Modern Vespa

Some nice touches there. I'd have to see and ride one in person to really form an opinion. But as a purely urban bike in Europe it may beat the heavier 500 in practicality?

The problem with the small engined MP3 has always been the bad power to weight ratio. The last time they made a 300cc it was a dog . . . a 3 legged dog . . . and it performed like one. Consequently everyone went for the 500, and correctly so.

The MP3 is a heavy pig. No way around it.

The 350 of a few years ago I always felt was a good base engine, but anything smaller is just not gonna cut it.

Piaggio needs to get off their lazy rear ends and stop rehashing the same meal from nearly 20 years ago.


Drop the continual "putting lipstick on a pig" nip and tuck updates and put in at least a twin. That would fix a lot of wrongs

The 310 is over 2m long which means there are now no longer any trikes for the central London commuter - it will now be liable for the congestion charge, along with the Kymco, Tricity 300 etc. I think you can get away with a Tricity 125 but that's an entirely different proposition.

Do you know if the "new" 530 motor is still the old master 400/500 one? With a longer stroke and updated to E5?

The 530 is indeed the umpteenth variant of the Master engine that has been tweaked once again to meet noise and emissions regulations.

IMO, Piaggio needs to stop rehashing the same old thing and stuff a twin cylinder in there, at least at the current prices that are pushing the 15K mark.

For that kind of money, you can already get a Honda Forza 750 which will clobber the MP3 on every front

So the future looks bright for us with the old 400's...
A 1k euro for a 530 cylinder complete with the chain and the 71mm crankshaft... And we riding stronger than a new one without the emissions headache...