Modern Vespa

So psyched.......My family goes to the jersey shore every summer. It's about 130 miles from where I live and I always toyed about taking my vespa and meeting my family there.........For the fist time I just decided to do it and plan a back road trip.......It's mainly a boring parkway which I can feel comfortable on for 15-20 miles but anything beyond that I do not like parkways.......So, a trip that is usually two hours took me 4 and a half hours but it was such an amazing experience.......If anyone is toying with this idea.....just do it. I am already planning my next one.....We are headed to Maine in a few weeks, and oh man I am tempted, but that's just too far!!!

That's the spirit!

I enjoy 1-3 days trips too. I don't follow the number of miles collected at all, I use the odometer only when I'm trying to locate a certain place and know the distance to there.

This often takes time as I prefer small, curvy, secondary (or tertiary) roads with 60-80 kmph speed limits around here...that's ~40-50 mph.

I can't totally avoid larger roads in between the interesting roads, hence I've ended up with the 'big wheel' bike that tolerates well our roads that suffer from winter and studded car tyres up here.

When I bought my first modern Vespa, a 2 year old 2008 GTS it was 1400 miles away. I had already hired a shipping company but the seller said he was confident that it would make it back if he picked me up at the airport.

At that time I only had about 200 miles highway riding experience and I wasn't really up to riding that far, especially alone.

It would have been a fun adventure.

A few years later I did the Iron butt ride on that bike and rode over 1000 miles in 19 hours.

1000 miles in 19 hours! That sounds like torture. I enjoy going 30-50 miles and stopping for coffee etc.......then continuing.

As I get older, I tell this a bit different each time as I remember or not different things about the trip.
20 years and a few weeks ago, I had a Silver Wing 650, I headed out for a BBQ from Dreamland. I'd heard these were the best in Alabama. It was just a bit over 100 miles one way from just north of Birmingham, where I live, to Tuscaloosa.
It was early in the morning and I'd planned on wondering about on the way to Tuscaloosa. As I approached the overpass to the freeway, I got on the on ramp as habit, as it was the way to work also. No problem. As I rode about 55mph, the freeway wasn't busy, I started day dreaming about my upcoming trip with my brother in a couple weeks where we were going to ride to California on our new Swings. We had purchased them together a few weeks earlier. Didn't even think about getting off the freeway again.........
Anyhoo, I arrived in Tuscaloosa way to early and Dreamland wasn't open yet. I thought, why not ride on to Biloxi for some seafood instead. It was a beautiful day. When I saw the sign for I-10, I thought there was plenty of daylight left to ride the long bridge in Louisiana. I pulled into a gas station, looked at a map, and thought I could make Texas. I'd never (at that time) ridden any of my bikes/scooters to Texas. So on I went.
When I stopped at the first rest area in Texas, a trooper was parked on the exit ramp from the rest area. I asked how far to Houston. I could make it by bed time. I did.
I was single at the time and checked on mom daily as she was a widow now. So I called to let her know where I was so as not to worry her. She wasn't surprised as all of us, including her & dad, pulled this sort of trips regularly, just not this far normally.
Next morning I got up and went back home. 1400 miles approx round trip for the 2 days. I don't remember anything about the trip home other than leaving the parking lot of the motel I was in as I headed back intentionally for the freeway.
I completed many LD trips solo that were longer, lots of photos, and were enjoyable. But this one trip, unplanned and most memorable, is the one that always comes to mind first when I think about my trips. And I have not one photo which is prolly the reason the memory is so sweet.

I bought my '20 GTS300 HPE in August of 2022, then, in September, I set out on the Vespa for my hometown of Pipestone, Minnesota, 420 miles east of where I now live in western South Dakota (Black Hills region).

I made it that night, stayed in a motel, then, after an early morning breakfast at McDonald's, headed back for home, making it that evening.

840 miles on the GTS over two days. Not quite an epic road trip, but a pretty decent amount of real estate covered in that amount of time.

All of it ridden on secondary two-lane highways, at 55-65 mph, and a lot of it through some very open and sparsely populated prairie regions.

By 'sparcely populated prairie regions', consider that between Sturgis, SD, and the state capitol of Pierre, SD, a distance of 174 miles, only two cars passed me on that highway (SD 34).

The weather was good, the Vespa performed very well, and I had a great little mini-adventure.

I just came home from my second road trip to the Swiss, Austrian and Italian Alps. Total trip was about 2,000 miles in 8 days and I loved every one of it. The Vespa GTS is a very capable touring bike and easily fits a small tent and everything I need on the road.

Keep going, you'll be addicted in no time!

Rode up to Gettysburg a couple times. That involved going thru south Baltimore to avoid construction and grooved roads on 695 and 795, so I learned which jeans are the more forgiving with my CCW lol.

Probably 2 weeks away from popping up Pike's on the GTS. 👍

A couple of years ago on my 150 I took a weekend backroad ride looping from White Plains to Jersey City (ok, that part was not so much backroads) to Ithaca, and back directly to White Plains. Just shy of 500 miles total. No shortage of places to refuel, snack, and warm up, with or without advance planning.

I went out on a Friday afternoon and the biggest hindrance was the absurd amount of stop-and-go traffic virtually the entire way to and through the Poconos. I think it took nine hours to go 250 miles. I had not expected the trip to last past sundown but it was very dark and pretty cold by the time I arrived! My biggest backroad concern at night was, and continues to be, DEER.

The trip back on a Sunday I left late morning and was back by late afternoon, as I expected, maybe six hours. Delightful ride through upstate NY, somewhat parallel to Rt. 17/86. The 150 bogged down a little on two of the steepest hills and I had to pull over to let other cars pass, but was otherwise quite up to the task on roads with typically 50mph speed limits.

In my experience - barring traffic - the time lost from slower backroad speeds is partially made up by the more direct paths the backroads allow you to take.

I've done numerous multi-day trips on my scooters. 95% of total mileage on these trips were secondary roads - I dislike riding on interstates.

2016 - Rode from Dayton, OH to Memphis, TN for AmeriVespa. 650 miles each way, plus several rides while at AV. Total was ~1400 miles in 6 days.

2017 - Rode from Dayton, OH to Lake Geneva, WI for AmeriVespa. ~ 400 miles each way with a few rides at AV. ~1100 miles in 6 days.

2019 - I rode from Ohio to the northern end of Skyline Dr in Virginia, rode south on Skyline Dr (105 miles) and proceeded to ride the full length of the Blue Ridge Parkway to Cherokee, NC (469 miles). I also rode Tail of the Dragon and Cherohala Skyway before heading back home to Dayton. ~1600 miles in 8 days.

2021 - Scooter Cannonball. Started in Bar Harbor Maine, but I crashed out on Day 4 after about ~1200 miles the 1st 3 days.

2023 - Scooter Cannonball. Started in San Clemente, CA and finished in Hilton Head, NC. ~3800 miles in 8 days. This was on a 155cc Yamaha SMax

These little scoots can do big trips. Just be sure all maintenance is up to date and you've got fresh tires before you leave.

Get out there and ride!!!!

I love solo trips. In fact, I wouldn't have it any other way. Last summer I rode ~8000 miles in 29 days. Every mile of the trip was solo. It's so peaceful and relaxing.

Reading these is such inspiration. I just wish I had the time to embark on a scooter adventure spanning a few days. Maybe once the kids are in college...9 years to go... Haha.

I got my motorcycle license in June of 2021. Since then, I've accumulated 6300 miles on my Liberty, and 22000 miles on motorcycle. So that's 28300 miles on two wheels, and I've yet to venture more than 50 miles away from home. 😔

To you, you are seeing the same sights regularly. To some of us, we've not seen what you see. Stop sometimes and take a photo of a special shop, colorful sign, special view from an opening between buildings, murals, beautiful buildings that have the special feel, etc. and start a thread in the photo section of just your Liberty. We love posts like this.
Next thing you know, you'll start to venture just a bit further, then one day it turns into a stop to call home and say "I'll be home tomorrow". or maybe when you wake up you'll say it.

Indeed. I've been trying to post as much as possible in the Scooter Pic of the Day thread in the Scooter Gallery

do it lots. Country riding in Australia