Modern Vespa

A friend and I rode to the Misfit Toys presentation of the Rocky Mountain Monster Ride this weekend. She only has a small 50cc, so she just rode on the back of my GTV for the hour-and-a-half long ride down to Englewood. We had another scooterist accompany us on her own 500. I did a bit of accessory tinkering with the Vespa the night before, including finally bothering to change the positioning on the shocks to the 2nd setting, to properly carry a passenger the way Piaggio wants me to.

About 1/3 of the way down to the ride, we stopped at a light, and I noticed something I hadn't before. I could flat-foot my GTV!! I was excited enough to tell both other riders, who were greatly amused.

I'd always been used to being able to flat-foot most of my other scooters, and had eventually given into the fact that I probably could never do this with the GTV. But with adjusted shocks and a passenger, it's apparently possible! I'm only 5'3", and although I don't know my inseam measurement, I'm definately short enough that I have to wear petite sizes in most clothing. I haven't modified my leather seat, and don't really plan to. The GTV is pretty much the largest scooter, for width and seat height, that I can safely handle. Even though I have a lot of riding experience, I still look fairly silly when I have to duck-walk/tip-toe it for any maneuvers.

Don't know if the shock adjustment will allow me to flat-foot the bike without the weight of a passenger or not. It was a seriously crappy hour ride home, cold, raining, rediculously poor visibility. I dropped off my friend, went straight home, and haven't ridden since. The rest of my weekend has been decidedly lazy, as that ride home really wore me out.

Yes, this is fairly silly and trivial to most. But I was pretty excited. Simple pleasures, I guess!

I think my LXV50 doesn't have adjustable shocks but I wish it did. I'm 5'8" and I can't have both my feet flat if I sit on the saddle normally. I can, if I sit all the way at the front nose of the saddle, but even then it's barely just and not very comfortable from a guy's point of view...

I can do the flat feet thing on my motorbike, which apparently have the same saddle height as the LXV50, but with a narrower saddle as with most motorbikes.

I'll be interested to know if you can flat-feet with the new shock settings but without the passenger...

I'd be surprised if she could. Adjusting the rear shocks from the first setting to the second does nothing but increase the "preload" on the springs, effectively making them stiffer. If anything, that should make the bike stand slightly taller with just the rider weight on it.