Modern Vespa

Take a look under there and you should be able to see what the problem is. The tech may have left the clamp loose (its a 17mm nut IIRC), the exhaust gasket may have blown out, or your header pipe is broken. Either one should be easy to see.

wangta, i agree with two things.

don't turn back

repair at closest shop

make phone call to offending shop and give the 'pay forward' a try

BUT buy no means should you let this discourage you or hold you back on your ADVENTURE

just to clarify, I didn't mean to suggest that this trouble to stop Wang's adventure. I'm sure he will be nothing but kind and courteous to the offending shop. I think you can be diplomatic and get them to pay for it without being a jerk. Good luck!

Glad you were able to get the tire replaced without incident... but man, talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire! The recall you're referring to was actually for the header pipe, rather than the exhaust gasket. The new style header pipe has a deflector ring that directs exhaust gases away from the brake line, in the event of a gasket failure, but it still uses the exact same gasket.

The dealer who replaced your tire should have seen that it had the old style header pipe and replaced it under the recall. Failure to do that exposes them to serious liability - losing the rear brake is nothing to sneeze at, especially since this is a well known safety issue. Do you know if they replaced the gasket when they mounted the tire? If the reused the old gasket, that's a likely reason why the it failed. If they did install a new gasket (you should see it listed on your receipt), then they certainly didn't install it properly, because it should not have failed like that.

In any event, don't ride back to Idaho Falls, limp it the 25 miles to Ogden to have the work done, or have it transported there, if possible. I firmly believe that Idaho Falls should cover the cost of all repairs - header pipe, exhaust gasket, brake line, brake fluid, labor and cleanup of the brake fluid that leaked all over the underside of your bike, since their failure to act on a service bulletin involving a safety issue led directly to the failure of your rear brake.

I'd recommend that you first call Vespa Idaho Falls and ask them to coordinate with Vespa Ogden to cover the cost. If they balk at it, remind them that they failed to do their due diligence by replacing the header pipe, per the official service bulletin that was issued over a year ago. If they still hem and haw, let them know they're lucky that you weren't injured as a result of the brake failure, otherwise they'd be hearing from your insurance company's lawyers instead of receiving a friendly phone call from you, asking them to rectify the situation for a lot less $$. If they don't want to pay Vespa Ogden to do the repairs, they have the option of driving out there to pick up your bike to make the repairs and then transport it back to you, and paying for an extra night's hotel stay if needed.

On a side note, Vespa Keane also deserves to be dinged for not replacing the exhaust header when the prepped the bike before your trip! Tsk tsk! I hope it works out well... as always, if you need any advice, feel free to give me a ring. Good luck and safe travels!

bagel - I believe he has the post recall header pipe: I'm hoping he only needs a new gasket as opposed to a new header pipe. It will be quicker and easier both in obtaining the part and installing it.

Whoops! Somehow I missed that, thanks for pointing it out. That is disconcerting, and I'm curious to find out what went wrong.

where's waldo, i mean where's wangta

safe riding and we are attempting a nice planed ride for you here in LA

I know, it's a little disconcerting

been a couple days


do we have a cell #

I do, I'll give him a ring or send a text message, make sure everything's good

I suspect they might just be lacking Internet connectivity, it gets kind of spotty in that part of the country. I sure hope everything's ok though!

Great reading about another cross-country scooter adventure.

I left Halifax, Nova Scotia on May 29th and arrived in Saratoga, California on July 1st, just in time to attend Amerivespa. Travelled through 17 states/provinces - over 5500 miles. What an amazing trip.

I have to agree with Bagel regarding internet connectivity in Idaho. Although I did not follow the same route as Wangta + companion are, I did travel from Idaho Falls heading west and it was barren, no cellphone service, no internet, hardly any people.... just lots, and lots of wind, wind, wind.

Keeping positive thoughts, Terri

Day 11 - Worland, Wyoming - Greybull - Cody, Wyoming

Started off the day riding along route 16/20 north toward Greybull, then west toward Cody, Wyoming, where we stayed at a motel about 30 miles from Yellowstone's east gate. Was incredibly excited to truly enter rocky mountain territory (despite having crossed over a near 10,000 ft mountain the day before!). From practically the first mile, you could see huge mountains looming in the not too distant horizon - and we were driving right at them.

The ride was bright, clear and pleasant. More of Wyoming's desert like terrain (see pictures) at the beginning of the ride, which eventually changed to towering rock ledges and snow capped mountains as we got closer to Cody. Tomorrow, we venture into Yellowstone.

GTS has been running great. The PX has been running great, but altitude SERIOUSLY slows down the ol' 200cc engine. At 5,000 ft, I'm running strong - can hit 60 mph on a flat. However, above 7,000 ft, the PX slows down considerably - I was crawling over a mountain summit at 40 mph. I'm beginning to realize the next week or so might be some slow traveling, as Yellowstone is 7,000+ ft high, and Utah's parks are about the same altitude. Thought about calling up Sportique in Denver to get some info on rejetting for 7,000+ altitude, but decided against it because 1) I'm not going to be at this altitude consistently, and 2) seems way to complicated for my little brain.

Total miles - Day 11: 130 Miles













Near Cody

Day 12 - Northern Loop in Yellowstone National Park

Decided to take one scooter today for simplicity and allow one person to shoot pictures while the other concentrated on the road. The GTS was the scoot of choice, due to it's comfortable seat (super corsa is like a rock and only made for one person), gas mileage, performance at altitude, automatic transmission (starting and stopping on hills could suck with a PX). It was a bit brisk when we took off from Cody but by the time we passed through the east gate and climbed up toward Yellowstone Lake (the highest lake in North America @ 7,732 ft) the temperature had dropped to 52! Yikes! Thank the lord I brought my frog toggs. I literally wore them for the lake drive - then took them off. The ascent to Yellowstone Lake was spectacular - big, windy roads with huge mountains for a backdrop. I was surprised to find that many of the trees near the summit before Yellowstone Lake were burned and dead. At times, it seemed like we were riding through a tree cemetery. Guessing a big forest fire engulfed the area many years before (some medium sized trees had grown in the same area).

After we passed Yellowstone Lake, we gassed up at the first major "town", Fishing Bridge where we unexpectedly ran into two other Vespa riders from Brooklyn, NY (they towed their scooters to Yellowstone). After exchanging pleasantries, we took off north toward Hayden Valley, which was a gorgeous, huge, wide-open valley with small brush, trees, and a beautiful river. On the way, we literally drove within feet of a bison - I almost didn't see it as it was standing in the shadow of a tree! Scared the crap out of me - we slowed to take a picture, and I must admit, was a little nervous being around a "wild" animal of that size - they are absolutely enormous. I kept thinking about that scene in Dances with Wolves when the buffalo charges the Indian kid and Kevin Costner has to shoot it seconds before it tramples the child....I was within 10 feet of it! And I couldn't help wondering "are buffalo related to bulls...the ones that charge things that are RED?". First time in my life that I semi-regretted having a RED GTS. We snapped a couple terrible pictures (shaky camera...wonder why) and zoomed off. We ran into a lot more bison as we rode toward northern Yellowstone. Given the size of Yellowstone and the relatively lack of roads, I felt incredibly lucky to have the chance to see bison in such close quarters. As we made the way around the northern loop, we also ran into a bunch of other wildlife - including Elk, deer, black bear, and coyote.

Total miles - Day 12: 220 Miles



East Entrance - Line of Cars


























Hayden Valley

























Artist Viewpoint




Northern Loop

Just beautiful! Keep em coming! The photos are amazing and the colors are rendering beautifully on my screen. Don't know what your photo magic is, but it is magic. You are giving me happy Cannonball flashbacks.

Oh, and don't forget to keep riding safe.

Day 13 - Cody, WY to West Yellowstone, Montana

Took the same route to Yellowstone as the day before, but cut across the middle of Yellowstone to get to West Yellowstone. We had taken the same roads the day before, so we didn't see anything new per say, but riding through Hayden Valley and the mountains was again - spectacular. This time, we took both PX and GTS as we were moving to West Yellowstone for the night. Being Monday, traffic was much lighter than the day before. It was nice to cruise slowly through Yellowstone without cars breathing down your neck (some cars drive obscenely fast - almost makes you wonder why they are there - obviously not enjoying the scenery!).

PX performed admirably, but the altitude was a killer. I attribute some of the "sluggishness" to the extra weight - my topcase is fully packed and is not light by any means. Plus, I'm carrying plenty of tools in the glove box, and the extra gas. Maybe I'm giving PX too much credit, but I thought it did pretty well, considering at times, we were over 8,000 ft and climbing.

The back tire of the GTS is seriously starting to worry me. Took a look at it this morning and was surprised to see so much wear - the center section is nearly flat with NO channels. I heard these stock savas suck, but I really thought they would last anther 500 miles or so. Called a bunch of places in West Yellowstone to see if they could mount a new tire, but no leads. Thinking I might have to try and reach Vespa Idaho Falls - a good 200 miles away.


Hotel View


Yellowstone Lake


Hayden Valley








On Route to West Yellowstone

Day 14 - West Yellowstone, Montana to Southern Yellowstone Loop, through Grand Teton National Park to Jackson, Wyoming.

What a day - took off from West Yellowstone, Montana and headed back into Yellowstone National Park, taking the southern loop before heading south on route 191 to Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Wyoming. Southern loop was great - the south west part of Yellowstone seems to be the mud volcano/geyser center of Yellowstone. There were steam plumes seemingly every couple miles. Stopped by Old Faithful 5 minutes before eruption and managed to get some great personal shots (sorry guys, no scooters allowed near the guyser). I was surprised by the number of people who had gathered to see Old Faithful - the spectator bleachers and platform that half circled around old faithful was pretty packed with spectators - and it was a Monday!

My couple observations about Yellowstone:

1) I would advise anybody to avoid Yellowstone on Sunday if possible. It was quite crowded, and not uncommon for people to stop their cars in the middle of the road, completely ignoring the people behind them, to take a picture. It became easy to see when animals were around - the traffic would stop and 20+ cars would come to a standstill. It did help to have a Vespa - it zoomed around the traffic at a couple instances (much to the annoyance of others - I made sure not to cut anyone off) and I cannot imagine how much time it saved us.

2) The weather in Yellowstone is incredibly volatile, depending on time and altitude. Mornings are generally calm and the most "pleasant" (I'll explain in a sec what unpleasant weather is). Temps I the morning ranged from 70 to as low as 50 as you hit the highest altitudes. In the early afternoon, temps spiked to high 90s - we were sweating around 2:30 as the GTS thermometer showed 97! Near 4 pm, the sunny skies suddenly darkened and we found ourselves in a vicious storm - hard rain and really strong wind gusts that blew us around the roads. We managed to ride through some of the storm and get down to lower elevations, but man - I don't think I've ever encountered such strong winds.

So to those of you looking to go to Yellowstone, you can totally do it on a motorcycle/scooter - but have enough under the hood to zoom up steep mountains and perform at altitude. Would advise avoiding weekends if possible and get to the park early to avoid traffic and severe weather that seems to always hit in the late afternoon (at least that is what the park information seemed to report). And be prepared for ANY type of weather - hot, cold, rainy, windy, etc.

After getting our shots at Old Faithful, we took off and headed south on route 191 toward the Grand Tetons. It is tough to describe the Grand Tetons - they may be the most spectacular mountains I have ever seen in person. We tried every imaginable way to snap pictures of them, but it is nearly impossible to capture the magnitude and beauty of these mountains without seeing them with your own eyes. It was amazing to drive next to these enormous mountains - was glad that I didn't have to climb UP them! As we left Grand Teton National Park, ran into a herd of bison! There must have been a hundred of them - how cool!

We stopped off at Jackson, Wyoming for the night. Jackson is a very charming, cute town. It seems to have a good mix of locals and tourists, and compared to the other towns we have been through - seems very wealthy as well. I believe Jackson Hole, the ski slope is based here. Judging on the mountains that surround Jackson, I can imagine it is great for skiing during the winter.

Tomorrow, we head off to Idaho Falls to get the rear tire replaced! Until then, careful careful riding.



Yellowstone










Old Faithful


Old Faithful Inn


Grand Tetons

Stunning !

Really enjoying this thread! You'll have to let us know your planned route down to LA once you hit the West Coast...I'm sure there are lots of scooterists along the way who would love to buy you lunch or an end-of-day beer.

(Of course that's assuming that, through the magic of delayed posting, you're not already sitting in LA with your feet up.)

Spectacular photos! Enjoying your story as well. Thanks for sharing them with us.

wow! Just awesome. Thanks for taking the time to share the pictures with us Wang!

I agree with your about the Grand Tetons being the most spectacular mountains. I rode my bicycle from OR to CO yrs ago and had similar experiences in Yellowstone. Yosemite is my favorite Nat'l Park, hope you can make it there someday.

Did you do it alone? Sounds like an amazing trip as well. How did you transport the scoot back to Hailfax?

Beautiful pictures. What kind of camera are you using?

I had the pleasure of meeting Terri at Amerivespa. She's truly inspirational.

Terri, I'd love to see you start a thread on your trip, even though it's over. Perhaps a "lessons learned" or "highpoints recap."

Wangta and "traveling partner"
I am thoroughly enjoying reading about this adventure. Your pictures are breathtaking-I am so jealous! You seriously need to try to get your story and pictures published-the quality on my screen is fantastic!

Did entire trip solo on my stock PX150, I was quite loaded down as I camped all the way - As like Wangta, I did not make any changes to jets for high altitudes, PX really did slow down especially through the Tetons.

I left my Vespa (sadly) in Utah for the time being, I had to return to Halifax to sort out a few things. I have only been home 4 days and I am having major withdrawal symptoms already. Can't wait until we are reunited.

I have two journal of notes and memories about my trip and I do hope to post them in one form or another soon, right now just trying to get use to being home and recover from jet lag. Reading Wangta's updates and seeing his AMAZING pictures makes me want to back on the road again as soon as possible. I am addicted and thinking about possible routes for my next adventure.

Uh, I feel like I am in a time warp - what happened with the GTS repair and why are you worried about the tread on the rear tire again?

This is just a stunning tale and photos to match, I can hardly wait for the daily updates....
Glad you had no serious encounters with the wildlife, personally, the Bison would scare the crap out of me ( they can run way faster than your scoots by the way--for a short distance).
Just an interesting note about Yellowstone..that lake you are riding around?? It is the Caldera ( the mouth or opening) or a HUGE volcano. That volcano is still active, and overdue to blow by about 600,000 years. Cataclysm if that ever happens! Most people don't seem to know this.
Beautiful country though, but I expect you will have higher mountains to deal with so getting that Carb adjusted is maybe a good idea. Bigger spare gas tanks for some seriously empty roads ahead might be good too.
Expect the same weather patterns throughout the mountains areas of the west.
This is the best thread ever! You go!

Wow, this is epic! I am hereby officially one of your fans "Fan."

Reading this thread is like reading an ungraded version of "Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" with beautiful pictures and more drama. It also remind me of the narratives I have heard from people who hiked the complete Appalachian Trail.

Just wonderful, keep it up and drive safe.

Will be leaving for Mexico on Tuesday but will follow your trip. I made a similar trip in the 70's in a VW camper would love to do it on a Vespa.

If you get to NoCal, Bay Area, you can stay with me.

Get that tire changed.......

Like I said before, wish I was on a trip like this. Awesome pictures, would love to see some higher res versions when you get a chance.

Hope you are enjoying the trip at least half as much as I am enjoying seeing your posts.

Nikon D200! It's a big mother!

Planning to be in LA by the end of the month - look forward to meeting/riding with you all in the near future!

Sorry for the confusion - you are absolutely correct! I'm trying to keep things in order, thus writing about things as they occurred. While I'm trying to catch up and post on a daily basis, it is difficult sometimes to find the time and internet connectivity to do so, thus I have to delay postings and upload a couple days at a time.

You are absolutely correct - most of Yellowstone is actually on a live volcano (the source of the geysers). I actually did know this from watching a National Geographic show on Yellowstone - they say it will blow one of these days, and depending on the severity, it could either cause mass panic and blow a huge hole in the western USA, or cause the end of all life on Earth (blow ash into the atmosphere, block the sun, etc...). Kinda scary - maybe it's better if you don't think about it! The map of Yellowstone that is given out when entering the park actually shows the approximate caldera outline - a jagged ring that encompasses most of the park.

Check out the FAQ: http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/volcanoqa.htm

What a wonderful trip! I'm very jealous, and appreciate your effort in posting for our benefit.

We just got back from our road trip (by car - 3 of us wouldn't fit on my GT) and we drove north through the Tetons, up through Yellowstone and out the west side. We only saw one bison. From Tetons up to Yellowstone the roads were very rough, with torn up pavement, gravel, endless construction etc. You didn't drive on that did you?

Our trip, 2800 miles in 10 days, included 5 days in Glacier Park, which in my opinion is more beautiful than either the Tetons or Yellowstone. Thirty years ago I rode the Going To The Sun Highway on the back of a motorcycle and still think how lucky I was.

Continued good luck to you and again, thanks for documenting your adventure.

Epic... Just a side thought as to selling your photos: if you make a calendar of this adventure I'd be first in line to purchase it.

When are y'all meeting these 2 lovely folks for a beer/ride/dinner/etc???

Are you planning to ride through the SF Bay area? If so, definitely let us know so that we can give you a proper welcome when you're here. We can even offer you floor space or other assistance if there's anything you might need. Depending on when you make it to the south bay, we have our monthly ride the first Sunday of each month (next one 8/2) and we have a regular meetup every Tuesday night at Trials Pub in San Jose. We'd be honored to have you join us if you can!

BTW, let us know what happened with the GTS exhaust & brakes when you have a chance... inquiring minds want to know!

You sure have good reason to feel nervous:

Bison Attacks California Tourist at Yellowstone National Park

I'm sure glad that wasn't you! Safe travels, hope to hear more posts soon!

I'm having a bit of "Wangta Travelog Withdrawal" since the last post was Sunday.

Seriously, Wangta, if you're riding throught the SF Bay Area do let us know before, not after, the fact! Why should LA have all the fun just because that's the final stop on the trip!