Modern Vespa

Hello from Manila, Philippines! Been a long-time lurker on this forums. We'll, I've finally gotten an HPE GTS300 and have begun exploring ways to make my Vespa, my own.

My GTS 300 came with the following tires:

Front 120/70 x 12
Rear 130/70 x 12

Would it be possible to install these tires without any major modifications?

Front 130/70 x 12
Rear 140/70 x 12

Yes, I'm well-aware that up-sizing the front tires will have an effect on the handling. I'm doing this primarily for the aesthetics and I'm willing to take a hit on nimbleness of my scoot.

Thank you!

Welcome nivleklive! Good to see you have bought one of the best scooters on the market.

I haven't done this so cannot speak from experience. However, some of my customers who had Vespas have fitted the wider tyre on the rear. This is quite a tight squeeze on the GTS but it does go on. Just one note, none of the GTS bikes that I've seen this on was a HPE bike. But I see no reason to think you cannot do that.

The front, it's most likely ok. But you probably need to wait for someone to come along that has done that to confirm it's ok. My thoughts are that the handling is unlikely to be adversely affected in any major way.

Post often and enjoy your bike.

I have been running an oversized tire on the front for a couple years, the only difference I see is it corrected the speedometer error. FYI I run a Michelin car tire on the rear. The only difference I see is this tire will last six times longer than a round tire. I've had other people ride behind me and they observed that the car tire always conforms to the road when you lean. I have been running car tires on the rear for over 10 years and over 100k miles. Never had any problem. On my trip to the west coast of Mexico I had a flat on the interstate. Something had cut the tire, I was in Mecedes, Texas, near the border. If I required a round tire it would have taken 2 or 3 days to have one shipped in. I went to a car tire shop, arrived in late afternoon, gave him my size and he searches on his computer screen. "There it is, I can have it here tomorrow", he said. I left my wheel and the next afternoon I retrieved it, total cost with mounting the tire, $85. I put it back on the scoot and went on to Mexico!
Tony in Tn
07 Vespa GTS 250 with 22k on the clock and 15k of that with CT
06 Majesty 400 with 80k on the clock and 70k of that with a CT
01 Honda Reflex with 43k on the clock and 20k of that with a CT

Here's a detailed explanation of tire size
https://www.jpcycles.com/how-to-read-motorcycle-tires

Yes, definitely. A 140 on the rear is quite popular. A 130 on the front is possible, but it will definitely dull the steering response slightly. This might not be a bad thing, though. In my experience, a 130 on the front of a GTS makes the steering feel much like the older GT200.

Tires from various brands aren't completely uniform, though, so the usual caveats apply. I have found these sizes to fit with no problems.

Welcome from New England, I've had the 140 on the rear and can't say that I noticed a difference but it does look better.

Thanks for the input guys! I've decided to purchase the following tires for my GTS 300

Front: MICHELIN City Grip 2 Front/Rear Scooter Tire - 130/70-12 (63S)
Rear: MICHELIN Power Pure SC Scooter Bias Tire-140/70-12 (60P) 60H

Couldn't find matching tires but I don't mind not having the matching thread patterns on my tires. I just really want to give my GTS 300 a beefier look. Will update this thread and post photos once I'm done with this.

Thanks again!

Thanks for this!