Modern Vespa

Do you have a citation for that? Or is that just anecdotal? Top speed and horsepower aren’t the same thing. As anyone who has spent much time bumping against the rev limiter will tell you, just getting to the rev limiter on the previous GTS models can be a challenge, depending on prevailing conditions. I think that’s a bit of an overstatement. If you are worried about it, sell the bike. I’m sure you can find someone to buy it. You can if what they’re pointing out is factually incorrect. Did it occur to you that they probably know exactly what is causing the increased oil consumption and aren’t actually concerned about it? There are those pesky facts again, inconveniently getting in the way of some invigorating forum invective.

if anyone's legit panicked about their poor investment in a 300, I'll take it. Back against the wall, but I've yet to own a PTW that didn't consume oil so it's in my comfort zone But you'd have to agree to a dozen newbie threads about valves and how they work and such

I’m not trading it in, but yo, it’s a lot of problems to put up with and shit if someone wanted to trade me a 2018 I’d probably do it.

Top speed vs horsepower, ok then it’s a racing bike or something? maybe don’t market it as a touring bike capable of long distance travel if it’s not! Especially if it can’t go 500 miles without needing, by the manuals standards, to be serviced! Grand tourismo has a meaning you know! The warranty is factually worse than it used to be, and the problem with the company knowing about what’s causing it and not doing anything might actually be you unintentionally indicting the company’s ethics and standards even if you don’t want to.

I mean my 250 hit the rev limiter plenty, also this new rev limiter is much more dramatic than the previous ones, idk where the demand for horse power in a 300 pound vehicle comes from but it’s silly. Rally racing bike

Like look I’ll keep the bike it’s aesthetically gorgeous, it operates fine, but it is absolutely stupid to have a touring bike that cannot tour, that realistically seems more designed to like compete in some scooter racing event that is done like twice a year, essentially a sprint that goes highway speeds. Stopping and waiting an hour and a half for the bike to cool and Filling the oil up on a literal grand turismo is dumb. You can romanticize how you put up with it all day, but at the end of the day, you put up with it and it’s dumb. Sure I can soak in the feelings of some small town I’m stuck in for an hour or two and that might change perspectives on life and stuff but also like, it’s still dumb I have to fill up the oil every 200 miles, it’s dumb I can’t one shot a trip in 600 miles, and then it begs the question why not like take a slower cheaper bike even.

Does the bike need to eat oil at less than highway speeds too? See what I mean, they could have designed something better or waited. Most people aren’t rally nerds, a lot of people don’t got two vehicle money, and it sucks to have to shell out cash for work on a brand new bike

Sounds like you’re unhappy with it. You should move it on. No, that’s not what I said. I said top speed and horsepower are not the same thing. The rev limiter kicks in to prevent the engine from actually eating itself. If the piston were allowed to accelerate faster, it would actually start breaking apart. Because physics.

The increased horsepower produced by the engine benefits performance at every point in the RPM range, not just the RPM limit. Going up hills at freeway speed, for instance, can be a challenge on the GTS. This is but a single example. Is it 200 or is it 500? Those pesky facts again. How so? Please enlighten me. Okay, stop. Full stop. That’s a bullshit statement right there. Just because they’re aware that it consumes more oil does not mean that there’s a problem, or that they are ethically obligated to change it. Engineering is the art of compromise. Every single engineering decision has trade offs. If they have decided that increased oil consumption is a worthwhile trade-off for increased performance, that’s their decision. It’s your right as a consumer to either agree or disagree with that trade-off and then make your purchases accordingly.

Please stop spouting nonsense about ethics. Sure. On flat ground and not riding into a headwind. And probably not with a passenger. Or any other of the many reasons why you might need more power. Point is that top speed and horsepower ARE NOT THE SAME. Jeebus. Then why the @#$% did you buy it? Bullshit statement. Bullshit statement. Do you do a lot of days over 500 miles? I’ll bet you don’t. Sounds like you don’t like the bike. Sell it so we can stop having this frankly pointless conversation. First you said 200, then you said 500, now you’re saying 200 again. FFS will you pick a number and stick to it already? Dude. Sounds like you’ve got bigger problems than the bike. Sorry, can’t help you with that.

Why do you think this 200 500 is such a gotcha? My guy, bikes got serious issues, if I knew about them I would have waited to buy a 2017, it burnt through all the oil before the second service interval, that’s a joke. I don’t got time to lose 3,000 on a bike to buy a different one so I’m not gonna sell it. Maybe piaggio does the right thing and covers my service for my 4 month old bike that apparently has eaten more than 10% of its oil doing the same work an older much less “high performance” bike did. Maybe it’s made for the dudes that like modding their stuff with malossi parts. Idk that’s a small market, weird to sell that.

I didn’t question the reason governors exist lol, obviously they save engines! But if the bike isn’t faster, doesn’t have that much more horse power, and all of this comes at the cost of risking the bike blowing an engine while driving on a 200 mile trip, maybe just maybe that’s a problem with piaggio that has to be rectified either by being nicer about the warranty or being smarter with the engineering.

Not everyone is like making “go to a Vespa event with the race version of the gts and have 5 bikes on a trailer” money. I’m not! I want a bike to see the homies that live far away with! I want a bike I can drive to work!

When you buy a new bike you want low maintenance. fam oil check and top off every 200 is stupid as fuck and high maintenance, like if I was some gear head who liked futzing around with dirt bikes sure. Realistically, like they should tell you that shit and maybe call it grand racer if it can’t turismo

I do a lot of days that actually are 100! More than 5 times a month! So yes! This is an extremely obnoxious problem to have! I do love my bike, it is a good friend, and if I didn’t total it with oil consumption sure I’ll love it for years to come even if it’s dumb. But man someone tells me I can trade it for the same colour and 2017 or 18 it’s happening lol

This has devolved well beyond pointlessness.

If you have an actual question that we can collectively help you with, let us know. Whinging about a bike that you don’t like but are unwilling to part with is not actually anything we can help you with.

I’m done.

Do you work for piaggio or something I’m really confused as to why you’re upset with someone saying that it might not be good that the bike eats more oil than a 2 stroke dirt bike. I would part with it if I could trade it for a 2018 or 17 non hpe engine, but the aftermarket right now is very very difficult to find something like that. Could be an easier said than done thing. Maybe piaggio does right by me and whomever is effected by the bike eating it’s own oil, maybe they make a non aftermarket sight oil pan. Just saying some of OPs concerns are legitimate and that these issues don’t escalate into recalls unless large groups of people are incensed about them. No reason to run interference for piaggio if you don’t work for them.

It’s dumb to have to check your oil every ride, it’s dumb to check it even by what robot recommends which is every gas stop, it’s dumb in regards to the fact that previous engines did not have this problem whatsoever. And it’s more dumb that piaggio will void your warranty if your bike shows up with low oil and a blown engine!

No, I do not work for Piaggio. I am countering factually incorrect information and challenging you to back up your assertions. Which you have failed to do.

There is one highlight of this conversation, though: Your insistence on complaining at length led me to modify the posting guidelines, adding the following section: Getting the hint yet?

I’m looking to commiserate! So maybe not be so harsh on someone looking to do that! Maybe the op is a dick but I’ve been driving these and will continue to drive them for years!

It’s a dumb problem! Not even trying to be disrespectful! Piaggio Service person I talked to said if the bike is damaged from oil consumption the warranty will be voided, a genuinely bad policy for an engine that eats oil like this especially given that most people buying these will be used to previous engines that do not burn oil.

Oil breaks down over time that’s expected but it shouldn’t be like losing up to 10% of its oil in a long trip or after 500 miles of use, that’s a 2 stroke problem on a 4 stroke engine

I can't believe this thread is still going.

FWIW, I've put nearly 20,000 miles on my HPE in 22 months. Most nights of the pandemic, I've been riding 34 miles round-trip, just-over-half of which is on the freeway. I check my oil when I wash it, about once per month. It's a good cadence because it's not something I can forget to do, and the engine is always cold.

The HPE definitely consumes oil, but it hasn't caused me any problems.

Also OP is correct in saying that if someone’s bike blew up from oil in consumed before the 6500 mile service then yes, that would in some states qualify it as a lemon. Which is honestly sound advice which unfortunately I might actually have to follow. But again commiserating

Decades ago (Yes, I'm old) Gordon Jennings the Editor at Cycle magazine wrote a list of dos and don'ts for motorcycles.

"Avoid first year engines like the plague".

I know the HPE isn't a first year in the rest of the world but it's pretty close here where roads and riding conditions are different. Piaggo will figure it out. When covering the warranty costs gets high enough.

My favorite and about the only one I remember from his list.

"Never say anything about a motorcycle where it can hear you."

You haven’t stated a problem that we can help you with. Therefore it’s just whinging. What, exactly, do you propose that we do about it?

And that’s the crux of my point, really. There is nothing we can do about the HPE oil consumption rate. If you’re unhappy with it, then please, please, please sell the bike to someone who actually wants it.

Complaining here accomplishes nothing. Complaining here using made-up facts and anecdotes is just outright annoying.

Sure you ever get the light though? That’s what I’m trying to figure out, what’s the longest trip you did, and did you have to top it off during the trip suddenly or anything to that end. Just trying to figure out what I’m now fully in with this, a subsequent poster said avoid first year engines is a good rule of thumb and I think honestly that might have been a good rule to follow but my mom passed away this year, and with the insurance money I received, which wasn’t much, I bought a new bike because she would have wanted me to be on something that wasn’t nearly 20 years old that I also wouldn’t have to worry about. I went with a 2021 cause it was a gorgeous colour and the engine I guess has been around for a short while. I’m hoping I didn’t blow the engine from a flickering oil pressure light.

When you ride the same bike for 7 years and you get the new version of the old one, oil consumption issues can sorta actually be a huge surprise. It’s annoying that People seem to think everyone here who ends up with a problem like this “have it coming”

Ok well I don’t think op was trying to engage with you specifically here, I think maybe looking to talk with people with this problem! The reason I came to this thread. It’s not a small problem! You can also just not read the thread! That is ok too.

I’ll be more blunt, since you seem not to be getting the hint:

If you have an actual question we might be able to answer, or if you have a problem that we can actually help you with, state it.

If you have a complaint about the design parameters of your scooter, please direct it to Piaggio.

Otherwise, there’s no point in continuing to post to this thread.

The longest I've gone between oil checks was 3000 miles (2000 of which was a 12 day tour - mostly coastal/river/mountain roads with a few hours of freeway). The oil had gone from MAX to MIN in that time.

That's what all this fuss is about? That's hardly egregious consumption.

That’s reassuring, I’m not sure, maybe I got a bad egg or something, but I’m also hearing a lot of it consumes a ton of oil, and if mine lost that amount of oil in a mere 1200 miles that’s pretty disconcerting

Yeah but like I’m not here to discuss it with you in specific! It’s ok! I’m talking to other people about it. Just ignore the posts! No one’s being rude or abusive or anything, you’re getting close to it though.

professorcatfacemeowmers has been ejected from this topic

Calling the literal owner of the forum you're on abusive after he repeatedly calls you out for trolling?

BAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

Hey Catface,

I would just like to point out to you, the actual topic that the sporadically posting OP stated was “So, glad I did not buy a 300”.
Your slant actually seems to be “Might be so bummed I bought a 300 or I might not be”
Oh wait…Nvm