Modern Vespa

She looks like she wants some of that sandwich.

On the sidelines of this incident I made a decision, I was undecided whether to buy a modular helmet (the previous one broke) but after this I will definitely buy it. And I'll wear it more often ...

You only really need it when you crash.
Though it comes in handy at high speeds; keeps things quieter.

First Off : I Am Glad Your OK...it Could have Been A Lot Worse

Second : PopaWheelie's Words...Hold Them Accountable & + on Long Term...Knee Injures are Forever

True ... Look at my knee after two scooter accidents ... Tendons, tibial plateau and meniscus gone.

Glad Harbinger's modular helmet held up, and that he's on the mend.

That said, I don't understand the appeal of modular helmets. I wouldn't want to ride with the jaw open for the same reason I wear a helmet at all: I want my face protected in a crash. Plus, I'd worry about the extra leverage on my neck if I crashed with the jaw in the wrong position.

I guess a modular is slightly more comfortable to drink with, but the minor benefit doesn't seem worth the risk of adding a potential failure point to the helmet (the jaw hinge), or accepting more wind noise. It's easy enough to remove a helmet when you park, particularly on a Vespa where you can hook it under the seat.

Well no ... the modular has the advantage of better accessibility for those with glasses and also to refresh the face during short stops, even at traffic lights.
The jet helmet is often worn for those reasons but being able to have a helmet that is both integral and (if necessary) jet, makes it preferable for mixed routes and also for variable weather.
I think Harbinger thought so ... and she did well in what we saw.
PS: what big legs you have Harb!

Yes, I wear glasses and the newer modulars hold up well in an accident. I did scrape the chin portion and it held together just fine. I don't buy entry level anything and for helmets I get best in class.

The big legs are from hockey, goalies need to have very strong legs especially when I played as the pads were heavier than now. I also took up cycling and century riding for a long time.

Ouch!

I'll guess this is something a man with injuries don't wish to hear, but reading your description of the events, I believe you were lucky!

Heal well!

Hope you heal up with no lingering effects.
I wear glasses, too - and a full face helmet is just not possible.
So, I wear a Nolan modular - and with all the possible pads in place it is quiet enough, and warm enough (with a balaclava) for my many below freezing sunrise rides.

Now I ride only 150 class scooters - but I still buy the best helmet which I can afford. The Nolan ran @$300.

O.S.

Yep, it's going to be a write-off . Looks like an HPE is in my future but I will still miss my girl. I thought maybe I got lucky with the body damage but just had another look after hobbling down to the garage.

That's a great shame. It might interest you to know Piaggio have just released a very nice looking 75th anniversary model, just sayin'! - Worth taking a look while you are recuperating. Don't forget to remove your classic rack before she goes.

maybe you can remove the performance parts off that which weren't damaged, and throw it on a brand new HPE!

Maybe, though the Malossi parts won't work on an HPE.

Touring300, yes I was thinking along the same lines.

never had this happen so no clue how it works... if you total it, do you get to keep the totaled bike? Ie.. then take the engine out and resell it? Or is it the type of thing that you either choose to total it and the insurance keeps the totaled bike and you get the value... or you choose to keep it and they only give you the cost to repair/rebuild stuff?

Cause I'm sure your engine is fine and you already put a ton of awesome work into it. Someone has to want to have that on their scoot and not want to go through the effort of having someone do it all, just swap straight engines.

Ooooof, that sucks. Hope you heal up quickly!

I also wear glasses. I just take them off while I put the full-face on. 🤷

I'm sorry to hear this happened, but glad you're well enough to post.

You should see if there are any parts on the scoot you can take off before letting it go. Bars, windscreen, topcase, seat might be able to be used in the future by yourself or others.

Take time to heal up and be obsessive with your rehab and physical therapy.

You should also be able to get insurance to cover new gear for yourself. I might recommend pants with knee armor for the future.

Best of luck in healing and keep us posted.

It keeps getting better... Turns out I do have a broken bone and need a cast. At least the clinic burnt a CD for me which will help speed things up at hospital.

Our common bond - chance of getting crunched. Please heal well with
my best wishes for you. Helmet probably saved your life.

Bob Copeland
Frost Bite Falls Minnesota

Thanks and yes, even though it was a modular

Funny thing is all my instructors pretty much wore one and not just when teaching. They did not see any real issue with them.

Your accident got me off the fence: I have been waffling about some armor equipped riding jeans... placed an order this morning. I have some mesh riding pants w/armor (we deal with heat here rather than the cold), but I find I generally put on a pair of jeans when taking the Vespa out. I'm thinking I have $100,000+ investment in the hip replacement (thanks, Medicare) that should have some armor.

Sorry to hear about the broken bone and needing a cast. Is the broken bone in the knee area? Does that mean a full leg cast?

Sending more good vibes for full and fast healing.

Jim

Harbinger,

I'm glad you're steady on in spite of this unfortunate experience. Ouch! over the broken bone, hope you mend well. Dogs provide great comfort when you're feeling rough, but I think they're all inadvertently programmed to step on the tender bits when moving around you!

Sorry to hear of your GTV. It's a massive bummer that the modern Vespas get written off so quickly. I had a local friend whose GTS250 was recently written off over a cowl dent/scrape and broken trim. She was pretty upset about it, but found solace in a new HPE.

When I got pranged on my P200E, I cursed the driver, straightened the bars, rode to the club garage, replaced the left mirror, the clutch lever and bashed the cowl dent out with a sandbag and a mallet. Covered the scrape with a sticker that reads Crashing Sucks. It's still there a decade later.

Another modular fan here. Easier to wear with glasses, nice to be able to open the lid if one's a bit claustrophobic and also easier for emergency personnel to get off of you in the event of an accident. Have a Schuberth C3 Pro currently, but looking to move to a C4 this season.

Good luck on your road to recovery and with the new Vespa shopping!

Oh, shit, piss, and corruption: My heart pretty much hit the basement finding this thread. I'm crazy-glad you not only survived this, but resting as best as possible.

And...really sorry to hear about the GTV write-off. I was afraid that would be the case, given the severity of that hit.

Rest and heal up well, hopefully to ride another day.

P.S. And, yeah...armored pants FTW. Seriously.

P.P.S. Modular helmets have come quite some way in the last few years, and I'm certain current models can do the biz in many emergency situations. But for now, I'm sticking with full-face. Glad yours held up!

Take a look at all the European police patrolmen who are wearing modular helmets on their motorcycles.
And, could you circle the break for us?
O.S.

Thanks Jim and again to everyone.

I'm pretty much the same as you. I have a full Rallye Suit for the BMW and armoured pants for when I off-road or take a long trip on the Ural but that's it. I never really thought I'd need it on the Vespa but lesson learned.

OldSchooot I'm going to hospital today and will follow up. Honestly the incredible pain is the worst part and as we just switched pain medication I've been going week to week to see how I respond to it and I'm basically out. I see my pain specialist today at 9 and will get help there. My other Dr offered to prescribe something but am only supposed to get pain medication from the one clinic or hospital. In hind sight I should have asked for an ambulance but I wasn't thinking straight.

Just seen this!

That's a nasty one! I can only imagine how hard your knee and the road impacted!

Add me to the list of people looking to upgrade gear before I ride again.

Hope you and Portofino Girl get well soon.

Just one more thing ... a North American using a rugby ball analogy 🤔

Maaaan ... glad you are ok. After my accident I walked funny for a couple of months, but we do heal. Knees are tricky ... take care of them.

Hopefully you have a speedy recovery. Summer's coming!

Just saw this thread. Glad to hear you weren't hurt any more than you were. Best of luck and here's to mending quickly!

Yeah it really makes the gear thing pretty obvious at least to me. Where I had gear on I'm fine. Where I didn't not so much and that I am going to pay for for a while. Also insurance covers replacing CE approved gear but not other apparel damaged. The irony is my jeans are fine as I must have been behind the skirt when I hit. The rugby ball thing? Simple I am of Irish background and growing up in Montreal pretty much every English high school had a rugby team. It was also very popular for girls to play.

Thanks again for the well wishes and good to see you drop in JP.

The adjuster saw the bike yesterday and said it will be a write-off. He went down with my wife to look and said a few other things. I should try hard to get as much value as I can for all the upgrades to the scoot as he noticed a lot of work was done. He also told her he could tell from the damage that I must be a good rider as I was obviously under control when I went down . Personally I have to wonder if the skirt caused me more damage as I wasn't able to slide the bike out from under me but that could also have been partially the cobblestone.

Vespa dealer wants me to have the tow it out to him for a look to give a "real" assessment of the scoot as he might be able to repair it for less than its market value. I have checked 2017 GTV used pricing and it's been doing pretty well in not dropping much.

I have to admit a little PTSD and I keep reliving the moment over and over and wondering of there is anything else I could have done. In my mind it went on forever but in reality I know it was probably almost instant. I've also been talking in my sleep which my wife has never heard me do over all the years. Oh I'll still ride but will probably be a little nervous the first few times.

It's normal ... at least for me, after the big accident thirty years ago it took me two years or more to find the courage to get back in the saddle. Think about getting well and well, the rest will come when it's his time.
You're the Harbinger and what the heck!

Hey Jim, pls post a link to the armor equipped riding jeans. I went down on my left side recently with out any armor in my jeans. After 2 1/2 weeks it is finally getting better. I had my M/C jacket with pads on but the impact was very painful. Didn't break anything but it sure took my left arm out of action for almost 2 weeks.
Thanks
Tony

Cycle Gear sells the armored jeans. I'm pretty sure you have one in your area.

This is a well put together thread and an important PSA to dress for the crash. I hope you heal up nicely and rooting for a new scooter for you. I am pretty good about dressing for the crash here even though we do not have a helmet law. It's scary seeing people flying down the freeway in flip-flops (slippahs) and no helmet or gloves but it is very common!

I wanted to also chime in on the flip up helmets. They are very nice now and I am fond of the Roof brand and the Boxxer model in particular. They look badass and function really well. It's nice to be able to cleanly hock a throat oyster when you are at a stop. I usually leave the thing up around the city or neighborhoods but down on the freeway.

They are hard to come by here because the company didn't go through the process to get USA safety certification but they comply to the Euro standards for helmet safety.

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If you fall and hit your chin, it doesn't matter how fast you were going. I got hit last year going about 30 mph and fell on the chin bar. I know because the chin bar had a huge gash in it. You'll do what you want of course but at least you're informed of the risk. I started wearing a modular (flip-up) full-face helmet years when I met a guy that had a huge gash on his nose. He'd gotten hit on his bike at an intersection. He was stopped and was wearing an open face helmet. He said he watched the road surface scrape off his nose. I don't know this for sure but past threads have stated that some insurance companies will limit their liabilities (pay out to you if you have an accident) if you are required to wear a DOT-approved helmet and aren't at the time of your crash. Perhaps more knowledgable people will comment on this. I only buy DOT-approved helmets personally.

Be safe!
Miguel

At least it seems that all of us sans 1 are cool with good quality modulars. I'll admit I've been guilty on a hot summer ay though of riding with it up. You can kind of tell from this pic I'm happy it was down!

Also here is the next sexy look. Injury wise I may need surgery on the leg and the pain is getting worse every day but should level off soon. The pain is the worst part and while I have very strong pain medication it can only do so much. Apparently my appetite will come back and I won't be as sleepy all the time once the pain starts backing off. I knew it was a nasty boo-boo but the Drs have told me in no uncertain terms that it's pretty bad. A far amount of amazement that I was able to ride it home but adrenaline does crazy things. The swelling still needs to come down some and early next week I'm seeing the fracture clinic.

So news has been confirmed that are writing it off and I just sent in all my upgrade receipts. Told them I expect a fair offer or this may take a while and I have time. Also trying to figure out what to do lawyer wise. I have no problem going after Uber on this .

Well damn hopefully it heals well despite the drs saying its worse than expected. Pain sucks and ideally you are just at the worst of it now as adrenaline has worn off. Another week or two and you should be past the worst of it and healing. Great to see you still mobile after something like that, and would love to see the insurance just pony up for the value of everything without a fight!

Damn, fracture. Sorry to hear that mate but still it is a blessing you are standing & you shall get back to getting a new HPE sometime. In the meantime from personal experience having broken my wrist (twice same hand) cut back on sugar and increase your intake of ginger/turmeric/onions. Helps with healing process. Ginger/onions/turmeric all have inherent anti inflammatory substances and onions are also natural blood thinners so all of them in conjunction will help expedite healing process for the bone tissue to grow back.
You will need physical therapy as well & that will be key to recovery. It is a PITA but I think you will get through it.
Keep the faith. Peace

Thanks for sharing this difficult accident with us and keeping us updated. Going to get a modular helmet now and cycling jeans (I was going to make some) but now I think gogo gear for me (woman).

Yes, definitely get some advice (whether you go with attorney or not) on Total compensation - there are different categories for that. I've seen fairly large settlements on these injuries -- not sure of Canadian law. How much would you pay not to have an accident like this -- I can think a lot -- but it will never be enough but at least it will be something.

Glad insurance is covering bike too. When you recover it will be fun to buy a replacement.

As there are many members reading this and thinking about gearing up, a word about 'riding jeans'. Mainly for those not yet familiar with such.

There are two evils when going down - abrasion and impact.
Abrasion means pavement scraping away your skin, tissue, even bones in a good one.
Impact is someone hitting you with a sledgehammer, whether it is the pavement, a car etc.

Riding jeans, kevlar-reinforced jeans are much better in resisting abrasion than normal jeans. Some much, much, some not so much. The cheap ones have just some reinforced parts, so with these you should aim well when going down... so they are not really that good.

Leather riding pants as well as many good quality synthetic, multilayered riding pants are still much better in this. There is a reason MotoGP guys wear what they wear.

Impact protection. Jeans or just bare riding jeans - none. That's why most riding jeans have internal pockects for knee and hip protectors. Here is also a catch to watch out. The protectors do their thing only if they stay at the right place when going down. Say, a top quality D30 knee pad doesn't protect you at all, if it immediately slides to the side of your leg during a crash because of too loose, wrongly shaped or wrong size pants.

Leather pants have a bit of damping layer in the material, but not really that much - they rely on the protectors too. The main diffference and benefit is that they fit tightly. Again, see the MotoGP guys, the suits hug them as they should.

Synthetic riding pants has the same risk with protectors as riding jeans. Too loose, wrongly shaped, wrong choise of leg length (knee pad in the wrong place) and the impact protection does not work.

Some riders come around of this problem by using e.g. separately attached knee pads under riding jeans/ synthetic riding pants. Works very well for the impact protection, but easily lacks a bit on the comfort side.

No preaching, just a few hints for those considering gearing up and not familiar with the products. During the years, I've tried these all😁 If it is not too hot, I prefer leather. Part of this is just because I'm old skool. For warmer, or much colder weather, I prefer synthetic riding gear with built-in vents for air circulation. But only the ones I can pretty much tailor for my own measures (I have short legs) and keep the protectors at the right places.

Harbinger, I saw you went back to Stan Smith shoes.