Modern Vespa

Hi! I go by my art handle/name a lot of the time which is Comika. My favorite color is blue, so sometimes I go by that, too.

I've been into vespa's since 2005 when my art teacher gave me a bootleg copy of the anime called Fooly Cooly (FLCL). That show got me into both Vespa's and playing guitar.

Right now I don't own any vespas, Though I have one 86 Honda spree with a gunked up carb and flat tires. I've been telling myself for years I'm gonna use that scooter to teach myself maintenance and repair. I actually managed to get it to huff and puff last year after draining the old gas out/putting new gas in, and getting a new battery. But it just won't turn over. I think? Might be the spark plug or starter. Idk it's been a problem since I bought it 9 years ago. It was supposed to be a project for me and my grandpa to work on, but he's lost interest in working on his classic cars all together these days.

I've been holding off on buying myself a vespa for a decade now. I think I told myself I wanted to be able to work on it myself before giving myself permission to buy one . I think somewhere along the way I gave up on for a while. I had health issues for a long time that would have made just riding a real struggle, it was depressing. But I've been doing better the last couple years. I figure since I already went crazy buying guitars, now it's my turn to go crazy for Vespas, finally.

My favorite Vespa is the Super Sport 180, but I also really love the Rally, the Primavera, the Gt, GL, and Sprint. I'm not into modern vespas very much even though they would be easier for me to ride.

I'm really glad to find an active forum for Vespas, especially after what happened to scoot .net I'm hoping I'll remember information I used to know, and learn things I can't remember or never knew. I still need to learn how to shift gears.

Anyway, that's me!

Welcome, comika! You're on the verge of joining an awesome community!

My advice: if you have the means, buy two bikes. One to ride, one to wrench. Then you can satisfy the urge to ride and the urge to tinker with less risk of ending up without a rideable scooter.

Look for local clubs. My experience here in the South SF Bay area is that most of the action is on Facebook. I searched on Google and mostly found a bunch of abandoned sites where the person assigned as webmaster lost interest or, sadly, passed on, and no one picked it up. Anyway - your local club is your immediate source of help with wrenching, spare parts sitting on garage shelves, tips on rideable/wrenchable scooters for sale and regular group rides and socializing.

Look for local(ish) rallies. I got back into scootering after a 35-ish year hiatus at the beginning of this year; I've been to Rides of March (San Luis Obispo, March), Morning Wood (Santa Cruz, April) and Classico Moto Italia (Los Gatos/San Jose, May) already, and I'm looking forward to Vintage Vespa Days in Santa Barbara in September and High Rollers in Vegas next February. I've made some good friends already at the rallies and I'm sure I'll make more.

If the rally is really local, then just ride there. If it's too far to ride, buy/rent a bike carrier or trailer and drive.

Ask as many questions as you like here - people are really friendly and ready to help. Post pictures when you get your bike(s), too - we all love to see each other's machines.

Finally, where in CA are you? I'm in San Jose, and I know there are folks here from all over.

Welcome from a bit farther up north!

Welcome from Texas. Once you start riding you're going to want to venture out farther and farther. If you're surrounded or close by nice terrain and have no need to go longer distances being satisfied for a year or two, then a late model 150 would probably suit you. But if you feel within a short time you're going to want to venture out and travel a bit a GTS 300 would be the ticket IMO. Good luck in whatever you decide.

Thank you for all this information! I'm located in Southern California, Riverside. I don't see too many people on scooters around here. Currently I'm visiting San Francisco for my birthday and to take a look at scooters, there sure are a lot up here! I'll check out local groups as well. I think I'm going to try and find someone more experienced to go look at an ss180 with me soon.

Eventually I want to go to a rally, though I'll need to practice being on a scooter again, I haven't been on one is a long time. And I'm gonna do ride lessons, I need to learn how to change gears. I've only ever had older automatic scooters so this is new for me.

You're most welcome!

There are a bunch of SoCal clubs listed on the Scooter Clubs wiki page, but I'm not sure any are particularly close to you. If you're on Facebook, it might be worth following a couple there to get a feel for where the events are.