Modern Vespa

I just wanted to circle back to the opening line of this broadside to point out that this site was in fact slanted toward the GT. In 2005. It has long since been slanted toward the GTS, and when something better comes along, we will probably be slanted toward that.

Our slant moves forward, you see. Being stuck in the past is no way to live your life.

Wise words ... You agree with me.
But let me tell you that reminiscences of the past are there to remind us why going back is not constructive.
OMG...... how awful it is to be old and wise...

I'm holding out for the GTS-XR 350.

"HPE Vespa", close to power of the BV350 with Mosseli Varator and handles just as well in the twisties. My BV350 sits in my garage these days and gathers dust

Interesting. So you had to add a new varator to get closer to the BV's power (and I doubt this added 7hp to the output anyway) and paid more than a BV costs in the first place? I will stick with my BV. I like the ride the larger wheels give me. I can understand getting tired of your BV if you have had it for 8 yrs though. Shiny new things....

So glad I got mine.

Dang, who knew this post was gonna have such long legs. It's like the Vespa version of the Energizer Bunny, it keeps going and going and going... ...

It’s obviously too (pick one):
HOT
SMOKY
WET

For most of us to ride…

HA!

Hot
Smoky
Wet
Might be a good time as long as you are not on 2 wheels.

As long as it is constructive yes, making comparisons (without transcending) is useful for choosing what to buy.

No, I think the 300 HPE has the same power as the BV350 that has the Malossi variator installed.

What the heck are you doing with my scooter at the beach

Wow, some of you had it made with your fancy cars. My first car was a '61 Ford Econoline van that the previous owner got drunk and hand painted it with a brush... mixed a bunch of house paint together... it came out kind of a flesh color. He was embarrassed by it and sold it to me cheap. It ran better than the first motorcycle I got: a Honda 150 Dream, made before the Japanese learned how to bend metal in a curve instead of an angle.

Oh, and I have a 2020 GTS HPE. It has used a bit of oil in these first 2,800 miles... not sure where it goes, 'cause it doesn't smoke or leak. When I say "a bit," I've added about 1/3 of a quart since the break-in service. It seems to be less now than when it had less than 1,500 miles on it. Most of my riding is in the twisties, with some occasional highway. Fueling up today (premium, non-ethanol), I got 88.8 mpg.

I would have put more miles on it by now, but a pesky bit of cancer slowed my riding for a bit. It's faster, rides better, and handles better than the 2009 GTS I traded on this one. The mods I've done: windshield, top case, a Corbin leather seat, USB in the left knee pad, and just last week a suicidal deer removed my front fender... still runs and handles fine.

I've owned a lot of bikes over the years (54 years riding). Most a LOT bigger than this GTS. This one seems to be providing the most smiles per gallon.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ6G4Q3W3cU

bv with malossi 0-60 in about 9 seconds or less

hpe maybe 12 seconds 0-60

I own a bv350 with malossi trans stock muffler and it smokes my 2010 300
my 300 has giannelli exhaust with no cat, 12 gram sliders with washer mod, 10% oversize injector. some weight removal. 310lbs. I think it would keep up with stock hpe no problem but havent raced one.

they arent even close in the accel department. but I do like my 300 better. I like the handling better. I dont like big wheel scooters. the 16in front on bv makes the bike feel like a small motorcycle. not nimble like the vespa.

the bv shines two up. love it for that..

Not possible. You aren't getting over 30hp with a variator. You are comparing a 24hp 280cc motor to a 31hp 330cc motor.

"Nothing is created, nothing is destroyed, everything is transformed". This is the law that identified Lavoisier, an 18th century scientist, the initiator of modern chemistry.
Antoine Lavoisier, discovered the natural law of
conservation of mass: in a chemical reaction, nothing is
creates, destroys nothing, everything that was before is also found
after the reaction has taken place.
He experimentally proved that matter cannot be
created or destroyed, but only transformed.
In the second half of the 1800s, Joule, Carnot, Thomson,
Clausius and Faraday revealed that the same principle held true
for energy, arriving at a complete description of the
first two principles of thermodynamics.
Until the early 1900s, matter and energy were quantities
separated, in 1905 Einstein discovered that energy and
mass are the two aspects of the same physical reality. Matter is
a very concentrated form of energy.
And here the variator does no trick, it removes on one side and brings it to the other without adding anything, it transforms something that is already there.

I drive my Racing Sixties almost wot 3 times a week from Haifa to Tel Aviv and back. 180kms. 20000kms perfectly serviced. Filter oil every 5000. Ok she drinks a bit of oil, absolutely normal for a mono cylinder driven fast in a warm country and for long runs. For me for my use my eyes and my soul it’s the dream bike. Still use my 2017 300gts also. Same conditions plus a lot of city. 40000kms. 0 problem but the exhaust that I changed for a Remus 😇.
And when I don’t ride the Vespas then the V85tt by Guzzi is the one. What a motorcycle! No car. Kids are grown. So Italian bikes keep me young and smiling.

Maybe when double M started this thread, was he looking to be convinced that he should change his mind.
Not sure though as his words reflected some overconfidence that he had to justify by explaining that he’s an engine expert. I am usually very careful with so claimed experts. They talk and don’t listen. They think they know. And never learn.

This goes back even further, to around 475 BCE and the Greek philosopher, Parmenides. It is generally accepted that he was not referring to Vespas.

"The traditional interpretation of Parmenides' work is that he argued that the every-day perception of reality of the physical world (as described in doxa) is mistaken, and that the reality of the world is 'One Being' (as described in aletheia): an unchanging, ungenerated, indestructible whole. Under the Way of Opinion, Parmenides set out a contrasting but more conventional view of the world, thereby becoming an early exponent of the duality of appearance and reality. For him and his pupils, the phenomena of movement and change are simply appearances of a changeless, eternal reality." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmenides

Funny. This stuff never comes up on the HD Forum.

What would be something comparable, then? "I'm glad I didn't get the Sportster"?

This was what I got when I typed "Harley Sportster" into Google:

At this point we have left to talk about gardening and agriculture, after I don't know what will happen ...

I think that Retro Scooter was referring to the erudite discussion between Attila and mpfrank.

...It takes a little erudition ...

I had to look up erudite. I’m sure everyone else here knows the meaning but it sure applies to MV!

Well... sometimes it's amazing the twists and turns threads can take on MV. After not reading the thread for a few days I'm not even sure what it is about anymore. FWIW we did have a Plymouth Sapporo back in the day and it was a rad car. OK at least for my mom to buy and my older brother talked her in to it. After that it was all station wagons to fit my goalie equipment plus we had 3 dogs.

Not enough is said about parents that get up at 5 to get their kids to a 5:30 am hockey practice.

This is a phenomenon I’ve witnessed a number of times on MV -- people join together to take a vexing thread and derail it in an amusing fashion. I’m thinking in particular of the “I like pie” thread, though I can’t remember what thread that actually was.

EDIT: Here it is: You dont have to, you know

Between staying at Holiday Inn Express and owning a Vespa on MV, I need a bigger helmet.

This has been referenced in the twentieth century (and the eighth dimension) by Buckaroo Banzai: "Wherever you go, there you are."

Parmenides would have stated it his way: "There is no difference between where you go and where you are. It's still the same and you're still the same."

MV says, "Wherever you go, wherever you are, you're still you and you're still on your Vespa."

By the third comment I was

Thanks, Jess, now I gotta read the whole damn thing.

gosh, there's a blast from the past. I still think about that one from time to time!

Unfortunately, the pandemic has made us lose a little of the rationality built up over decades of social relations, we are a little crazier.

Ah! Sir John Luke!

That was an awesome thread!

Sigh

SO much packed into that one word.

And sadly we don't pronounce half of it...

.........................................................

Gonna play devils advocate, piaggio will now void your warranty if your engine levels are low upon arrival for something that does consume too much oil. On top of that why even really make something that is so high performance that it consumes oil and parts on that level if the governor is exactly at the same position as it was on previous models.

I bought a brand new bike to save money on repairs, and I’m worried now that I might be in the hole a lot of money maybe over this oil problem. It is a major problem and they should fix it, update the warranty policy.

I have only used a scooter for transportation here since 2007, more than 10 years of only driving two wheeled vehicles, I don’t own a car lol. So when I hear that this bike has these kinds of problems it makes me think that actually it is more suited to a weekend warrior type who doesn’t drive it very often, that it shouldn’t be used as much as I’m driving it. The warranty policy and manual on it also hilariously recommended taking it in for service to top it off.

Like maybe the oil consumption thing fixes itself as it ages, but you can’t get mad at someone for pointing out that this isn’t a small problem or that it is a major inconvenience that your bike can total itself if you don’t obsessively check the oil

Piaggio should figure out what is causing the massive oil consumption and fix it tbh, it’s stupid to have a touring bike that you have to check the oil on it every 200 miles, let alone the fact that you have to wait for the engine to cool to do so and let alone that the warranty recommendation is that you get it serviced to top off.

There is no "huge" consumption of oil, I asked the mechanic here in the dealership. In addition, the engine is the same as the new BV 300.