Modern Vespa

Here's a pic of the white walls when they were newly installed and in all their glory, as well as a photo I took yesterday with them looking like a medium gray!

Been trying out CST (Cheng Shin) 6017s on a few small scoots. They had a more aggressive tread and a P speed rating. So far, not too shabby.

https://www.sip-scootershop.com/en/product/whitewall-tyre-cst-c-6017-c-6017-350-10-58p-tl_CST17210

I still have the Shinko whitewalls on my GTS300, but they will soon be replaced with known-quality scooter tires.

Bill Dog has a very opinionated view of the Shinko scooter tires, and it's 100% negative. He was correct in his evaluation of them as being crap on wet roads, and they are, at least on my GTS. They scared the snot out of me several months back when getting caught on a freshly re-oiled and chip sealed road that had been rained on the night before.

I've never been so freaked out by that one
experience on that scooter than I ever have been on any motorcycle, ever.

I thought I was riding on ice, and at 30 mph with steady throttle, the GTS's rear Shinko tire would break loose and spin.

Offered as an understatement, and for what it worth...I do not recommend Shinko tires on a Vespa scooter.

^^ +1 ^^

I completely agree.

So pretty much what we suggested would happen.

You live and learn I guess.

I can feel you gloating from all the way over here in the colonies, Bill.

Well, if you ask people's advice and they willingly share it, but then you choose to ignore that advice, then exactly what they told you would happen, happens, then I really don't know what to tell you.

I'm asking for help but I'm going to ignore everything I'm being told and carry on regardless.

"Everything I'm being told".....by you.

I'm a natural skeptic, and I don't believe everything I read or see on the Internet.

I don't think that I ever said that I seriously doubted your advice concerning the tires, only
that I wanted to try them and see for myself if they were as crappy as you said they were, and if so, fine, they would be replaced with better tires.

So you can take your bow here, you were right about the Shinko tires, but I wasn't 'wrong' in trying them either, just wasted a few dollars on them is all it amounted to.

Now you go have a really great day, Bill. I have to get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.

Both smugness and pretentious lack of quoting in online communications are a bad look, Bill.

Goddammit ! Oh, it was aimed at the OP and not you my Rocket Riding Friend as you didn't ask for any advice.

Sorry.

Keep it down out there, dammit, I'm trying to watch some South Park...Boy, that Cartman is something, isn't he?

Ain't gonna happen.

So........ here's a photo of a man at a hot dog vending machine...

See, Bill, now that wasn't so hard, was it?

I hope that we can still be friends?

Maybe you should heed this advice before one of your many near misses turns into a collision.

We were always friends as we agree on many things, I just think that our approaches to the same things are very different.

Yours is done with an element of style and I lack a degree of subtlety.

And that's OK

Be careful if you use something like Westleys Bleach White. It can be a bit corrosive to brake parts and will slowly accumulate on the rim lip, possibly corroding the inner lip of rim. Only way I've found to keep white walls clean is Westleys on a brush and scrub and rinse. Good old knuckle busting style. I wear some old Mechanix gloves when cleaning my white walls.

We call Shinko tires Shitkos because they are never truly round and hate rain, but if you slow down a little bit and stay aware of your riding conditions you'll be fine. I've ran them on my Buddy 125 and had white walls on my 64 Impala and always dreaded cleaning them. But they do look good and are just worth the extra hassle.

When it comes to function vs form, there are no rules!

well, apart from tyres of course

And dark visors at night.

So cool.

I've only had one collision, that was in 1977, and all of my "near misses" have been between myself and an assortment of local whitetail deer...and wild turkeys.

It was aimed at Bill, he seems to post a lot about people pulling out of driveways or suddenly stopping in front of him. I've suggested before that maybe he is riding too fast for the environment he's in but he seems to think that its the other road users that are the problem.

wait what!!

oh, sorry I mis-read that as whitewall deer

They are the problem as they are the only ones trying to kill me.

Next.

.

Perhaps you were thinking of a white wall deer?

Shinkos in the snow: