Modern Vespa

Apparently I'm too young for a Vespa and Vespa's are for old people. I ride with a group of family and friends and we vary in age from 20 to 50. Most of us are 30 or under. One day we stopped to eat and a young man came up and asked why we were riding Vespa's if they were for old people. He turned out to be older than some people in our group. We laughed and told them we love riding them, they're just good fun.

So my question is, how old are you?? Curious to know the breakdown

Poll should be not what is my current rather it should be what age was i when i started riding vespas. I started when i was 37, never had a car licence

I'm 82 and I got my first GS150 when I was 20. Been riding Vespas for 62 years!

In Europe they have always been ridden by all ages. Historically Vespa used to release models targeted at teens. Now they are considered expensive compared to other brands so you won't see many young people on 50cc or 125cc Vespas in the UK at least.

this
Makes me laugh, too, when folks have preconceived notions about who should be doing what. Do what you want. Ride what you want. Have fun.

Oh, and welcome to Modern Vespa PC_Papi

What do I have to answer? I was born and live in Italy and in any case here we don't have these problems ...
I started to love two-wheeled vehicles (all of them) since I was a child because my grandfather had a Matchless G 350 (ex military) and a Moto Guzzi Falcone 500; my first motorcycle was my uncle's Vespa 125 from 1954 who made me ride it when I was 13 years of age.
From that moment on it was a love for two-wheeled vehicles and the other thing I learned was that we, the two-wheeler lovers, are a community of enthusiasts. I recognize myself in this ...
I also switched to scooters out of necessity after a very serious accident with a Vespa PX 125; yeah, because like many of you I also had a scooter as well as a motorcycle.
You can have a scooter and not even a motorcycle but not the other way around!
I will be 61 years of age this September and ... no, the scooter (in this case the Vespa but also no) does not age those who have it, it rejuvenates them.
And you can throw it away for years and years in a corner of the garage but when you take it back it will never get old, it will be your time machine because scooter is a concept, an idea that will never get old and you with it.
PS: To give an idea of what I'm saying, I still put the photo of my mother taken in 1955/54 where the Vespa was also the emancipation of women.

I just bought my first Vespa (2021 Sprint S 50) at age 29

First scooter, purchased last Saturday. Ripe old age of 49.

I wouldn't have been old enough to drink in some countries when I bought my first Vespa and soon after a Lambretta. Then again I was a Mod so there is that. My first Parka I wold guess was around 16 or 17... too young?

I've removed the link to the off-site poll. Please don't funnel MV users offsite for data collection, especially with an obfuscated link.

This is a discussion forum, not Facebook. If you want to discuss, please do so.

But what do you say ... rather an idol to be framed in a poster!

I'm 55 now, and I bought the Vespa nine years ago, I believe, so I've been riding a Vespa since I was 46.

I taught myself to ride a motorcycle when I was 15, on a Yamaha enduro 125 that I would careen across the yard and almost crash into the fence until I got the hang of balancing and shifting.

When I was in my twenties, there was someone here in town who used to ride a vintage Lambretta around, and it would often be parked at the coffee shop I often went to. I thought it was the coolest thing - much cooler than a motorcycle.

So you could say I've always wanted a scooter since my early twenties.

so I am 67 and bought my vespa in 2012. This was my first two wheeled vehicle so yes I am old but still enjoy riding it. A strange thing though. I am now spending a lot of my time in Scottsdale. I have a friend there, who I have actually known since fifth grade, so a very long time. He has been a motorcycle rider for many years, now has a Harley. So when I came to Scottsdale he and I started going out weekly for a long ride weather permitting(it is very hot now). When I have mentioned this to other people every one seems surprised that a Harley person would ride with a scooter person. I don't know seems fine to me. Actually my Vespa is faster off the line than the Harley. There are actually a lot of fun places to ride out there and I am hoping to join up with the scooter clubs when I get a chance and again when it cools off a bit.

I joke that I bought my 15yo self a 33rd birthday present.

56 here and been riding for about 10 years

Thank you very much! Greetings from Finland
Picked up my ride from the dealer couple hours ago and drove first 25km.

I rode my first PTW when I was a teen. It was my aunt's early 60's Lambretta and I was hooked. I learned to ride motorcycles shortly after but always lusted for an Ace Face style ride.

We got our first Vespas in 2018 and we turned 51 that year. Both were gently used and the best purchase we've ever made. Mine has all the shiny bits and my husband's is a blacked- out Matt Titanio.

How can one be too young for mobility and adventure?

My very first Vespa was a PK50 when I was 16.
I'm 49 and bought a new GTV this week.

I started riding a Vespa at age 52. One of the best decisions I've made in this life.

You have to remember now that 52 is the new 25....

I started riding bikes when I was 10 years old. I started riding scooters at 56 along with the bikes.

I have taken the Helix clone on several group motorcycle events. No one questions it.

My first ptw was a used, cheap, beater of a Yamaha motorcycle I got as a freshman in college. I'd had to sell my car to pay for the dorm meal plan. (who knew you couldn't live in the dorm and not buy the meal plan?) The motorcycle was purchased to get me back and forth to my job. I think I paid more for my helmet than I did the motorcycle. I had researched the crap out of it so I talked a good game at the sales lot. You should have seen their faces when I told them now that I had it, they had to teach me how to ride it. They spent about an hour with me and I managed it for a few years without killing myself. When I graduated I left the keys in and the title in an envelope taped to the seat. It ran about 70% of the time.

Got my first scooter upon turning 40. I immediately took the MSF course. Guess I had learned something since college. I Don't see me stopping for many many years. As long as I can, I will. And I've got some great role models around here.

Rode my first (shifter) Vespa when I was 14, and no, I did not have a license.

In my experience, scooters are efficient, fun, and practical. And they are generally unoffensive, as opposed to motorcycles. Frankly, if the weather here was warmer, a scooter would be an ideal vehicle for a college student. Frugal, easy to park, handy storage.

I got my first scoot when I was 19. I didn't know what a Vespa was at that point, but I got one later when I could afford one.

Around here scooters of any kind are mostly used by young people, especially those between 15-18 years old.

The other main category, much, much smaller, are those who like to spend their time with their hands covered in thick layer of oil and grease. Occasionally they also manage to ride their scoots, at least until they break down (again) I'll guess mostly 60's and 70's scoots, especially Vespas with these guys, some odd Lambrettas.

And then some random samples in between.

A newish boxer Beamer GS seems to be the granpa bike here nowadays. Once you can't climb into the saddle anymore, you're done riding. A bit sad, to be honest - I'm still very solidly planning a scoot to prolong that moment at least a bit, life permitting.

For me getting a Vespa was partly filling a gap in my bike history - although I've never liked twisties (sorry NSM folks), I did wish to have a PX200E at the time, as a youn(ger) rebellion. Didn' t have the money, or actually spent it into a cheap car instead - much better weather protection especiallly during our loooong winter....but it was not a Vespa.

I'm 69 and I've never heard or thought that Vespas are for old people. When I was 14, I saw the Vespa (Allstate) in the Sears catalog. I wanted one so bad I couldn't sleep. I knew my parents would say no if I asked so I started leaving the catalog open to that page all over the house. It was a few months before Christmas, and I knew they looked for hints of what I wanted each year. Unfortunately they didn't take the bait. I didn't get my first scooter until about 12 years ago...a Yamaha C3...and then a Yamaha Majesty 400.

About 3 months ago I finally got my Vespa, a brand new 2020 GTS Touring. Every time I go to the garage, I flash back to Christmas morning 55 years ago when I see my new Vespa. The Vespa is ageless and timeless. Words really can't describe the feeling I have from finally owning one of these great machines. (Check out those prices!)

I bought my first Scooters at 35. I turn 60 in September...

This post, and especially the photo attached with it, gave me a big ol' smile this morning. I have been riding for coming up on 54 years, which puts me into the old guy category. I ride now for the same reason I did when I was 14: for the sheer joy of it. Most of the time, I feel my age... but not when I'm riding.

OK ... we have established that:
the Vespa is for old people who feel young
the Vespa is for young people who don't want to get old
the Vespa is ...
What do we care, let's just drive it!

My wife and I were 46 and 52 when we got our first scooters and got licensed. Now 61 and 66.

I'm 66 and enjoy taking my GTS300 in my immediate neighborhood. (Thanks to work haven't had time for longer rides, but am also wary of crazier-than-ever driving I am seeing.)

While I've always bicycled, then driven VWs with a stick-shift (my first car was a used 1971 Karmann Ghia /sigh/) I never had any interest in a motorcycle. When I saw a few Vespas around Atlanta, they (and their riders) looked intriguing. I was probably 30 or 35 when I found a left-outside-and-neglected-for-a-year-or-two P200 and had it repaired for riding. I also briefly had a used Lambretta that was fragile and irregular (but looked great -- reminded me of the Ghia's styling). I bought a Bajaj when they made their brief foray into the U.S. in the early 2000s. Almost 20 years later, I bought my GTS -- a little bigger engine displacement than I wanted, but the frames on the 150s were too small for my frame and everything I'd read here indicated that lots of people who bought 150s later regretted they hadn't bought a 300.

I'm not an overly skilled rider but I am prudent. Haven't had a ticket or at-fault car accident in 40 years. I worry sometimes if I'm too old to ride, so it's nice to see others my age who do. I have little interest in going fast, it's far more enjoyable to view the world at 30 mph, breathing the fresh air, but it's also good to have the 300's acceleration when needed.

I know the risks of riding and try to avoid them. I figure that while I still have my faculties, am mentally alert and physically capable, I should keep riding.

At our age, we're entitled to make choices as to how to have fun. Like someone else said, I think it keeps you feeling young to ride a Vespa.

I started riding on a Cushman in 1959 at age 13.....still riding 62 years later at age 75

In one month I'll be 79. Got my first 2-wheeled vehicle in 1962, an Indian Woodsman (a 500cc single, re-badged Royal Enfield trials bike). Had that for a year and then got '63 (or '64) honda 305 Super Hawk. Then, my first Vespa came into the picture in 1965 (my age was 23). I think it was a late 50's something (I have no recollection of the model).

After 3 years in the Navy, I got a mid-60's Vespa 180 SS (or SS 180). 2-stroke, manual shift. Had it for 4 or 5 years, including 2 years in Northern New England. Just flat reliable, often used as my only vehicle.

In 1975 I traded the Vespa on a '75 Honda 400-4. Great little bike, and it got me into road-racing. Sold the Honda in '79 just as I was moving cross-country from Salt Lake City to the Washington, DC Area. Passing through Chicago (my home town) I was driving along North Ave., and spotted a motorcycle dealer (I cannot for the life of me remember the name) with Italian bikes on display. I want in and immediately fell in love with a new '79 Moto Guzzi Le Mans 1000. Bought it and rode in the Mid-Atlantic area for a few years. Sold that bike the mid-80s and was without a 2-wheeled vehicle until early this year.

Retired at the end of 2019 and recently acquired my "dream-bike", a 2012 Vespa GTV 300ie.

I apologise for the long-winded answer, but aside from social pressure from sport-bike and/or Harley riders, there is no appropriate (or inappropriate) age for riding a Vespa.

There were quite a few scooters at my sons university. Most were Chinese because they fit a student's budget while a Vespa did not. Many would have preferred a Vespa though.

My first scooter was not a Vespa. I didn't get a Vespa until I was in my late 40s.

Scooters were never part of the culture here in New England and only recently have begun to gain any traction. I was 40 when I got my first scoot (a Yamaha Vino) and I was way ahead of the curve as one of only two people with a scooter for miles around (the other was a Honda Met).

Your mom is lovely.

Sure it's nothing like the west coast for scooter community/popularity, but there have been scooter people all over new England for decades collecting and riding vintage Vespas. But it's really a Harley focused region.

My uncle, a Harley guy, had a few vintage Vespas when i was a kid in the 80s, i think he had vbbs and maybe a gl. I remember being wicked into the Vespa over his Harley.

Sounds like you are talking about mid 2000s time frame based on the models you are referring to. The hipster/punk/hardcore scene in Providence was into Vespas enough that a scooter shop opened up sometime around 2003-5 on N. Main street i think it was on the border of Providence and Pawtucket. They sold genuine Stellas which were vintage px models. I never got one at the time because i was broke in undergrad and then moved to nyc for grad school. But i do remember there were a bunch from that music scene who got into it at the time.

I eventually ended up with one of those Stellas from that shop for my first scooter about 3 years ago when i mentioned to that same uncle, that i was looking for a vintage Vespa finally after wanting one for 30 yrs. He decided to give me the one he had picked up from one of those hipsters who got bored with it when it was no longer the thing.

Now I've got 4 vintage plus a few others that i rescued and resold, and that uncle keeps telling me to stop buying Vespas cause i need a Harley!

I am finding this funny as I was asked/told when i returned to work after the accident last September "you're too old to keep riding, when are you putting your bikes up for sale or have you already sold them?" No, I am Not too old and No I am not selling and No, my orthopedic team does Not think I should quit riding. My little red truck and I were in a far worse accident, other driver at fault, my truck was so mangled it was hard to know what the body style was... he died, I was off work 8 months, 17 days and NO one asked if I was going to quit driving! The scooter got off with a few scratches, the lower right leg got twisted and that splintered the fibula.... There is too young, there is too small for that size/weight, there is not old enough for legal license but age has little to do with riding, I am not as old as Vespa is, as a brand... so, no, not too old and yes, I did start way too small to actually run that Cushman but that grandpa and I sure loved those rides!

15 Hodna
Probably because it was all I could afford.

20 Yamaha
Cheapie because my BMW was on extended sick leave.

35- Vespa
Because kids made having a larger MC impractical.