Modern Vespa

So there I was on my 2010 Vespa GTS 300 when the bloody exhaust properly snapped in two about 40 miles from home!

Had to take the back roads to get back but would you believe it? A police car crossed my path and followed me for a while. Thought I was done for, but amazingly they just carried on!

The strange bit is how the exhaust just broke clean in half like that. It was getting rather noisy during the last 10 miles, but I just assumed it was the exhaust gasket playing up.

That journey home was absolutely dreadful - my ears are still ringing from all that racket!

Probably stress or a bad weld, held for years but gave up, or just rust inside.

You need one of these.



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZ29YCRL/ref=nosim?tag=modernvespa-forum-20

I know all about the noise! Way back when (2005?), my X9 250 exhaust downpipe snapped in half about 10miles north of Paris on the Autoroute, on my way back to West London. The noise was deafening!

Carole Nash dispatched a tow-truck, but he spoke no English, and my French wasn't up to much at the time. Carole Nash found an interpreter, so there was this weird conversation between us all over the phone.

Eventually the tow guy was convinced there was nothing to be done in France (this was a Sunday) and issued a Certificat de Dommage (or something like like that) that allowed me to continue on to Calais and the Chunnel despite what was so obviously an illegal exhaust. On arrival in England I was pulled aside, but eventually the police let me go, as it was motorway all the way home except for the last three hundred yards.

Even with earplugs, the noise was horrendous!

Piaggio stumped up with a complete new exhaust. I doubt they'd do that now!

So I got super lucky and bought 2 exhausts from FB for £20 (they're kinda beat up but I'm gonna fix one up). The exhaust manifold came loose from running with that broken exhaust. All the nuts were totally corroded so I had to order new ones plus a new gasket for the manifold. When I tried to take off the exhaust union bolt, the thing just snapped - totally rusted through! Had to break out the grinder to get the rest of it off. Now I'm just waiting on parts... such a bummer since the weather's actually nice right now!