Modern Vespa

A friend of mine recently bought a Scarabeo 200. Among his considerations were the difference in cost, size of wheels and a few other things that seem to elude me now. He always seemed to come back to one issue in particular: "Vespas are magnets for thieves", or something to that effect.

That being a concern, especially in a city the size of Chicago, I was wondering what solutions are available to the prospective Vespa Purchaser to both deter theft of the bike, and potentially aid in its recovery if stolen?

Thieves steal what's popular if it's their intention is to sell the item, so yeah, I suppose Vespas are pretty high on the list, though I don't have figures.

Your only real choices for theft prevention are a chain or an alarm, and even then the alarm is only effective IF the siren deters the thief OR you can react fast enough to intervene. To me, disc and grip locks, unless they have an alarm, only prevent a gang of thieves from rolling it off, not from picking it up and tossing it into another vehicle.

LoJack is not an option if you read their site carefully - their policies don't cover bikes under a specific engine displacement.

All security can be defeated given time, so, make an effort to slow a potential thief down - park in a well lit and traveled area and insure the scoot to the max.

If you're curious, there are many threads on this topic if you use the Search function at the top of the page. (I don't recommend the Big Guy with the fully automatic rifle for legal reasons...)

Isn't Aprilia that makes the Scarabeo also a Piaggio company? Why go after the lexus when you can snag the Toyota. I would think the scarabeo wouuld be just as big of a target. I would think the Vespa community would be tighter knit and would be able to spot someone riding a stolen vespa. I've been looking at and invested in an alarm system. The larger wheels on the Scarabeo would probably fit the Xena disc lock alarm. My 12 in wheels and disc is too small to fit a xena. I bought a gorilla 7007 and am looking on MV for anyone That has any advice installing one for a scooter.

Hey, I'm from Chicago too. What I have noticed in the city is that if I chain my vespa up to a bike rack, CPD don't really give tickets for it. I was chained to a bike rack on Rush st and Chicago ave in downtown for 5 hours on a Saturday, and no citations. The awesome thing about living in such a big city is that a lot of times, the officers are tied up dealing with real issues...

That said, I park my vespa on the sidewalk chained up to a bike rack or light pole when I'm at home and I have no problems at all. If you do get a crusader that writes you a ticket, two things...

1. Paying it off is cheaper than paying for a brand new scoot.
2. Chicago allows written contestations for parking tickets. (Even if found responsible, I've never had to pay more than half of what the ticket was worth)

Full-coverage insurance. You really want the money if it's stolen and broken, not your broke-ass scoot.

That being said, I'm a huge proponent of 10mm thick chains. Chaining that sucker to a relatively immovable object is my way to go. Nothing screams "secure" more than 35 lbs of properly applied chain (except maybe 50 lbs of chain). Any thicker than 10mm, and I have a difficult time fitting it through between the brake disc and wheel. There are some that like to throw the chain around the whole floor board, but you need a really long-ass chain for that. Personally, I like the NY Noose style chain (or the onguard Mastiff 5019lp) as a happy medium of security and practicality. It's long enough to offer some reach, and the noose characteristic allows some additional chaining configurations that would normally take twice the length of chain to do otherwise.

For me, chaining up the scoot is like a religion. You do it, even if there's absolutely no apparent reason to do it. You do it even if parked in yuppy-ville USA, next to a hundred other scooters just like yours. Even if there's nothing to chain it up to, you chain its tire to its own security hoop or centerstand.

do they have dedicated motocycle parking spots in chicago? They have been pushing for more in SF. Gas is gonna get crappier and more people will be buying scoots and MC's. The bike parking I have seen in SF is smack dab in the middle of the financial district. Stick a screamer on your bike I don't think it will get stolen.

I too consider the contesting of tickets as a regular part of life on a scooter. With alot of areas moving to meterless parking systems (that require you to display a piece of paper on your non-existant dashboard), and no place to legally secure my scoot up to a pole, I continually find myself violating rules, whether it's keepin my scooter secured on a sidewalk, or pocketing a receipt that should've been displayed on a non-existant dashboard. Until municipalities catch up with the fact that scooter parking is its own animal, and will get worse with the popularity of it gaining, contesting tickets is a(n annoying) part of the process. I've rarely been ticketed in the first place, and never had to pay. That being said, I also hold myself to fairly strict rules about where and how I park my scoot. For instance, I won't park in a location that severely impedes pedestrian walkways (allowing enough room for two wheelchairs to pass each other easily next to my scoot, amongst other criteria). I push my scoot along sidewalks with the engine off so that I am truly a "pedestrian" when I'm on the sidewalk. And I always pay for meterless parking receipts so I have something to show the judge when I get back to my scoot and see a ticket shoved into the seam of the glove box door.

[quote="TheWasp"] Could you clarify what this means, please?

Good insurance!

[quote="Tikhon"] Around my area, the town's gotten into the habit of installing meterless parking systems. These systems usually replace the standard parking meters that would normally line a street with a single booth that one has to visit to pay for parking. It usually spits out a receipt after you pay for a certain amount of parking time. You're supposed to show that receipt on the dashboard in your car. Obviously, I have no dashboard on my scoot. And if I place the piece of paper on the scoot, it usually blows away, or is swiped. But I pay for the parking anyways, collect my receipt, and keep it in case I have to contest a parking ticket. I have a little folder sitting at home with a bunch of these, in case the ticket itself had blown off my scooter as well, and I get a nastygram 6 months later and have to dig through records to find the damn proof.

Even if I'm parked on the sidewalk next to the meterless parking area, I pay for the parking as if I was in a parking spot. For me, the point is not escaping the cost of a parking meter. The point is finding a suitable place to secure my scooter. So, I pay for the spot, whether I'm on the sidewalk or on the street.