Modern Vespa

When I'd get on the gas a bit, the (new) scooter always felt like the giddy up wasn't. It would go and then have this momentary pause in the acceleration maybe once or twice before reaching about 30mph. I thought maybe there was something wrong (bad gas, or whatever)

Then the other day I disengaged the ASR and boy howdy did it feel A LOT different. No stutter whatsoever. I kept testing comparing from dead stops and have confirmed that the ASR really does put a hamper on the acceleration. I'm sure there's a value there but just in case anyone was experiencing the same - you might consider trying without.

Good info! I guess use the ASR in rain, snow and gravel.

Does it remember your preference after a restart?

Yes, the front wheel lifts just a fraction on take-off and the ASR picks up the slight difference on wheel rotation speeds. Same thing happens going over bumps. I always switch mine off when I start the engine. I would only leave it on if the roads were wet or sandy.

I wish .... it doesn't.

Interesting. My 2020 has no issues with this. I have the ASR on all the time since I'm a newbie, will try it without after I am more advanced

The ASR should not make a difference to normal, even quite quick take offs unless you are actually experiencing slight loss of traction as you do so.

So things to do/check:

1. check that your ABS/ASR is calibrated correctly. This is best done by going through the whole routine laid out in the owners manual to reset them. It's easy to do and normally will resolve this issue;

2. before you do the above, are your tyre pressures correct, especially the rear tyre if it's under inflated some? If they are not it can cause the stutter you speak of even if the ABS/ASR is calibrated correctly;

3. check with your dealer if after doing your tyre pressures and calibration, the stutter is still present, to see if there is an ECU update to solve this issue.

Have to say mine is perfectly ok at all times unless I do actually experience some slip on greasy wet city roads under heavy acceleration. Good luck!

2017 GTV here with about ALL the performance upgrades so it runs like the devil. I have zero issues with the ABS/ASR and the only time it kicks in is when I would expect it to. If you grab a fistful from a stop your rear wheel can spin out of sync with the front causing a slight stutter as the air takes over. If you are just reasonably accelerating and it kicks in then there is an issue with the setup.

I would not recommend riding without it unless off-road or on gravel. Gravel sure, but lets face we're talking about a Vespa here and odds are you aren't hitting the fire trails...

You never know when you may have to make an emergency stop or hit a grease slick and regret having turned it off.

Please join us for a Wisconscoot sometime.

I said "odds are". I can't account for all the whackos out there

Then again I just rode in to the office in the snow...

Turning off ASR disables the ABS too? That sucks.

Yep, what Stromrider says, ASR should work better.

A different bike, but I'm actually still amazed how well this works in my 2018 Triumph - and especially on gravel!

The bike got quite hefty amount of torque at low revs, meaning it's very easily a waggy tail and stone sprays riding without ASR. Yeah, sometimes that's fun too, but.... when I wish to make progress, I do contrary to what the guys at the sand dunes do: I'll switch the ASR on. It's almost scary how easy the bike is to accelerate on loose gravel then. Less show, but very fast progress.

If you turn off the ASR, the ABS remains on. It's not possible to turn off the ABS so don't worry.

Reset your ASR and see if that helps.

Who's gonna break the tie?

When I got my first Piaggio with ASR I was surprised how often it cut in. Not just when slippery but also when the road surface was rough, which here in the UK is almost always! It shows up the poor rear suspension behaviour caused by the scooters high unsprung weight. It also showed why I only get 3 to 4 thousand miles from a rear tyre. Then there was a choice, either change my riding style so that the ASR didn't cut in, or switch it off and live with the high tyre wear. I never felt that it was a big safety issue because it almost never cut in while cornering and if it did the coarse missfire like effect would probably destablize the scooter even more than an easily correctable rear end slide.

There is no way to switch off the ABS, only the ASR. This is done with the starter cranking switch on the 2014 to 2018 bikes once the engine is running. On the latest bikes there is a separate switch to turn off the ASR, but not the ABS. ABS has to remain on at all times under European law and that's carried over to the models in the States and elsewhere.