Modern Vespa

Well ive never paid a lot of attention to my PX battery. As far as im aware it made the horn beep when the engine wasnt running and served purpose to drive the starter motor. Well, my starter motor has never run in its life, always used the kickstart. A few years back I thought id put a new battery in, the starter still didnt work, i could hear a vague clicking come from gubbins near the battery. Well last week i actually bought a genuine brand new piaggio starter relay. Pulled clutched, pressed the starter motor and i could hear the flywheel start to do something but it farted out of life then no horn, so battery drained or dead. Kickstarted and horn all came back, being driven by the engine running. How long do the batteries last? I guess i need a new one. Suppose i could ask the local garage to rig a battery bar to my battery leads to check the starter motor is capable of turning over? Advice welcome, thanks,

The consensus with lead/acid batteries is 3 to 5 years with good maintenance. On the other hand I've had a battery that finally expired at the grand old age of 15 years. The key with lead/acid batteries is regular charging and not flattening them fully. Also the charging circuit needs to be in good shape especially the regulator, overcharging will do damage.Undercharging may put enough in the battery for the horn but not enough for the starter moter
The other things to check is the connections to the starter motor and the battery, dirty contacts will interfere with the battery being charged and the starter spinning over and You might have a 'lazy' starter.
Could you 'jumpstart' from a friend with a car? that would help to start narrowing down the problem

Well i guess that probably explains why my battery is toast. Its been laid up for six months, enough to finish battery off. In the lockdown, both our cars batteries died as we didnt need to use cars. I seem to think my whole street trying to get hold of car batteries as not run for 9 months. I will go to garage and get mechanic to use battery bar to see if starter motor good then buy a new battery. They are only about 30 quid so not great drama.

Worth putting the battery on an external battery charger if you have one might save you 30 quid.
I had a similar problem a while ago on my px 125 and it turned out to be the regulator. Lots of people chuck the (good) battery when its flat only to find out later that its the charging circuit thats the cause of the issue.

I will get the battery bar on it at local garage, its free. If the starter motor works i know its not the starter motor. Its due a battery to be honest, its about 4 years old. If then it packs up, i will then get a regulator as these are relatively cheap too. Scooters 20 years old and its had new CDI recently, starter relay etc and just routine maintenance costs.