Modern Vespa

I've just bought a 2014 midnight blue GTS250ie with 3300 kms and all is well except I am not sure about the starter motor.
When starting my GT200 it used to kick over straight away, the GTS250 however seems to do one turn really slow and then go fast enough to start, is this normal?

Always starts but just wondered?

2014 your battery is 4 years old. Time to replace.

My first thought too.

At minimum it needs to be checked.

If it's 4 years old it's done.
I had typed out for him to test but after seeing it was that old, figure he might as well get a battery anyway.

Stevio, they stopped making the 250 in 2009. So if its a '14, its a 300.

My 2009 has always done that and its not the battery. Seems like it turns over 1/2 a turn, then kicks in. The dealer told me it's common. I presume he's right since its never failed to start, ever.

But get the battery checked. four years is old. I got a Motobatt from ScooterPartsCo.com. They were significantly cheaper than other sources (at least a couple years ago).

best
Miguel

Thanks Miguel, I think Australia is different, it's definitely a 250, I was going to ask when they stopped selling them here?

I think Piaggio finally ran out of GTS 250 engines in 2014 or so but they sold through until Euro 4 kicked in. But I could be wrong and they could still be making them somewhere.
Different countries, different laws. That's why we don't have the GTS 125 or 150 in the US. A lot of the former Eastern Bloc countries treat a 250 different than a 300 for licensing, so they sold them later there too.

After I bought my used 250 two years ago, I was experiencing slow cranking. I just assumed the battery was about to expire so I bought one on Amazon and when I installed it, I discovered a battery cable had become loose at the battery terminal. I tightened it up and left it in the scooter. Two years later it's still starting and I have the new 'spare battery' on a shelf on a tender. So, check your cables. Both ends.

Does the compression release ever go bad?

What's that? How do you check?

There is a weighted cam in the head that through mechanical means holds a valve open at low engine speeds to reduce compression making starting easier. Once the engine is running, the weighted end gets thrown to the outside and allows the valve to close fully. (Or something similar. I'm not sure exactly how the Vespa version is setup.)

I don't think those fail. If anything, the weak point would be the return spring, and if that lost tension, it would fail on the side of low compression, not high.

It would require head disassembly to check.

I'm with everyone else, check battery first, then cables, then starter.