Modern Vespa

Recent events (namely the passing of Philip McCaleb, and a link posted by VMS SAN DIEGO) have dislodged some vague memories of what the online scooter landscape used to look like.

Specifically, the VMS SAN DIEGO post led me to a post by illnoise on 2strokebuzz about all the sites that used to make up the living, breathing core of the scooter world -- almost all of which are gone, or abandoned, or transformed into the parts of life that inevitably seem to follow an intense period of scooter obsession.

I feel this loss acutely. I feel the loss of a tight-knit (and often volatile) community scattered across a small and tight-knit set of websites. I feel the loss of so many people that I have called my friends, that have understandably drifted away, distracted by the realities of life. Jobs, marriage, kids, health, and even death have replaced the daily banter that used to exist. To be clear, I don't blame anyone for drifting away -- I get it. I have drifted away myself, occasionally, distracted by "the real world" to such a degree that I couldn't be arsed to keep daily tabs on MV.

There's nothing to be done about this. What's lost is lost. Modern Vespa remains here, one of a very small handful of sites from that era that still exists, in spite of social media and everything else that has come since. But we are a shadow of our former selves. And I feel that acutely.

We are still here, barely.

Still here, thankfully.

Member number 76 still hanging around. ModernVespa is one of the few constants in my life. Log in every morning while I have my cuppa (after Hotmail and before Facebook!), and then once or twice more during the day. Thanks for all your efforts to keep it alive.

I'm sure one of the problems is that our hobby has largely gone. Nobody mods their scooters anymore, except for an aftermarket exhaust maybe. I used to love fiddling with my Vespa, constantly tweaking it to get that little bit more (like my airbox mod), but there is very little one can do on modern scooters, so that hobby is no more. All I've done on my latest one is Bitubo shocks and an Akra exhaust.

There's so many things in life that we happily or unnoticingly move on from.

Scootering is one of those things that is intrinsically linked to youth and happiness for many of us but sadly not all.

Some move on, even sadder some pass on.

MV has given those who Keep the Faith, those who have 2-stroke in their blood, those who are happy with their step through, small wheeled life to come to on a daily basis, where everybody knows your pseudonym!

Thanks a million Jess

#itwasneveraphase

This place rocks, hope it stays forever, not like us old toads, but scooters where fun when young, bikes middle aged when we could afford a couple, and then back to scooters with age, as the bones like them more.

I'm in my 6th decade roaming this planet and only recently discovered the joy of owning/riding a Vespa.
My only regret is I didn't get one earlier in Life. Ah well....better Late then Never and I'm glad I found MV. This is a great Site for many reasons!

This is happening all thru the 2 wheeled world. Not as many younger people getting into scoots anymore, in the US anyway. Thank you Jess for keeping this going. Thank you to the moderators as well.

That was me a decade back! Never too late!

Yeah, Jess, I feel the fade. Maybe it's starting to feel my age, but yes, a lot of my scooter peeps, here and in "real" life have faded away, some have passed.

I dunno, it's been a Rocky year too...dealing with personal loss, not being able to make any of the larger events that I'd been getting to, several local folks out of commission for various reasons...... And then a couple of local friends had both scooters stuck in the shop and took it as an excuse to probe the Dark Side and buy *gasp* MOTORCYCLES! First a Honda Rebel, and then a Harley, FFS. Well, to be fair, he actually works for them, so there's that.

Anyway, holding out for next year..I'll be fully retired, wife still working, so free to get out and about more, hopefully my local peeps who'd been incapacitated are back on the scene, and my other buds haven't sold their scooters....

Good, bad or otherwise nothing stays the same. Cherish the small things, don't sweat the big things. IT ALL CHANGES

Another part of this is, years ago, older 2T Vespas could be picked up for cheap. Most needed rebuilding any way. The rebuilding part is still true today, but prices have gone crazy. The modern Vespas have not escaped the silly high asking prices either, although I am starting to see a slide down. There was a lot of free money being thrown around years ago that added to the inflation of motorcycles and scooters, but it seems like it has started to correct itself as so many are sitting on the sellers market now.

Well I'm grateful for MV. I'm not going anywhere. Too invested with scoots to leave anyway! Great job keeping it all going Jess.

And Jess, we all understand that you have done much of the heavy lifting for MV. Thank you!

I would not say "barely".

The MV forum is one of the most active on scooters that I know.
Maybe it was more active in the past, could be, I don't know. I joined somewhere in 2021 or so.

Oh no. There are a handful of moderators that have waded into the fetid swamps of humanity to do the real work of keeping this place free of swamp beasts. I set the tone, and I pay the bills, and I dabble in software, but the moderators deserve all the credit.

Thank a moderator next time you get the chance.

We are well off our peak from 2008 - 2009.

Wow! That graph is scary. I remember being told about Modern Vespa 19 years ago on Scooter BBS. Been checking in almost everyday since. Love the range of topics and the lack of political garbage. I'm calling on all the "checkers in" - myself included - to get back in the game and contribute to this forum in any way you can. As Jess has said in the past that forums such as this exist and thrive when members interact.

Bob

Isn't a lot of that because people are pissed off, cheered up, or observing strange shit?

I get it though. When I moved to San Diego County I thought there would be a surge in Vespa activity.. rides, clubs, just bumping into other scooter owners.

Nope.

I see the vintage guys out and about on the 101 from time to time. I thought about riding up to Santa Barbara for that meet up this past September, but my 2009 GTS was 10 years too new.

When I was riding in the Bay Area from 2012-2016 it was far more prolific. Shit, even Portland, OR had a better scene.

I blame myself though. It's not like I'm doing anything to promote scooters in my community aside from just riding around in it. I always say I'm going to post a weekly coffee meet-up on Saturdays and just see if anyone ever shows... but I never do.

Now it seems like it would be easier to get E-bikers together. Maybe they have claimed the corner booth at the Connecticut Yankee.

nope

From your vantage point, how much of it is due to the diminished interest in two wheelers as a mode of transportation and how much can be attributed to societal changes?

My hunch is, that society (and that includes the advent of social media) has changed so much, that there is a lot of change wherever you look. People read less, less people go to church, membership clubs and other in-person things have an aging audience and less participation, the print and broadcast media is a shadow of its former self, other forms of media have diminishing audiences as well, potential younger riders are growing up with peers considering scooters as a leasure activity, rather than an alternative mode of transportation and so on.

If you look at it from this angle, I find it very positive that MV not only has managed to stick around, but is also still vital.
Something that can't be said for many websites and forums that have been with us for that long. That also seems to indicate that there still is a strong need and desire for community for example when it comes to riding scooters. Sure less than before, but making that comparison isn't always easy and maybe not even helpful.

Well yeah, mostly a rhetorical question, as it appears that for sure there are any number of factors at play.

I tried the FB SH150i group and got snubbed for posting some of the same posts I post here. I was trying to liven up a group that has 1 post every 4 months. Then I got some sort of violation for posting about magazines on a rifle group
I'm no longer on FB. The digital world is proving my tag line is accurate

The problem I see with what has displaced blogs and forums - Facebook and Reddit - is that they are so poorly organized and indexed. It is very difficult to maintain any kind of institutional knowledge over time, and impossible to point people towards instances where knowledge has been conferred and transferred. Also, the benefit of their huge user base and the nonexistent curation means that anybody can set up their own little forum and splinter the expertise - thus, the "Modern Vespa USA" FB group, which is well-nigh useless as it flounders in its own oil and octane fights.

This forum is amazing, useful, and delightful because it exists at the whim of a benevolent dictator, where it has some intrinsic organization, decent search capabilities, and respectful moderation. For that I am very grateful.

I have been here a long time as have many others. I have learned SOOOO much here over the years, albeit mostly about the vintage scooters I have had and still have. I would not have been able to work on them as I have without modernvespa. Jess, you may have covered this in the past but is there a way we can help you pay the bills associated with maintaining modernvespa? Of course your time is the most valuable thing you give to us, but I would like to be able to make a small contribution to help you cover the costs and perhaps others feel as I do.

See "Buy me a coffee".

I joined MV when I bought my first BV350 back in 2016, because that's what I do: When I buy a new product I want to know as much about it as possible, so I seek out the most active forum for it. Yes, I also join a FB group or two, but I much prefer forums. MV has been very helpful over the years when I had issues with my BV.

When I bought a truck in 2021, I stopped riding the BV. I posted it for sale here, and got a message or two about it, but haven't sold it. I tried to sell it to the dealer, but they claim it has an exhaust leak (I think the mechanic just doesn't understand how the traction control works), so they won't buy it from me. I haven't tried to sell it locally. So it sits in my garage on a battery tender.

But I still visit MV daily during the work-week. I occasionally try to visit on the weekend (like today). I like the community that Jess has built (with the valuable help of the Moderators and members). Even if I do end up selling the BV, I'll still visit.

Thanks Jess (and moderator team).

Yes, absolutely. Most of our support comes from the organic amazon product links which other users post (we add our associate tag to those links) and from buymeacoffee.com.

See: [MVFR] Support MV! (If you want to)

Over here in Europe this is véry much alive and kicking. It is why companies like VMC and EGIG, to name only two, blaze new trails. It is why modern insight/knowledge on gas flow/resonance is applied in newly developed high tech exhausts for olds scoots. It is why Polini and Malossi develop kits for the new 4-strokes.
Here in Spain there are half a dozen internet shops for NSM Vespas/Lambrettas. They sell Spanish made stuff for MotoVespa too.
Ergo thriving here.

I joined in 2013. Correlation? Causation?

For sure.
I joined in 2021, and since then the trend is rather stable.
The forum is still between 50k and 100k posts on a yearly basis, which is enormous.

I joined almost 15 years ago and this site has always been a positive experience.

I never have posted a lot but I check in at least 3-5 days a week and read at least the title of every new topic and I will continue to do so as as long as it exists and I am able to do so.

This thread has got me reminiscing about the members that have drifted away or are gone like Judy and Bitsa. I miss all of them.

Thank you, Jess.

I agree , I also believe Fbook has caused many forums to shrink and fail. Whereas forums usually contain a small range of model specific experts who advise on performance ills, Fbook is a place where everyone is an expert.

Also any forum decorum is totally lost on fbook as petty vendettas occur with alarming rapidity.

Having dabbled with two strokes for many years , the ability to trawl archives on forums and study rebuilds to see " ah thats where it goes" moments is brilliant.

Lets hope the likes of Jess and the mod squad keep this place and similar as a resource for many years to come.

That graph Jess posted above is not that surprising to me. I imagine that a lot of that volume was highly repetitive given the "newness" of Modern Vespas in general at that time. The early adopter phase was still in full swing and there were lots of basic questions being asked multiple times (oil, gas, tire pressure, variators).

I don't check in everyday, but at least a few times a week. Our primary advantages over other forums and channels are the moderators and depth of knowledge/information housed here.

It's one of the best places on the web in my opinion. I'm thankful for the folks here who have provided guidance and maintained civil discourse.

Wow.. that graph is... ummm... dramatic. I suspected the decline was pretty large over the years. I assumed most of that decline was caused by SM, but those peaks of 2008 and 2009 were just nuts!

I think a few years back when Jess found the forum architecture crumbling and expressed concern as to whether it could be saved, I had a genuinely horrific vision of life sans MV. Can't say I cared much for it.

I don't miss the BBS, etc.

But , damn I would miss MV.

Nuts is right. A new topic could get pushed off the front page in under a day. The posting pace was relentless, and I am kind of surprised the server didn't collapse. I think the bigger concern was my own diminished comprehension of how all the pieces of the forum fit together -- both managing the AWS environment, and getting the forum compliant with modern web standards that hadn't been invented when the forum software was first conceived.

I did manage to get a handle on AWS (which gets a bit more complex every year), and I've been slowly rewriting the software ever since then.

There is a glimmer of good news in the statistics, too. Even though posts are down, new user registrations are starting to climb out of the doldrums.

Many have mentioned FB as an alternate place to discuss Vespas. There are many, many places to participate on FB depending on the year, for sale, mechanical, travel, etc...that pertains to these scooters. A bit of a fragmented approach so you can hang out with your own exclusive crowd, I guess. But so FB in nature - not much in the way of information and designed to have you check in constantly or you'll miss the latest "thing". Then all the side videos, Tik-Tok and adds designed to grab your attention. Screw that - worse than watching regular TV. This is the place, no BS, well monitored, very informative and at times, entertaining as he!!. I'm betting that the uptick in new membership comes from people that are tired of the other so called "Forums".

This kinda makes sense to me, though.

On the FB groups for my truck, every week someone asks the same question that someone else asked the week before. So the same questions are being asked on a weekly (or even more frequent) basis over the span of the last three years. No one searches the posts in the group to see if their question has already been asked. I think FB users in general tend to post any question they have rather than doing a basic web search first. They would rather have someone else give them an answer than find it themselves. Then they'll complain that the answers take too long to get, when they'd have almost instant results from doing a search.

On a web forum, searching for an answer is highly encouraged. If I have a problem with my BV, I'll search MV to see if anyone else has had the same problem, and how they resolved it if they did. If I can't find an answer that way, only then will I post.

So the fact that membership is growing, but post volume is down fits that model. New members are searching out fixes for issues, and finding them. The fact that they took the time to join is also a good thing, when they could simply find the solution via google, and never come back.

First, thanks, Jess, for keeping this forum going. I've been off and on since 2011, and I cannot tell you how much I've learned from the folks here. Even in the years I didn't own a Vespa -- or any scoot -- I still checked in here to see what was happening.

Then, one day, I found myself in a position to re-enter the world of two-wheeled Wasps, so I purchased a '24 300 GTS "Classico." No bells and whistles; just a lovely scoot that is a gas to ride and gets noticed wherever I take her. And MV was still here!

I got sooooooooo crazy that I phoned the fellow who had bought my '01 ET2 50 several years earlier and bought her back from him. She was in pretty bad shape, especially when compared to the shape she was in when I sold her to him some 7 years previously. Ah, well...nothing a good mechanic and a credit card couldn't handle.

Now, I find I'm about to go hot rodding...well, in a somewhat mild-ish California manner. I'm about to wrench away myownself by installing a Malossi 70cc head, piston, etc.; a (derestricted) Malossi Wild Lion exhaust (Shhh! Don't rat me out! Remember: I'm in Cali!); new rollers and springs and stuff to bring my li'l ol' 2T up into the 60+ mph range. Wish me luck!

All of that to say, again, thanks, Jess. MV has kept me sane in some times of real crap in my life, with or without a Vespa. But now that I'm back in fine fettle, well...happy to be here!

Victor