Modern Vespa

I got this 76 150 sprint running and took my first-ever ride on a scooter. I hate to admit it, but it was kinda fun. It took a while to get used to the floorboards and I'm not using the back brake enough, but other than that it was pretty easy to ride, even with the strange shift mechanism.

I had it up to 52mph (checked with gps, not the speedo which read 68) and I have to ask: How much faster can one of these go? I looked around at big bore kits, exhausts, etc. and thought that all of it was very reasonably priced. This scooter isn't mine but if the owner asks...

I'll be watching for you to post which model scooter you're going to buy. 😉👍

How fast *can* it go? Or how fast *should* it go?

With a suitable number of dollars and amount of effort, you can get one of these things up over 100 MPH. Having done over 90 MPH, however, I will say that 70-75 is probably about as fast as you *want* to go.

"Want" and "should" are not connected in my mind, and I have the scars to prove it.

I've got 2. A 59 VNA that has a top speed currently of 72.4mph. I don't have the desire to get that one to WOT in 4th gear to see how much more it has to give. It's got a VMC Stelvio 177 installed in p series engine case. It's a touch ridiculous honestly. Other bike is a 62 VNB that has a Pinasco 2 port 177. Haven't finished running that in yet to see what its top speed will be but it'll definitely be above 60mph.

By total contrast just took my charming company out on the P200E; pottering about and being wild at 50 on a nice winding bit.
Só that no worry nor hurry pottering about on an old réngdengedéng!!

There is a very neat looking PX200 Disco for sale here with scary tuning. Molossi MHR 221, 60 mm crank, reed valve, Dell´Orto 30, lightened flywheel etc, 36 t, 4th gear.
Had a bucketload of money spent on it and nobody wants it now even at 2.4 k€

Insane. It's weird to see a VBB go that fast.

I've heard it said more than a few times that vintage Vespas are more fun than motorcycles. I have only ever ridden scooters. In 1990, I sold my stock P150 and my electric guitar to buy a Honda CB500. It never happened as my family intervened and offered to sell me my grandmother's VW bus so I would stay away from motorcycles. Keeping it on the road proved to be a family effort during my student days.

For 30+years I couldn't get the idea of Vespas out of my head. I kept having this dream where I found my old scooter abandoned in an old garage. 30 years of the same dream. A few years ago I ended up with 3.

Done all sorts of motorbikes as a life style, raced them for two decades. Most are simply motorcycles but there are exceptions. Comparing with scóóters the equivalent experience of vintage scooters are imo 2 stroke MZs with or without sidecar and the Ural/Dnepr with.
Beating old scooters is a vintage Nimbus with sidecar.
2 stroke scooters though are imo a near unique compromise between real vintage and daily runabout.

Does it have an ITV? If it does, I'd wonder how it got it. Needs to come with a spare stock engine.

It does and that is indeed what all think.

52 mph on otherwise a stock sprint is actually very respectable and faster than a few much newer scooters that I had even new like the Stella 4T, or my own PX when it only had the Sito plus or when I put a brand new LML engine on my sprint Veloce. The 3 scooters that I mentioned toped out exactly at 50MPH on the GPS that is why I started my sentence aknowledging your respetactable 52 MPH.

How far can you go? much faster and for a very reasonable budget. 15 mph extra on your GPS with a modest Malossi iron kit 177cc and a proven exhaust box. Just the Malossi kit will yield a solid 10-12 mph even on that stockish exhaust.

You can literally cut down the acceleration more than 60%. A few months ago I went and I did a stock cylinder, a Malossi 166 iron, a Malossi 177 aluminum and a poling 177 iron kit, plus I also compared it with the other Malossi 177 cc on hand on the sprint Veloce.. I could hit 55 mph on the GPS in a little over 11 but on the stock cylinder it will take me above 35 seconds. It was the last 2-3 mphs on the top end where the stock cylinder has no top end. Put side by side you are talking about the kitted scooter will literally walk away at a fast rate and dissapear out of sight.

Jack221 has a véry valid point here: In Europe; EU, Switzerland, UK it is only as far as will pass periodic inspection or alternatively as far as you are prepared to built back.
The most practical compromise is to go as far as can be disguised by refitting the original exhaust.
Worse still... insurance. Get involved in an accident and never mind you being an entirely innocent victim; tuned = at fault.
Again only the mildest of tunings will get away with it.
Right and then there are impromptu roadside checks. Aimed at hotted up 49cc the police has rolling road testers on trailers.
Also road side dB meter and surprise tech inspections.

As such past century I had three rules:
1. do not get stopped.
2. do nót get stopped
3. do NOT get stopped
No, never got stopped.

Aye, past century....
This century my love got pregnant and common sense needed to prevail.

Nów that kid is studying engineering in Sweden, me with a younger model but reality prevails whether I want to or not.

I don't know if there are places in the US where this would be a worry. Possibly California, but maybe not. In NY, at least outside of NYC, inspections were a joke; lights, tires, horn. On cars, add one wheel removed to look at the brake. It is rural enough where I live that many don't bother with it. I doubt anyone would ever check for engine mods.

Very few people in Pennsylvania get motorcycle inspections. I got stopped on my Triumph 675 for going 90 (speed limit is 70) on the PA turnpike and all the state trooper cared about was my paperwork. Never looked at the bike and wrote me a warning. Also, the vespa I'm working on is eligible for antique plates which are inspection exempt.

Most Americans, including police, are ignorant of anything regarding two-wheeler motor vehicles. None of them would have a clue about stock vs aftermarket exhaust on a scooter.

Bring that VMC 177 to the track near Syracuse, NY on September 28/29! In the shifty vespa class we have around 8/9 people racing, its very fun!