Modern Vespa

I don't have much choice other than to park my 2006 Vespa GT200 on the street in my neighborhood. I try to find spots where I can chain it up, and I usually try to park at the end of the block.

Yesterday, I took off the cover only to find a nasty dent on the side. I'm not actually totally sure how this dent even got made. I mean, look at that sucker!!

I'm thinking either someone backed into it when they were leaving their parking spot, or someone "forwarded" into it and crushed it into the car I was parked near.

Either way, I literally just picked this puppy up and needless to say, it's annoying.

Any suggestions on what I could do to protect her from getting damaged if this happens again?

I see that I can buy cowl protectors but I'm not sure that would actually protect this part of the scooter.

I was thinking of buying pool noodles and using a bungie cord to connect them when it's parked overnight.

What do you guys think?

"Annoying" is an understatement. I'd be incensed.

You're probably right about crash bars, although they seem to do more than one would expect. In your case, at any rate, that ship has already sailed.

Maybe others will have more to offer, but unfortunately, I think it's part of the hazards of parking in the wild.....

Bummer, sorry that happened.

Crash bars work better than you think and there is a very good chance they would have prevented that damage. Here's a pic and you can see they stick out a fair amount and the OEM bars are pretty strong. I've been rear ended at a stop before and zero damage. Neither myself or the the driver could believe it. Nice guy, very apologetic and to his credit immediately pulled over.

The other advantage of the bars is use them a LOT for foot placement when riding. I find it very handy.

That's a good view of them!

That's probably a good idea then. Also my wife has a bit of trouble reaching the built in foot pegs when we ride together so this might be a great place to put her feet to boot.

I think I'm going McGyver this a bit to buy some thick rubber protectors (that one would buy for cars in a garage) and drape them over the sides somehow. As a temporary $20 measure. I think that might be helpful

I lived in DC years ago. Also lived in Boston for several years. In both cases, I hunted down off street parking for my ride. Sure, I had to pay for it, but I thought it was worth it. For me, the only other choice would be to ride a rat bike - not a nice looking Vespa like your GT.

Does anyone have a porch at street level they don't use? Maybe you could rent it
Had a friend in DC keep his motorcycle on the front porch just behind a low metal fence.
He was over by 18th and R just down from adams morgan.

Those were the days, we were motorcycle couriers for a graphics company. Unicorn Graphics. (there with 4 of us on company owned Kawasaki EX500's)
We would run around Washington DC and pick up / drop off articles that needed to be "cut and pasted" on to paper as they were to be set up in the magazine or paper.
Got to go into most of the Smithsonian Museums before they opened for the day. Pick up whatever had to be picked up or dropped off and then wander around for a while. Same with the Capital, Senate Office Buildings. No amlessing wandering around those building though
Oh, the Zoo was a customer, I would fight for that stop when it came up on the first run of the day, i.e. no one else there but employee and I could go anywhere that wasn't locked, that was fun after dropping the package at the office and letting them know I will be wandering the Zoo !!!!

There were four 2 hour runs a day. Each run took from 30 min to 1.5 hours depending on the route you got and the number of stops, so had lots of time to play most days.

That was one of my favorite jobs, well except for the fact that every car is trying to kill you. And snow sucked.

Ah that sounds like fun! I've poked around a bit to see if anyone has a space to rent but not sure I found anything that will work yet.

I have full comprehensive insurance on it so I might file a claim and take it to the shop at some point.

Otherwise it's in perfect shape.

What I think happened was someone backed into it, and the chain was taut enough that there wasn't any leeway ... and so instead of just sort of pushing it out of the way, the scooter "held it's ground" and so he pushed into it and caused a dent. A slow and steady push rather than a violent impact, maybe.
Anyway, I'm getting a new cover that has a bight orange stripe on top so that may make it more visible.

I also McGyvere'd some side protection... I had some left over rubber strips, and I bought a set of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H79DWRM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm gunna sort of drape them over the sides of the scoot when it's parked. Who knows - might actually work!

Here are my OEM crash bars, it may help some? I can fit my fingers behind there so there is a little buffer. They are pretty sturdy metal rods.

Build a sturdy wooden cage and screw it to the ground with stops

Firstly sorry to hear about your scooter and the horrible lack of respect of someone else's property. That just sucks, especially since you just got the scooter.

My $.02 is to get the Fehling rear crash bars from SIP. They are in my opinion one up on the Vespa ones, as they go all the way around the curved part of the sides. They also have a different model if you want to add saddle bag side mounts. These stick out about 1/2" away from the scooter and are securely bolted in about 4 places on the frame.

They also make them for the front as well. I'm not all that impressed with the front crash bars, as one needs to drill holes in the horn cover and you will need to get a different front rack as well. The crash bars and original front rack won't fit at the same time due to the bolt configuration. If you still want the front rack you will have to get the kind that hooks on the front.

Those sidebars aren't bad! Where do you get those from?

I'm not sure what SIP is.

Cheers!

https://www.sip-scootershop.com

Say good-bye to all your funds.
Their prices are great, but they have a TON of stuff....

Something like this, maybe? Search "Dingbats" magnetic car door protectors.