Modern Vespa

Thanks Bitsa for reminding me, add chopped up vespas to the list.

Chopped up? Don't you mean cutdown

same dif my brotha, you say Lift I say Elevator.

I'd ride nothing non-Vespa/Aprilia and nothing smaller than a 200.

This!

I've ridden something like 150 different machines total, but have owned only forty.

I'll ride anything from a moped to a Boss Hoss (and have), the experience of sampling as many different machines as one can in this life should not be construed as a bad thing. There's a lot of fun stuff out there, ride it.

I say stairway we aint posh enought for a lift


so you'd let a surgeon chop you open

just dont see myself on any chicom scooter

Heres a bike that would suit you, fast it is:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2629/3695817880_d950d2e930_b.jpg

I like that! Just needs a bit more bodywork

Well, I'd probably ride any scooter. But own? Nothing over a 150cc.

To me a scooter is all about stopping and smelling the roses. Taking the slow way. The side roads. Taking your time. Taking the Parkway (here, that means a 25 mph road with mature oak trees and native plantings and no trucks allowed) instead of the highway. 8)

Me too Mr Raisin. I'm perfectly happy bimbling along at 30 mph on a 50cc. I can't go any faster, so I don't care. All about the sights, sounds and smells. I don't even care that I've got no music 8)

No good to me the mirrors on the wrong side There's too much cut off the floor

Believe it or not, I would not ride a Vespa.

I tried them and they do not fit me,I can't get my feet flat and the balance for me is totally off!

I have to say they are very responsive to body english (riding with your butt!) But my BV 500 fits me better and the extra weight beneath my bum helps me keep it on the road. Plus I like the transformer look!

It is not so much style as personal fit! Since I am so tall and skinny. But I do like the classic vespa look, especially when fully pimped. Gotta respect it!

I like the transformer look too but my scoot is all about functionality with a little style in there too, I love it that i can fit a helmet, lock, gloves, raincoat, balaclava, cowel and spider bungy under the seat of the bike and if i fancy a few pints of the black stuff after work i can leave it locked up and have a few scoops without carrying anything with me. The ultimate for me though would have to be an mp3 400, perfect balance of style performance and funtionality, its on the list!

I have a 650 Burgman, it will glide silently down the parkway at 25 mph as graciously as anything on two wheels.

The only real difference is that it's just not limited to that.

Except you probably don't park that on the sidewalk.

wow never thought Id read you saying that.

ride safe my brotha from across the pond.

Manny

I was going to make the same point.  I dearly love my mp3, but I am sometimes jealous of the 50-150cc scoots I see parked on the sidewalk.

I see we're going to now expand the 'acceptably small machine' criteria to include 'sidewalk parking' privileges?

I guess I can't win this one if the 'rules' are a floating concept.

Around here you can't park any motor vehicle on a sidewalk, so it's a moot point from my perspective anyway.

I suppose the 'good news' in that is that the ticket for doing so isn't any more for the 600 lb Burgman than it is a 50cc scooter.

Not a big fan of the Art Vespas at the museum

wow those are fugly. That must have been the "Hey lets see how ugly we can make a scooter look" contest.

Not that I'm some kind of 'fashion guy'... gut man, the Helix and Morpheus are butt-ugly!

Not particularly eloquent Larry ... but deadly accurate IMHO!

There are far too many seriously ugly scooters out there these days. Some are so badly designed that they are in truth hard on the eyes to even glance at them! It makes me question which terribly over rated school produced so many sadly deluded, self proclaimed "designers"!!!

Piaggio is just as guilty as many others. Their Aprilia line (just to name one) is a fine example of the Land of the Lost when it comes to appearances. I can't think of even one nice thing to say about that particular product line. I think every single model got hit with the fugly stick!

Beauty and grace is certainly in the eye of the beholder, but I am at a loss to understand how anyone can actually feel that any of the Aprilia scooters are both good looking and functional. The two design elements need not be mutually exclusive ... but perhaps those that design these monstrosities actually like UGLY!

(I'm told some men truly find tremendously obese women a turn on ... so what the hell do I know?)

Ah, ok, that is kind of cool. But I still find them ugly. If you compare it, for example to those other scooters in the same set...It's like beauty and the beast.

But that scooter I see in your other photos is nice! I hadn't heard of the piaggio "allstate" so I googled it. Very interesting.

I rode with the ruckus group again tonite, 32 scooters and one motorcycle, the two stroke ruckus blew me away, we were crusing 50ish and he gased his and dusted me, I couldnt catch him. For pride sake Im gonna blame the belt.

The Allstate is a bullet proof Vespa 125cc, 3 speed shifty, it was sold by Sears department store under the name Allstate. I used to have a 59 and I regret selling it.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3238/3072206137_7e2859b411_b.jpg

Back to the ruckus, I think they are ugly but they have grown on me.

Another Scooter I wouldnt ride: A restored Vespa GS Mrk II, Id make an altar for that scoot.

I agree none of those, no new Lambretta (original Italian yes, so long as I've got good running shoes), and no Helix

I'd never ride anything with a swing-arm mounted engine or wheels smaller than 15".

In other words, you'd never ride a scooter.

Normally, I'd never ride a scoot built completely in China, or one that was pink. Although I did a few weeks ago, but I was getting paid to do it, so... you know, I let that one slide. And I might make an exception for owning a new Scarabeo, if the opportunity ever comes up.

IMO, you need to broaden your definition of what a scooter is. Neither of us (or anybody else on this board for that matter), are the final word on what constitutes a scooter.

Just because a scooter has a frame-mounted engine and larger wheels, doesn't mean it's not a scooter. For instance, other defining characteristics are step through frame, under seat storage, and low-mounted engine.

FWIW, insurers classify the TMAX and Gilera GP800 (both of which have larger wheels and frame-mounted engines) as scooters.

Especially if your Grand Dink is...pink...

If we are just going to abandon the traditional definitions of "motor scooter", then maybe I'll just go along with the crowd and go for a ride in my Hummer "sports car", and then eat some pizza "health food". What is the value of a definition if one stretches it to the point of meaninglessness?

Those machines have far more characteristics in common with fairly large motorcycles than they have with anything that has traditionally been recognized as a scooter. The insurers call them scooters because that's what the manufacturers call them.

I don't.

I would not ride this cause.... It don't exist yet. (and if it did it would be WAY to expensive.)

You guys are weird!... or maybe I'm weird

The Ruckus and Morphous are things of beauty!


It's a snugly in my garage.


There's not much I wouldn't ride, but I definitely would not buy any of the Chinese knockoffs.

SpoonKiller, I'm with you on the Ruckus at least.  And while I'm not a fan of the Morpheus' styling, I have to admit that I owned a Helix for awhile.  (And it grew on me.)

The guys I ride with on Thrusday are on Total Ruckus .com, great bunch of guys. One guy does have a morphous, at first I didnt like it, but now I kinda like it. Two stroke ruckus are kick ass.

ride safe

Manny

I won't ride any scooter with wheels smaller than 16".

There isn't much I would flat-out refuse to ride, it would pretty much have to be falling apart and unsafe to take on the road... like a really bad VietBodge, for example. That might include some new Chinese scooters too, like the ones they sell at Pep Boys. And I'll never ride a Harley again if I can avoid it. If I wanted that much mass beneath me, I'd go to a country western bar and ride a mechanical bull...

A pink Vespa. Or any pink bike.

It's a failing, I know. But not a socio-politico failing. Maybe an aesthetic blindness. At rest, it looks - to me - like a big wad of fresh Dubl Bubl accidentally lost mid-chaw, and still warm on the pavement.

Now, girls on pink scoots is a whole 'nother thang...

LOL... I'm confident enough in my manliness that I wouldn't have a problem riding a pink bike. I wouldn't *buy* one, but I wouldn't feel threatened by simply riding one. In fact, I'd probably be laughing my ass off riding a pink bike, just seeing peoples' reactions to it. Besides, Pepto pink is one hell of a visible color, I imagine it's just about one of the safest colors you could pick, along with yellow and orange.