Modern Vespa

So... let me know when you want to take that river ride. Let's see what we can come up with.

Harv

Moto guy here too. (Still am, in fact.)

I think the main lure of the GTS is the ability to get off the line demonstrably quicker than most cars. When I lane-split (ah, CA) and get up to the front, I want to be able to get well ahead of the rest of the pack. (I once had a guy in a Jeep Grand Cherokee try to race me, tires smoking and the whole 9 yards, and I left him in the dust. It was no contest.)

Where you will see the difference from a motorcycle is rolling on from 35 mph up. There isn't a ton of acceleration there. But you can get up to a decent cruising speed without feeling like you're going to get your clock cleaned from behind. FWIW, by GPS my max is 82.2 on a stock GTS. But I generally cruise around 65-70 on the freeway.

I commute about 25 miles each way to work and most of that stretch is a 45mph posted road where people usually do 55mph. I mostly ride in that range and am able to keep up with traffic very well.

Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to get on the freeway...not there yet though!

While I'm sure the GTS can beat the LX off of the line, with my LX I've never had any issues lane splitting. Generally I can easily jump out way ahead of any cars. 8)

I think the fastest my speedo has said is 150kmh.
My goal is to hit the rev limiter but no matter how I tuck in behind my fly screen I can't do it.('')
The scooter doesn't feel unstable at all at that speed It feels less stable decelerating at 60kmh

I have had my LX150 up to 65-70 mph downhill. My comfort zone is 45-50 max, and I do not go on the freeway.

Simply too vulnerable on two wheels for my taste. The vast majority of my riding is between 25-45 mph.

Top speed indicated was 141 kph about 2 months ago.
Wanted to change lanes and that was the speed it took to make the move.
The rest of the time I am fast enough to keep people off my butt and slow enough to survive.

I'm a fairly new rider with a 68 Sprint 150cc and I top out at 55 mph and when I approach some sort of downhill I can get it up to about 60 mph. I had a bone head moment the first time on the road because I thought I was going 85 mph but noticed a few cars passing me up. I then realized my speedometer is reading km/h not mph!

Well on my 125cc, gts. as im still running in, iv only tried about 50-55 miles per hour,(85, km/h)..but i dont know if the speedo is correct ? also in the book , it says top speed is 102, km/h... about 65 mph. i think ? unless anyone on here can let me no otherwise... as dont want to thrash it to much..

I ride at about 200 mph. My GTS is really fast.

are you sure your speedo is working ok..ha

it is so fast it looks like a blur.....

8)

+1 to what Michael said, especially getting off the line. I've hit a similar top speed number on my GTS, but prefer doing those speeds and highway riding on my more stable (to me) motorcycle.

I used to top out at around 70mph indicated on my previous LX150. At that point you're squeezing blood out of a turnip.

in the Uk you need to be able to do 60 mph and cruise at it to be comfortable away from cities and towns.

most ive had a stock Gt up to was 70mph. i know the one ive got now (with Scorpion) can do more but i havent tried it yet. I crashed last year at 40 and broke a shoulder - believe me thats fast enough to be scarey when you feel it go from under yer.
the T5 i had got up to 75 on the speedo but you cant trust the old speedos, that on an old vespa is frightening. They handle like a blender on kitchen worktop.

Your bike must be faster than my GTS. Although quick of the line (for a scooter), I feel that just about any car wanting to beat me could. For me, it's more a thing of anticipating the light and hitting the throttle. Believe me I have been around enough Nissan Titan trucks and Toyota 4-Runners who have felt obligated to beat me off the line (and dangerously so) when I filtered to the front at a stoplight. I weigh 230 lbs., which probably affects my acceleration a bit. My 150lb friend had no trouble keeping up with me on a Kymco 150.

I travel easily at 75 -80 indicated. I guess this where my bulk helps.

I weigh less than your 150lb friend, hence the overall "less-smooth" and feeling of instability of my GTS at those speeds on the freeway compared to my motorbike. We can compare notes on the 134 fwy over Eagle Rock, my friend.

Okay...since I started the Thread I feel entitled to chime in again...I like fast, and when I drive my car I go real fast. However, I feel that the handling characteristics of my ET4 don't really lend themselves to high speed riding.
The high center of gravity of the scooter vs. a motorcycle makes evasive maneuvers more dangerous...also the smaller diameter wheels seem like they can get more easily swallowed in potholes. Splitting lanes...getting the jump at lites, etc. are all sorta motorcycle riding tactics...y'know, stay out in front and away from cars. With the Vespa I find that driving it like a car...taking up a lane and moving with traffic is the safest and consequently the more relaxing way of traveling.
So I guess my original question could more reasonably be re-framed as what do you think is the optimum safe speed for riding your Vespa?

I think you answered your own question with that last response. The optimum speed is the one you feel safest doing in a particular traffic condition (and within the law or however much you're willing to go against it).

I happen to think very much like you do when it comes to this. There's a lot of folks here who are perfectly comfortable doing 70+mph on their scooters with no problems. Hell, a few of them did it across the country. I'm not saying it's safe or unsafe to do so, but just that I personally don't feel as comfortable doing so on my Vespa as I do on my motorbike. It could be my weight, skills (or lack thereof) or my imagination.

My story told in 'speedo truth':

70kmh / 45mph on my unrestricted 4-stroke LX 50
Feels actually OK from ZERO to WOT
PS: Amazing to read that 125cc riders are doing/preferring equally...

130 kmh / 80mph WOT with backwind, hitting rev limiter on my GTS250
Ideal speed for me is cruising around 95 kmh / 60 mph

55 kmh / 35 mph on my vintage Vespa 50 Specia...
It is all it can do and IMHO enough on vintage small wheels with vintage brakes and vintage suspension

tell that to the Cannonballers

Yeah , yeah I know all that - you can do what you like with them, doesn't mean they were designed for it 8)

On average 80km/h or 50mp/h on my S 125.

On my Beo 250 I go as fast as I can without being wide open, 65-75 feels pretty good. That bike just begs to be ridden fast and handles speed very well. On the C70 top speed (43ish) is sort of scary so I tend not to push that as much. I've slowed down considerably on the motorcycles (70-80 depending on the bike) and am pretty conservative these days so that's a good thing. I've just found the scoots seem to bring out the devil when it comes to pushing the limits.

Drove mine from Houston to San Antonio last week. Was planning to take the back roads, but decided I just wanted to get there and figured I would try the interstate. I had no problem keeping up with traffic. I hit the rev limiter several times at an indicated 88 mph. GPS said max speed was 81 mph. Fuel mileage dropped down to 45 mpg at those speeds.

I got my GTS up to 77 mph on a recent trip down the coast, that was about all the scooter had, unless maybe I was going downhill. It was flat.

I've got a windshield on now, I didn't then, I wonder if I'd be able to get more speed as I've heard discussed?

One way to find out.

On what I think was my second trip down to the test facility to prepare for my first road test, I took a stretch of Rte 71, a two-laner with a 55mph posted limit. Naturally, nearly everyone traverses it around 60-65...except, of course, for a certain murdered-out Hemi Dodge Ram whose driver seemed fascinated (or curious) about just how fast the guy on the scooter in front of him could go. Suffice it to say I wound Melody to a bit past 70 for the very first time: felt steady, felt safe, but there was a serious sensation of speed that was more than a little exhilarating. This is why A GTS feels more "alive" (in a good way) at 35mph than most any motorcycle. And so damned much fun.

Isnt that just so!

During my commute, I drive on roads with speed limits varying between 20 mph (school zones) and 55 mph (freeway service/frontage road). My speed ranges from 18 mph to 65 mph on an average commute (speed measured by GPS, not the speedometer).

If I take the freeway, the speed limit is 70 mph, and I tend to go about 75 mph. I've had it up to 81 mph (speedo read 93). It was very stable.

Ton up. No more, too chicken.

Doug, Vespas are made as a all round tough utility bike, they even do a 'Touring' model. In 'urop' these bikes are used for just about everything. As a big bike touring sort of guy who used to do 40,000 miles a year on a GSX1400, a Vstrom 1000GT, Burgman 650/400, I'd have no issue with using the GTS300 for the same. It's very much a mind set thing. As long as you are comfortable that's the main thing. In fact I'd say in many ways the GTS is more suitable for long trips over some other bikes as the oil and filter changes are much longer on the GTS than for example, the Burgmans (6,200 miles for the GTS, 3,750 for the Burgmans). But we all feel differently about these things of course. Some might want more top speed ability, but really the GTS can still do it all.

^^^^^^ This!

I would much rather ride one of my Vespa GT's around the country than my Honda. The scooter is much more comfortable and fun to ride. And this is on virtually any road in the country from interstate highways to twisty mountain roads. Cities to Kansas.

I'd rather ride my Vespa than my Vino. I don't fixate on my speed. One day i'll probably be posting from Jail but when i see a open stretch of road i'm gone.

Yesterday I had the BV350 to an indicated 95MPH. Of course it wasn't going that fast but the thing has such good power, brakes, and manners that it feels very secure at that speed.

At 95mph my GSX1400 felt completely dead in the excitement department. So did my Vstrom. I bet your BV felt great and very good fun to ride at 95mph indicated!

Yes. It is all tapped out but stable and comfy.

On Rocket (2006 Vespa GT) in British Columbia in 2014. Not on a highway, but catching up on a big truck, downhill, downwind led to some nice speed that day.

Yes, that's spinning up pretty well indeed!

I've had a BMW K1300S up to 270kph or about 165mph on the autobahn in Germany, legally. My Sprint 150 will max out indicating about 67 which I'm told is still below 60. It's very stable and feels very safe. I find the helmet type makes a big difference. An open face helmet gets loud and windy much above 50mph where as a FF starts getting noisy about 80 or 90, but wind isn't really an issue.