Modern Vespa

I broke mine. And no i was not carrying a heavy load, i avoid doing that.

The spring broke years ago and now the rack itself around the welds.

I don't need folding, the reason i had it was iirc the salesman said it was stronger?

Not sure I buy the "stronger" argument, though that can have several interpretations. Maybe the folding version can accommodate more weight (seems doubtful) but what you have here seems to have broken after millions of microflexes occurred as the folding part wobbled over the fixed part. That made the metal brittle, as suggested by the clean fracture pattern.

I have a folding version too, with a permanently installed top box. The folding feature really isn't useful. I wouldn't do it again.

I have the folding version yet it's always down as I keep a soft case on there. So I guess if I did it again I wouldn't really need the folding version. I just wanted the option I guess!

what's a heavy load?

you ride alot of rough dirt roads.

How old was it? How many miles?

heavy is greater or equal to limit on the sticker. ie 6kg.

6 years, 82000km. not by the sea, no salt on roads.

Chrome is porous

I went with this model of rack from Scooterwest

if you think about it for less than 1sec, that is of no use to me as you can't mount the topbox on it which is obviously a pre requirement for me

Top box is a must-have for me.

OFG

so in lbs your at 13 and some change, subtract the top case itself and what do you have left? 2 kg?

have you ever scaled the top case and contents you normally carry?

The flat rack is the best option. Some of the Italian aftermarket companies make much stronger rear racks than what's available from the Vespa dealer. FA Italian, FACO and Cuppini come to mind. Unfortunately, a lot of the big Euro distributors are selling the same Chinese parts under their own labels, so the selection of quality racks at all the big places isn't what it used to be.
I've broken a couple of factory rear racks just from what I consider normal riding.
I have considerably overloaded an FA Italia rack for years, and haven't had any issues.

Does the standard gts box fit on them?

Have just bought OEM flat rack for AU$131

Decided against non-OEM after seeing pics of the holes on other brands not lining up properly. plus I can get the oem and a much better price.

heh - you may well find that the OEM rack has the same problem with holes lining up - at least the ones I've fitted always had to be wrestled into place. But the last one was nearly 10 years ago, so maybe, just maybe, they've improved. The chrome though is excellent on the OEM - best of the bunch.

Yes, for both: not exactly exact fittimg, but all others I have seen have been rusting nicely and fast.

Yup ...

One of the two tangs needed bending - just was well it's low grade steel so i could do it without a blow torch.

Could only get 3 holes to line up at a time so i enlarged one.

Already had a bit of rust on the welds for the tangs.

The bolt didn't want to go through - seemed the chroming had clogged some of the thread. had to work it through from each side, one day I'll buy some taps.

But it did have a QC sticker 🤦‍♂️


Bonus vs folding: the box is slightly further forward which should result in less stress on the rack.

I found it hard to get a non folding... so got a folding and just secured it so it's always OPEN. I like it as it's a bit bigger for a bigger bag if needed

That's pretty much how they show up at dealers now. Since Piaggio moved production of this part to Vietnam, all of them come in with rust stains on the bubblewrap where the holes are for the bolts.

and shitty welds