and it's now too expensive for young people so the city becomes gray and staid and boringly straight. Just like me.
But the reputation lives on.

So old men live there and it's by the sea?

I see where you're going with this.

I thought it might ring a bell

Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the scooters he rode and how he rode them that distinguish one man from another.

i say this kids is the real senior as they start it way earlier then us
just wait till my nephew gets a bit taller

What's the story on that front shock, ebeth?

I'll be turning 44 in a few weeks, so solidly in the "old enough to know better, too young to care" years.

I started with a 49cc Honda Spree when I turned 15 because in Texas, you could ride a 49cc legally, but not drive a car until 16. Once I got the car, though, the Spree sat in the garage until I sold it a few months or maybe a year later.

I got back into riding a little over 10 years ago because my father-in-law bought and refurb'ed a couple of vintage Vespa's. I started wrenching and blowing up my Stella, then eventually got my VBB off my father-in-law after he did all the paint & body work but couldn't get the motor running.

Now, I can't imagine not having scooters in the shed or on the brain.

72 and have been continuously riding shifty Vespas (with a lone Lammy thrown in) since I was 16.

I see that a number of us are still riding in our 70s... any 80 year olds on the forum?

I think Richard H. Lemmon is there. He's over on the modern side. I'm thinking he has 2 GT200s, one with a side car. I'll drop him a line and get him to sign in

That's encouraging to us guys who are right behind you!

Dang, late to the party again. That's what commuting across the country for work does for ya.

I'm 58, riding since early 70s, first two wheel purchase was 2-stroke, but a bit crazier than a Vespa ('73 Kawasaki H2 750). Followed by Triumphs, Harleys, BMWs now Vespa and SYM.

Thankfully I'll be retiring in a few months and can finally start to enjoy riding again. Life begins at 59?

I've only been on 'em since 2007, but I took a bike built in 1958 to Target today...and that felt pretty f*ckin awesome.

That's cool.. what bike? pics?

66 YO. 1965 Yamaha 250 (autolube, Ha!)--wild bike, torque came on at 4 grand and off it went--sometimes with me, sometimes, not so much.

But first bike was a 1955 Sears (Puch) 175 mixer. Been riding something most times, most places and there have been a lot of those. Note: I'm still not good for hill climbing

howdy, yup those two stroke yammahahas were pretty fast for that age. I rode the rd that set the 1/4 mile record in Idaho and that was scary fast but what was more scary was the 500 3 cylinder two stroke that kawasake put out. when that came on the pipe at 5000 or so you couldn't keep the front from coming up until in fourth gear.

at my age the memories are better than the experience was.

ken

[quote="kpgo"
at my age the memories are better than the experience was.

ken[/quote]

Maybe because it's not mixed with terror anymore? 😄

the story is quite simple as they cut the spring around 3 spiral to make it lower so they can ride it, what make me laugh is how they kickstart the bike as the two kids hold the bike while the other one jump and hit the kickstart
wish i was that creative when i am 10yo

have a ncie day to you all my fellow senior riders and cheer

I'm 62 and the first bike I rode was this 'masterpiece' my brother brought home in 1962. The engine is a Briggs & Stratton off my father's old Craftsman lawnmower that I ported and relieved, planed-down the head (for more compression), etc. - my first engine build! (LOL)

That trick minibike frame is made out of lead pipe. Check out those cool drag bars and 'kustom' front wheel set up with WSW tyres...