Modern Vespa

If I crash my 4 horsepower twisty I'm certainly not going to share with everyone unless it's a really good crash and I'm still able to use my fingers to type afterwards

9 times out of 10 when a newbie wants a Vespa they go and get a modern. I did. There's plenty of good reasons why. I can drive a shifty but it's for my wife as well. Plus, I really fancied brand-new for a change and don't care about depreciation because we plan on keeping it a long time (it's not getting traded in for a 300 Super anytime soon, maybe our kids will dig an '08 Vespa sometime in the future). Plus, when I first saw the S, I got the "want" feeling. The new range is very nice, but I have no lust for an LX or GTS.

So, newbie gets new Vespa. Googles. Comes here and feels the friendly vibe. Newbies crash. And since there are a lot of people on this board and many boards who absolutely must share everything, then we get to read about every little 'off'. It's more interesting than reading the same questions about chrome crashbars, Stebel horns, turnsignal beepers etc (none of which are going near my scooter).

I don't post so much this side apart from stuff like 'nice scooter' and 'I want' because I know jack shit. But I'm reading, absorbing, and learning. Seeing these threads with pics of Vespas broke down into their individual pieces and then being all put back together tells me I'd like to have a bash at it too. Renovated a few old cars so I'm feeling confident...while I'm looking for a suitable sanctuary that I can happily wrench and rattle can in, I'm sucking up information here and browsing for imperfect 50 Specials that aren't like a million miles away.

Thanks for the knowledges...in the future, I will have questions

You may be on to something there....

I know why. It´s because the clutch leaver is missing.

Just collected a twist an go from the bike shop in Alicante. Every time I hit a stop or roundabout pulled away and grabbed a handful of back brake trying to change up to 2ndgear

didnt you stamp the floor too looking for the brake... i kept doin it on me mates dragster

Yesterday, whilst riding the rental Carnaby on Naxos, I was able to keep from trying to upshift/downshift with the left hand. Back in May, I did it a couple of times on the MP3 I was riding, and it is a bit of fun when that "clutch lever" is really a brake.

But, no matter how well disciplined my left hand was, the right foot still tried to help when I wanted to apply rear brakes, even if the left hand was properly doing the job.

Spooky

Al

its unatural to have spare appendages while riding ..... right hand on clutch left hand on front brake foot on rear brake and other ready for the floor simples.... on an auto you have two feet for the floor so how you fall over is errrrr well you tell me

The new MP3 solves the problem. To make it acceptable for riding with just an automobile license, they added a right side foot pedal for the brakes. Still have the left and right hand brakes as well. I forgot to ask Vasillis if the foot brake was a coordinated front and rear.

Al

It is.

That happens to me when I take Mrs. Raton's Buddy out. When I take her car somewhere my left foot starts searching for a clutch.

I have never had the problem of grabbing for the clutch that isn't there...my conclusion?

My hands are much smarter than my stupid feet!

Just for fun, I would be willing to bet there are a higher percentage of vintage riders who have crashed than MV riders...

I am not saying this to start anything (as I have crashed both), I would just guess that most of the vintage riders have been riding for a longer amount of time and miles on bikes that aren't necessarily as reliable as a newer one (brakes/tires/engine power/etc), hence the increased chance of accidents happening.

But yes, I agree with others above that the vintage crowd probably hides the miscues more frequently...

Desi B.

That, and I don't know of a single vintage rider that has a real name for their scooter...

actually....its because your hands are closer to your brain.

I don't know of any real rider that gives any sort of names to their bikes.

Not a fetish I'd wish to encourage.

It would appear that some of the posts in this thread represent things that need to rise to the surface to be worked out, or things that stand to cleave the community aspect of this forum.

As to the skill level of modern riders, I recently had the great pleasure of riding some pretty challenging routes in the mountains of Paros and Naxos with a bunch of modern riders. These folks were great, and considering the fact that they were riding scooters with which they were not familiar, on roads they had never seen before, the skill levels they exhibited were, at least to me, even higher. This was a group that loves to RIDE, and ride they did. On twisty roads, both paved and unpaved. No whimpish behavior in the crowd, and no foolish unsafe behavior. Just solid, competent riders. I look forward to riding with them again next year.

There is no legitimate basis for trying to claim that riding a shifty is the mark of a better rider, or that riding shifties makes you a better rider. If there is valid data out there, why hasn't it been presented?

The two groups, at least on MV, tend to interact socially in different manners. Thus one group discusses their mishaps and the other doesn't. I won't go into the safety aspects we found about this in my years in the safety business, but it wouldn't be flattering to us shifties.

Let's enjoy our shifties, for whatever reason we enjoy them and get out of the non-productive habit of demeaning people who do not share our preferences.

We are all PTW riders, and we should bond in that regard and get over the other petty shit.

Al

actually chad i'm surprised that you felt like you needed to ask that question. you've been on this forum for a while, you know that the crashes and crash reports seem to come in batches, that's just the way it works for whatever reason. proportionally there are far more new riders posting in general discussions than there are over here, and new riders are more likely to crash, and to want reassurance when they do. it's actually pretty straightforward.

Maybe I'm imagining it, but there seems to be an air of superiority around some of the vintage crew...blah twisty riders can't ride, not a real vespa, twisty riders too happy, twisty riders stupid accessories; the mantra goes something like "I can drive a manual therefore only I am a true scooterist"

I exaggerate, probably

I mentioned this before and I will do so again-

The number of "crash reports" on the two forums represents one thing and one thing only, the number of mishaps that are voluntarily reported by each group. Any attempt to build a relationship between the number of such posts and the propensity for one group or the other to suffer a mishap is pure hogwash. To draw any meaningful conclusions, we would have to have a record and details of every mishap suffered by every member, and no such data exists on MV, nor will it ever.

Genie - you make an excellent point about new riders. I know several folks who would be riding today if they had a supportive group when they suffered their early on minor flop.

Give the modern vs vintage crap a rest guys. It serves no purpose.

Al

51 years riding a shifty and that makes me no better than anyone else

no way, you did not 'sorta' lay down the ss, oh man!

oh hell yea, everytime I get on the LT after having ridden the Ps for a while I'm stanping the phantom brake pedal while laughing at my silly arse

I take John Wayne's advice from one of those movies and "never give a name to somethin' I might have to eat."

- Eric

Yeah, there is in every "community" - new cars v. old, new motorcycles v. old, new bicycles v. old, etc, etc, etc.

One day all the MV riders will be bitching about how the kids on mag-lev scooters can't ride and everything will equal out.

As has been pointed out numerous times in the past, there are good Modern riders and bad, there are people who are genuinely interested in learning how to ride and fix their scoot and those who let the shop handle it and take joy in telling everyone their scooters name and how many stickers they put on it. It's all pretty much in good fun. If it is a genuine community then some people will have to take the piss. The "MV" side does get a good bit of ribbing because there are so many of you and, especially at rallies, they seem to be the older "let's go out for a ride and go home" types while the vintage guys are more "eh, they're faggy mopeds and I didn't feel like changing cables so let's hang out until 7 am and get wasted then do it Saturday then hopefully somone will sober up enough to drive home Sunday"

Hell the theme for the Baltimore Swamp Ass Weekender next year is likely to be "You're right, Scooters are Gay: Homofest 2010" or something and for point of reference there was only one modern scooter there this year so we dish it out to ourselves as well.

People need to stop being so easily offended about everything and learn to dish it out, too.

For fuck's sake, do we really have to drag this bit of idiocy over from ScooterBBS?

I could share all kinds of prejudiced anecdotes to counter all the half-ass analysis going on here, but it would only serve to lower the IQ of all the participants, including me.

Shut up and ride.

I would, but I have to wait for the meeting to be over.

Sometimes some give and take civil discussion can occur Jess, even if it is a controversial topic.

Seems to me to be going fine - no one is casting aspersions and everyone seems to agree that it's solely the fact that there are so many new riders and so many connected to the internet where they want to share the newness of their rides and experiences that the numbers are skewed.

If the internet was around in the 60s - 80s it would be filled with people complaining about scratching their VBBs. Most vintage guys (and gals) have been in the scene for a long time so all that newness has worn off. And who is to say that a bunch of fatties bitching all day on the internet about how drunk they got at a rally is any better or worse than a bunch of n00bs talking about how they got their first scratch or the first time they got buzzed by a sport bike?

Pretty sure everyone's on board with that analysis.

Yep 8)

To sum up. Modern Vespa-ists like topcases, stickers, and apparently smoking Ferraris off the lights on a GTS300

Classic Vespa-ists like rust, the correct centrestand boots, and getting shitfaced in tents

We are all, however, totally gay. And there's nothing wrong with being happy

The level of civility and seriousness that Corsa IFP is displaying in this conversation astonishes me. Dude, your acting like you do in person.

Go suck an egg, suburbia.

That's more like it.

seriously. someone must have got her password or she left her account logged in.

i named my p200 after vowing to never do so...it's called the "mf'n juggernaut bitch"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgAPFKDL6Sg (nsfw)

Oh man! That's rich. I mean that's amazing. Did you guys see what he did? Did you? It's almost a bit subtle, but only if you don't know me. I mean if you know me you know I'm a dude, but Stefan over here (hold on, need to guffaw. Ok, back now) Stefan, he of infinite wit, called me a girl. Did you see it? The two pronouns? Yeah, right there, right up there in the quote box.

Stefan turned his into her and he into she. That means he's insulting me by calling me a girl. Stefan, afterall, doesn't like girls, so calling someone a girl is the worst insult in the world to him. It would be like most of us calling someone a wanker, or a fetid moose anus, or, for the less enlightened amongst us, a fag. It was pretty genius for a retard.

I thought Stefan was just being PC. I think the preferred practice is to alternate, so seems it should have been:

modern riders are fetid moose anus's. there, debate finished. thanks.

but i still think vintage riders are more careful.

edit: this is a joke, not to be confused with serious thoughts, thus the moose anus.

Bull Shit New Guy!
I have seen more shifty wrecks than I have seen modern wrecks.
Fricken NEW BREEDERS get a two stroke, put in a kit and think they are fricken Norrie Kerr. The last couple years at High Rollers, 95% of guys racing in and out of the rally are kitted 2 strokes.

Unfortunately both modern & shiftys scooterist have there fair share of bad riders.

I would have posted my first wreck, but modernvespa didnt exist 20 plus years ago.

One major wreck 1986,passenger concussion
Many lay downs on my Ps
One lay down on my GTS,2007.
dropped a friends series 1 Lamby with him on the back, SF 1990.
slight fender bender on my buddys P, passing a car on the right, 1989

Ride Safe

Manny

i guess you are probably right, it just seems like there have been a lot more lately than usual. must be a whole slew of new people on the board these days.

it just struck me as odd the day i posted this thread, as there were at least 3 or 4 i crashed threads, and i had never seen that many before.

oh well..since im "new" then my opinion does not count at all. sorry to bother you with my stupid thoughts. silly me.

Wow! this thread went full retard. Never go full retard.

ya. i agree.

over 14,000 members. i'm surprised there aren't more crashes. give it a few more years and we'll need to create a 'crash report' subforum.