Modern Vespa

Thankfully we only have ice on the roads about once every 5-6 years here in Central Texas. Even when we do, it's usually melted by 10:00 am or so.

It's all relative to where you are. There is so much traffic here that nothing gets a chance to sit unless it is very early in the morning. I have hit black ice but the patch is usually very small and you regain grip quickly. The ABS/ASR on both the Vespa and BMW work incredibly well. I also find the Vespa an incredibly light bike and easy to control. Even so I have yet to get an ABS/ASR bike to fishtail in Downtown Toronto during the winter. There are still days I won't take a bike out but probably no more than about 20 a year. It's the slushy days I tend to avoid or during heavy snow. Light snow that melts as it hits the ground is fine.

Height I guess also plays a factor. At 5' 11" its easy for me to put my feet down on the Vespa should I need a little extra control. It was very handy in an ice storm I got caught in once. NOT a fun experience but damn it I wanted get home and I did sans issue. Outside of the front end shimmy issue on the current GT series they handle very well.

In a rural area or smaller city with less traffic I can absolutely see large patches of black ice being a risk.

I suppose I could add, I absolutely will not ride if there's any snow or ice on the roads.....

I'm with you on that. Not the most excited about these 30-ish degree mornings like today that are cloudy and damp.

For the most part, I'll go down to a bit below freezing in the morning, say 25F as long as it's dry, but it takes progressively more motivation at those temps, such as warming temps, sunshine, etc.

If it's not the cold, it's the salt, and probably most significant the dark cold on the trip home.....

I used to be able to handle down to 25F. But I had a wipe out on a cold morning where frost hd formed on painted lines in an intersection.

My rule of thumb is now 35F. The gear I have is capable of keeping me warm at these temps for up to an hour. My hands are where I feel cold first.

I will ride in what ever the UK throws at me unless I can't get out of our un salted close when the snow and ice come.....but couldn't probably drive either.

I rode to work today; sunny and about 4 deg C, with an expected high of 8 or 9 C. (So 41F this am to 48 F or so this aft).

I'm expecting this to be my last scooting day. Ice is certainly no fun and I find riding in the pissing Vancouver rain also to be unappealing.

But I have to say that scooters, whether vintage, modern or maxi, really do give rider protection from the elements that is impressive. I have a pretty tall screen as well and that adds a great deal of comfort. As temped as I am by the new BMW F750GS (and I am), scooters are seriously sensible multi weather bikes.

I last rode in 43 F on our Season End Group Ride. It was difficult keeping
toes and hands warm. In the future, perhaps, we will cancel group rides below
50 F.

JKJ-FZ6

If my memory serves me correctly, you were limping around a few years
ago after riding in our Minnesota Winter Wonderland.

Bob Copeland
Frost Bite Falls Minnesota

Yes indeed. I rode this morning and it was just around 32 degrees. I will think better next time. Thank good I did not look impaired

The worst is ice with snow on top of it. The elevated roads are treacherous. I would not take the GTS because I think the S and LX are more stable.

Being a year round rider I routinely endure cold weather here in central Pennsylvania. The coldest I've ridden was a 50 mile ride at -15F. That was over ten years ago on my LX150. Unprepared, poorly attired, and pretty much stupid. The only thing I had going for me was sunshine under a clear blue sky, a hot muffler to warm hands when the headlight wasn't enough, and plenty of time.

Now in old age, last winter, I would routinely ride in any temperature down to about -5F. Single digits and teens are fine. I am much better prepared now with Tucano Urbano Muffs and Apron, electric gloves, heated grips, and better riding clothes.

Here's a picture from a ride a few years ago on the way to work at -8F. NOTE I DIDN'T HAVE THE TUCANO GEAR YET AT THIS POINT.



I learned something from that ride about cold weather. I wrote about the experience on my blog post titled SUB ZERO RIDING EDUCATION.

Ya, even when there's no ice and snow on the streets there can be patches of loose gravel.

So begins another winter riding season for me.

I had no limit when I was young. Remember freezing my fingers at -30 celsius going to my girlfriends house.

Nowdays I prefer not to ride if its below +5 celsius. My finger nor my nouse cant take it nomore. Guess I have frozen them too many times. Lucky me, I always wore warm underwear back in the days

HA! yeah my P200 and Jet200 made some trips back in the day to seek female companionship in the freezing cold.

What a young man will do to see his girlfriend is simply amazing. Of course the magic words in my younger years were my girlfriend saying "my parents aren't home" .

Wearing a reserve chute?
And love the helmet mounted cup-holder!

O.S.

3°F was my coldest commute to work, in the dark.

Not sure I'd want to go any colder with a plastic paneled scooter - things might start snapping off from this Taiwanese maker.

Turned around and took a snap, before rolling it into a nice heated warehouse!




Riding on City Grips ....but at this temp. they were pretty much French wood.


O.S.

No thanks. I'll take riding in 105F over that Arctic crap any day!

Oh, and I still sometimes go and watch these:

Our's is a contry of thousands of small lakes, all of which are frozen in winter. Kind of had to invent some use for those....

It was 35°F (2°C) this morning, which was the coldest I've ridden my GT200 to work (~5 miles highway and I top out at about 76mph indicated) and with the mid-sized Vespa windscreen which covers the hand area it was tolerable.

With my ET2 I had a Cuppini flyscreen which provided no hand area coverage and made riding in anything under 45°F (7°C) unbearable due to my hands freezing from the wind, even though I topped out at about 62mph indicated. Some liner for the leather gloves was tried but I didn't like the way it made my hands feel on the bars.

I might try for freezing next. The only parts of my body that got cold this morning was my legs (dress slacks) and face (3/4 helmet). I feel like if I wore another layer on my legs and went with a full-face helmet I'd be able to deal with below freezing no problem.

So far they're ok. They seem to be great in the wet and the cold, but they are hard. I lost some of my ride. They also don't seem balanced. A little lumpy. I dropped some Dynabeads in (1 oz in each) but they still aren't as smooth as the stock tires.

Y'all cray-cray over there. And I'll take your brand of cray-cray over - ahem! - ours, six ways to Sunday.

Sometimes it gets down to 60F here. But i doubt i would ride far.

Yeah I feel the same way on them. It down;t take long to get used to them but I'll be happy for spring and my City Grips going back on.

On another note I haven't ridden it in a few weeks, The ABS/ASR constantly kicks in making acceleration impossible without turning off ASR. I need to get the bike in to the dealer soon as I (and the dealer) feel the sensor is being interfered with. So as it is most of my winter riding has been on the BMW which is running Metzler FeelFree tyres.

Easter rally in Whitby [Yorkshire, England] can be a tester, anyone that's been will know what iam talking about, we call it "Brass Monkey Weather" as its cold enough to freeze the nuts off a brass monkey.

It's not too cold until it approaches 20F and below.
But that's on an eBike under 15MPH, capable of faster but the wind chill is tough. On the scooter, I could take colder thanks to a full windscreen and lap blanket.

-8.5 C (16.7 F) this morning, brrrr.

For the last week or so, it's been in the low 30's (1 - 2 C) when I start my commute. Have cold weather gloves and jacket. One of the two bikes that I own have heated grips, which helps a lot

On a regular basis if the roads are clear of snow and ice, I'll ride down to 0 to teens. Use a combo of heated gear, grips, thermoscud, and regular cold weather gear.

What are you guys doing for hands/gloves to keep warm at these cold temps? I just rode in my first 30-32F night for 20 min testing out a CHT I just installed on the spark plug.

After 10 min my hands were starting to get numb, turned around and headed back and by the time I got back, hands were practically useless and dangerous. I was testing out gloves purchased for cold weather, Klim powercross snow gloves with tour master fleece liners. Add on top, it was sketchy controlling the clutch and brake with two layers of gloves considering the amount of movement restriction from those two layers of gloves.

Now I love the cold and aside from hands, everything else could go for much longer without issue.. body core and head were fine from a winter jacket and full face helmet, legs were doing fine with jeans only.

Would love some tips on solid gloves that don't require severely restricting usability.

Handlebar muffs, they bock the wind chill which makes a huge difference. Add heated grips and you can comfortably ride with medium weight leather gloves in the 20s for hours at a time. At least that what works best for me. Without the heated grips I need heavier weight gloves inside the muffs below 30.

Heated glove liners also make a huge difference. Nice thing is they can be used with any bike and whatever gloves you want.

I ride year round regardless of temp as long as no snow or ice is on the road. Now, this is Georgia so the snow and ice times are rare. I have heated jacket liner and gloved wired to the scoot and this year installed heated grips. Only run a shorty windscreen so limited wind protection. If it's really cold, then I'll take the beemer which has much better wind protection and adds a heated seat.

And a heated vest to keep you cozy.

Got one of those as well, makes a big difference. I like the ones from Venture heat.

It was 29° F when I rode in to work this morning, which is the coldest I've ridden in as of yet. I picked up a pair of rechargeable heated gloves last week, and set the temp setting on high. My thumbs got slightly chilly, but my fingers were comfortable. Much better than when I used winter gloves and handlebar muffs.

3 frigging days nowtI haven't been able to ride. The roads would have been fine but we got a light dusting of snow last night. I already have a plan in place so this won't be an issue next year. I really do get a little squirrely if I don't get out on a bike.

With a heated vest and inserts for your gloves and boots you can tolerate pretty low temps, especially if you also have a full shield. For me the limiting factor is ice. If it's cold enough for black ice or if there is a lot of snow on the roads, then forget it. I'd stay off two wheels....

I generally agree but did find that I could be more stable with Heidenau winter/snow tires. Awful tires in warm weather, but I had a second set of wheels. Soumi tires on my winter eBike make winter riding safer. I found that a heavier scooter. ie 250-300CC was far less manageable on slippery streets than a nice 50cc. (perfect, IMO)

Here, its the salt they spread. I will not take the scooter on salted roads, warm or not.

My work recently moved from London to Madrid and naturally I took the scoot with me. Madrid is cold in the winter but very dry and low humidity so this means ice is relatively rare and there are plenty of blue skies in comparison to London.

My bike came equipped for UK cold with heated grips, screen and a termoscud apron and its great around Madrid.

To answer the quesi - it's often down to -3 to 5 over night and if the roads are dry (usually are I ride in no problem and really enjoy it. The return home is great and much faster through the traffic than a cage - I often find myself exploring despite the cold. I think dry air makes a huge difference to the way cold penetrates - in damp old London with the same bike and gear at the same temperature it just felt less comfortable

Ride safe