Modern Vespa

Ok, I confess, I'm depressed as hell.....

Got my 09 BV 250 (used, but only 700 miles on it), had it parked in the drive, about a whole hour(!), on the side stand and... yes...

I don't know what happened, I was just going to move it in the drive, but it started to topple on the slight decline, and I flew over it trying to catch it.... My pride was hurt more than I was (my stock of antibiotic cream, ice, and bandages has come in handy!) But the right brake lever took a beating and broke off. I never thought I 'd have to wear all the gear just to move the thing in the drive!

The minor scratches in the plastic should be easy to even out with the hint about the hair dryer (Thanks for the timely tip, everyone!), but I don't think Gorilla Glue is going to fix the lever. I can ride with it broken off, but it looks like crap and it's a constant reminder of my folly.

Do I take it into the dealership or do I try to replace it myself? My smart-a$$ed teenager tells me it's a $500 repair. I looked in the technical area, but didn't see what I'm looking for.

I defer to your incredible experience and sympathy for such a rookie mistake.

fix it yourself at least try, thats 60% of the fun. you'll get help here on MV.

Thanks. I don't do humility very well....

Sorry about your accident and i hope you and the scooters boo boo's heal quickly. Level ground is your friend. always find it. Actually moving it can be tricky if yu don't have a good enough grip on it. Alas i think the kid may be right. Sorry i can't help with the fix i have a LX and a LT. Good luck.

Levers are not that expensive. I don't know the BV , but dogleg levers made by oopsclunkthud for the GTS cost $50.

Dogleg Levers-GTS

How about a picture so people can advise you ?

Ouch! I feel your pain. I tipped my partners bike putting it in our old shed. Didn't quite breake the left brake lever but jogged it loose and scratched the turnsignal below it.

Have fun getting your hands dirty, I would!

Show us a pic so we can tell you how bad it really is.

I paid 14 bucks for my new levers each but the dog leg levers seem cool too.

No dealer here, so we get parts on-line

They list the brake levers at $33.90 each a (plus shipping)

Doesn't look too complex to fix,
but brakes are key, so I (myself) would take it to a professional

IMHO...most drops occur when mounting, dismount or "walking" your scoot. I always remind myself to be extra careful when I come to stop...

1. Check out your footing...gravel, fluid, discolored (this one you'll find at a gas station where the spilled gas has dried up and you have the residue to contend with).

2. Using side stand? Make sure you're not on a decline...it'll pop up on you! Best to have it level or on an incline and turn your wheel toward left.
Dismount and keep you hand on brake as you right your scoot then release and pop up on center stand.

3. If you get your scoot off the center stand by standing along side...make sure you don't have your hand on brake...let it drop off the center stand...roll off and then brake.

4. Duckwalking you scoot? Watch out for "gravel marbles"...you'll be amazed how a little amount of gravel will cause you to loose your footing!

There was a thread about getting the bike up on the center stand but I think the key is to grab the brake with you left hand and lift the back up by the grab bar or lifting pint above the center stand while pressing down on the center stands leg.

Here is a link that I thought was pretty good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwXZyJSPkx4

As to wearing gear when moving, I have read too many stories about people getting bad injuries or dying from a fall while moving the bike on the driveway. Always wear a helmet and I always use gloves. It's not speed that kills, it's the fall.

Don't be depressed. Just fix it and move on. We all have these minor boo boos from time to time. It's all part of the learning curve which serves to make us better riders in the end. As already mentioned, the brake levers are inexpensive enough and you can chalk it up to a lesson learned! Any time your scooter is moving, there is a potential for an accident.

Oh ... and never listen to smart assed teenagers ... they haven't a clue what they are talking about! Your dealer can fix it for you pretty quickly and for waaay less than $500.00! Chin up, it could be a lot worse.

No need for a dealer, just get a new brake lever and replace it.

Never use a side-stand with the bike pointing down a slope...

And sometimes, they fall over of their own volition, according to what I've been reading! Mischeivous little buggers

If a scooter falls over and there's nobody around to hear it, does it still make a noise?

Hey - it happens! the BV 500 is a tall scooter and has a higher center of gravity.

I dropped my BV 500 about 3 - 4 time and also ran it into my own car in the drive way

I also have a driveway on an incline and it has taken me all summer to learn how to get up the driveway and into the garage smoothly.

Take it slow and easy! It is better to ride it than to get off and try to push it.

Should scootmom be concerned about the gas overflow? Not sure if the BV 250 is similar to the S150. but when I dropped/tipped mine, I immediately had fuel in the bubble thats under the airfilter I had rough idle, and hard starting. Fixed it by following the tips in the WIKI.

Sounds like the scooter was dropped on the right hand side, and that should not be an issue.

It's fuel injected too, so no carburetor float bowl for the gas to drain out.

Wayne B

Really good advice everyone! I really appreciate the suggestions and the support. I should have said I don't do humility very well, BUT I GET LOTS OF PRACTICE!

You know, it was pure luck that when I was getting the scoot ready to go out and take a pic (when the boo-boo happened), that I was wearing my helmet & jacket. Hadn't gotten to the gloves yet. I think my pain would have been much, much worse without the gear-I did hit my head pretty hard (yes, I know, I need to get a new helmet now, too!)

It was parked on the side stand with the stand on the slightly higher side of the incline, pointing parallel to the hill. I think TB, you were absolutely right about the instability when mounting, dismounting, stopping and walking the scoot. This does appear to be when I'm most likely to "wobble".

I had forgotten until "Techguy9707" mentioned the accidents in driveways the story of the only Vespa tech in Iowa a few years back. He went to move a scoot (or MC, I'm not sure which) out of the bay. About a half hour later, a customer came in and asked who the guy was passed out in the driveway under the bike. Last I heard, he was too brain damaged to go back to work. They now have a strict policy about helmets in the shop/parking lot. I met him post-acccident, but had talked to him a lot before it, and he's definately a different man.

You know, "Tomorrowmatters", I did think the scoot does have a rougher idle, harder start and a rattle after I dropped it. I was hoping it was just my heightened paranoia....

About that teenager...why is it a 17 yr old boy can tell the difference between models of european cars by sound only, but can't remember anything else?? (No, we don't own any.) He's been damned accurate on anything european 4-wheeled. Our local import car dealer is waiting for him to turn 18 to hire him. I was hoping he was wrong about the scoot....

I'll get a pic when I get a chance. In the mean time, I'll try to resize the one I took.

Sounds like it was a good learning opportunity with a small-ish cost.

and quick.. hire the teenager while he still knows EVERYTHING. Mine does!

If you didn't know it... according to my lesbian teenage neice. .. all scooterists are GAY! It was news to me and my wife and my daughter.

Hmmm. Interesting. My husband would probably be interested in hearing that, though it might give him ideas.

If you don't have any scratches your not riding enough!

[blokethoughts]
He might be hoping that you are, secretly...
[/blokethoughts]

I shouldn't worry about male fantasies, they rarely resemble anything like possible reality.

Don't feel bad. I dropped mine in the garage. I got home from riding to the gym on a hot day. I didn't have a garage door opener, and my husband had closed it and left. I was hot and tired. I had to pull the scooter up on the center stand on my driveway, which has exposed aggregate. It's real tough to get the scoot up on. I went inside, took off my helmet and jacket, and got the opener. I could not get the scooter up the big lip into our garage. So, in a fit of tiredness and heat, I decided to turn on the scoot and the ignition and just pop it up over the lip, while standing next to it If you are not sitting on a scooter and you roll onto the throttle, the forward motion of the scooter, relative to your body, pulls your hand back on the throttle even more. I dropped it hard on the garage floor and almost hit one of our cars It did a lot of damage, ~$2000 worth. Here's a link to the damage report. The scooter was not even out of it's break-in period. It may not have even had 100 miles on it yet.

https://modernvespa.com/forum/topic48608

So, you may have gotten of pretty easy, except for the bodily injury thing. I think yours was just an honest mistake. Don't beat yourself up over it. Fix your scoot and go out and raise hell

FYI The sidestands on the BV models don't snap up like the Vespas because there is an engine kill wired into them.

On another note you should never put your bike on the sidestand unless it is just to gas up. I never leave my bike unattended while it is on the sidestand. The centerstand is easy to use on a BV and has much less risk.

I don't know why there are even sidestands on scooters. They are far less stable than the motorcycle counterparts because it is impossible to leave a scoot in gear to prevent rolling and the weight of the bike is less so easier to tip.

Soniam- Wow...sadly, you made me feel better. You know, I can see myself doing something like that, too. So, did you get it fixed OK?

Bollocks.

Many have parking brakes. Very useful.

"On another note you should never put your bike on the sidestand unless it is just to gas up. I never leave my bike unattended while it is on the sidestand. The centerstand is easy to use on a BV and has much less risk.

I don't know why there are even sidestands on scooters. They are far less stable than the motorcycle counterparts because it is impossible to leave a scoot in gear to prevent rolling and the weight of the bike is less so easier to tip.[/quote]"

Interesting. I was just coming to that conclusion myself. I do have trouble getting the scoot off the center stand though, I never had trouble with the ET2, guess it's the difference in weight.

Well, it's still not quite fixed. It went into the shop at the end of June and was there, not continuously, about 2 months. There was a big back up with the painter. Then they went with a new painter who did a bad job. I just took it back today to hopefully get the last stuff fixed. There was a nick in the paint near the glove box. The painter tried to fix it, but the paint is just flaking off. The dealer is going to put a new plastic piece painted from the factory. They also have to fix the wiring hook up for the outside temperature gauge. With all of the maneuvering, the wiring broke loose. So, it has been a long road. Luckily, it was during the hot weather, and I only had to pay my insurance deductible.

The dealer has really been trying to make up for all of the issues. They have been giving me some little freebies here and there, and they installed my crash bars for free. I suspect they have had to take a bit of a financial hit, because of stuff that had to be done twice.

I am very careful now when I am pushing or walking the bike. I just take my time and do it slowly. I am not tall or big, so the GTS is a little bit big for me. However, I really need the power, because the only road that accesses my neighborhood has a speed limit of 55mph. However, everyone drives 60+mph.

Glad to do my part to make other people's accidents look brilliant in comparison

Agreed with a parking break I would use my sidestand but in the factory state no way.

Maybe I have less trouble because I am tall and heavy. I find it is harder to get off the center stand the smoother the surface so I don't park on finished concrete or anything like that.

That is their responsibility as a dealer. Hopefully this doesn't happen too much and they are making a profit. I want them to be around for awhile so I have a place that can work on my bike.

I have the same problem with my neighborhood. I am in between 290 and 71 and can choose either death trap I chose the BV because I felt a GTS wasn't fast enough given my weight when I bought it.

[quote="soniam
I am very careful now when I am pushing or walking the bike. I just take my time and do it slowly. I am not tall or big, so the GTS is a little bit big for me. However, I really need the power[/quote]

Yeah, I needed the power too. I loved my ET2 but it just couldn't keep up with traffic, especially on hills.

It sucks that you've had so much trouble getting it fixed. It's great your dealer is still working on it. My dealer (the only one in the area that would talk to me-but that's another story), is really more interested in higher-end motorsport vehicles. I suspect they wouldn't have the interest in continuing to work on it, based on my experience wiith them "repairing" my ET2 last summer. And being a woman, sadly, they really don't work with me like they do the guys. (You'd think they'd be smarter than that, wouldn't you!?) Any my husband is a geek who doesn't want anything to do with 2 wheeled motor vehicles, so I'm on my own.

I think the BV is a little too heavy for me, but then at 5'7" I don't have much leverage. I just couldn't afford the other options.

At least you haven't wasted precious ride time weather-wise!!

So what would you put there?

I agree about it being their responsibility. However, I still feel bad for them and want them to stay in business. The paint situation was not really there fault; they just caught in a lot of bad circumstances.

You are probably near me. I am off of Southwest Pkwy.

Far from the truth!
The fantasy that every woman really wants two men is true.

One for bringing home the dough, one for keeping up the home.

You have got to be effing joking shirley?

Maybe we should fit handrails to kerbs?

For anyone to die pushing their scoot up the driveway, they were either
a) stupid beyond belief and it was just a matter of time
b) about to hop off the mortal coil anyway and it was just a matter of time
c) both of the above

I have a great idea, airbags for helmets, incase you drop it on your head while putting it on. 'xcuse me while I run to the patent office!