Modern Vespa

I rode my GT 200 today with no problems 20000.00 miles on the od and my GTI 250 with no problems 7000.00 miles on the od Just saying these bikes are great. Read so much about problems just pushing some positive Vibes

If that weren't the case, there wouldn't be a Vespa universe out there, don't you think?

This is a good reminder.

I've often thought how the same phenomenon takes place all over the net.
With kind help of google, there is hardly anything that remains with out serious, mass production faults and problems.

Until you'll do the math and typically realize that millions of such things have been manufactured, you see happy, non-net-posting users all over the place and the actual number of negative posts is by the same bunch of people who tend to have all the lemons of the world accumulating into their possession.

Unless we are discussing such generally well known facts as Guzzi quality, of course...

... do you think my observation is wrong?

There's about 22000 miles on my GTS at this point and its used very little in the way of parts outside of regular maintenance stuff.

Often the bikes you hear of which give"nothing but trouble" have had rough lives. They're stored outside year round and given little maintenance and yet we expect perfect service from them. Its a testament to just how good these thing really are that they last so long and run so well on the near total neglect that most people treat them to. I was in Rome on business a few years back and was amazed at the number of scooters filling the parking areas and streets. An awful lot of them looked like they'd been through a war.

But then... having now seen Rome's version of rush hour, I guess they have seen war.

As chief mechanic for many of my friends over the years I found that mechanical problems, or problem bikes, are often created by their owners though poor care, severe flogging and shite modifications.

My GTS has 43K miles on it. Very few problems considering how hard I've used it off-road and in our salt and grit nasty winters. The only non-maintenance issue I had was a fuel pump replacement and a shorted harness connection. Both easily fixed. Everything else has been the standard stuff that one expects through use.

And I had the underneath repainted. Salt made it ugly and rusty.

I've found the scooter remarkably reliable. And while I have faithfully changed fluids and filters, I have never had the valves checked. And have only flushed the coolant and brake fluid twice in 15 years. Both tasks are on the list soon.

The people I've known personally who have claimed the Vespa had too many mechanical problems ended up having a technician who didn't really know what he was doing. And had one fuel pump issue that was fixed under recall but felt that single issue meant everything else was going to fail.

For me, the Vespa is bombproof reliable.

My first scooter was a GT200. What an excellent machine!

I used to feel that my GT was faster than my GTS 250.

Then what explains the Lambretta universe? HEY!
My Guzzi has been problem-free since day one. So far.

Speaking as a former Guzzi owner, I think you are a dirty liar. There's no other explanation.

Moto Guzzi is the Lambretta of the motorcycle world.

Service them regularly and they go forever!

Here in Australia, a Sydney Vespa dealership has been servicing a Piaggio XE scooter with the 250 QASAR engine since brand new. They've uploaded a workshop photo of the odometer this week - over 157,000kms or 98,000 miles.

Still the original engine, still runs perfectly! 98,000 miles!!

Have you tried fixing things that aren't broken, installing unneeded theoretical performance enhancing upgrades, and adding subjectively stylish farkles? That should solve your lack of problems problem and may just stop a starving mechanic from having to stoop to working on lesser brands like Kymco. It's the MV way!

Yes, you see ... the Innocenti that produced the Lambretta (the real one and not the various clones of now) has closed, so the Lambretta universe is no more; there is a group of vintage owners Lambretta but it is not an expanding universe as happens with the Vespa. Do you see the difference?
Piaggio was able to evolve and was saved while Innocenti did not.
(I hope the "lambrettista" greasy is not offended ...).

You may wonder why although I admire the Vespa I don't own one ... well, multiple factors.
Wheels too small for the bad roads in my area (in fact Vespa here you see very few, there are more Piaggio models with high wheels though ...) and too many stones on the roads; in fact they are shot backwards by the other vehicles breaking windshields and denting car bodies and ... Vespas! Do you know how many dented Vespas I see around here? All ... and they are small stone craters! Ouch!
There is also that in the parking lot they are hit more frequently by the doors of the cars and often despite having the side bumper in tubes you can see Vespa buttocks bruised over and over again. (Grrrr!)

I rode Rocket, my 2006 Vespa GT yesterday.

We led four others on a ride to lunch in High Springs, 75 miles south of Jacksonville.

On the ride, Rocket passed 99,500 miles.

To be fair, it is on its second engine. The first one lasted 76,000 miles. The new one, now nearing 30,000 miles, has been great.

The old scooter has been perfect recently. I would happily ride it anywhere.

I will be riding it on a 1000+ mile ride in a couple of weeks.

Bill

Awake at 4 AM and reading about scooters! A true Vespa enthusiast!

I will be riding my GTS 250 30 miles to church and then about 50 miles to bid on a screen porch job in Nashville. She knows a former customer of mine that I did back in 2014.
Then only 35 miles back home. I am definitely starting out with a full tank

What chu talkin' 'bout!?! Them be fightin' words, mister!

Moto Guzzi. Going out of business since 1921.

Seriously, she's given me four years of trouble-free love. Which one did you have and what went awry?

Indeed, the Guzzi quality has been lacking from the De Tomaso management onwards for many years until recently ...
Mind you, if I could buy an Italian motorcycle I wouldn't buy it.
Only some MV, Ducati and Aprilia models are saved ... and even Ducati for several years was not of exceptional quality.
The problem with the modern Guzzi is that it does not have an articulated range of engines like BMW did; and does not even produce a scooter, BMW does!

I had a Nevada 750. My first motorcycle. In retrospect, not the best choice. Ah well.

It sounded great, though!

Guzzis bubble and burble nicely and the torque when you twist the throttle... sublime.

Yes. It was that burble from the dual exhaust that sold me on it.

At the Guzzi Nevada the chrome was rusting, I remember it well.

Do you by any chance have telepathic forces? You described me perfectly.

Yep, not to mention they look and feel like proper motorcycles.. .and often have nice, if somewhat distinctive styling...mmm...what was my original point again?

But... isn't Guzzi a Piaggio division now? That must buy them some slack.

Thinking about this quality thing though, I must say that I was very disappointed with the design and quality of the front end of my MP3 500 when I pulled it apart to replace the steering head bearings. Disappointed enough to button the silly thing back up and sell it for parts. I did spend over 15 years working in quality and engineering for a major bearing manufacturer making components for the automotive industry, so I'm quite qualified to label a design as lacking or quality to as substandard as I've spent a lot of years correcting the type of issues I found in my MP3.

We see more problems here because that is what most of us come here for. To find out how to fix something that broke. It skews the statistics.

Yeah... sorta like those consumer activist groups, nobody joins those because they are happy.

And they seem to make noise quite out of proportion to their size...

Sorta like a 50cc two stroke with an open expansion chamber!

Yes, but the problem of the MP3 steering rings is well known here in Italy so much that the dealers still recommend the replacement (very expensive) after 20,000 km.
The Guzzi ... It's true, since Piaggio has been under management, the quality has increased a lot and it didn't take much ... Unfortunately, in the price range of a basic model there are other brands (Triumph to name one) that compete merciless. As I said, Guzzi needs a single cylinder and a scooter, at least by tradition.