Modern Vespa

Well I got stranded today going to work. Not a good feeling.

The scoot just quit. I had just passed a very busy intersection and boom no more power.
I was lucky to be able to pull quickly on the right side of the road. I then pushed the scoot about 1 km to a garage.

I'm 99% sure it's the battery. Two weeks ago it wouldn't start, recharged battery and all was well.
I charged it 4 days ago so the darn thing obviously can't hold the charge. I'm going to try to get and AGM battery.

The scoot is only 1 year old and about 5 000 km. I use daily to go to work, it's a 40km ride.

1) This year I had to get the exhaust fixed because it came loose 200$. Last year the exhaust also came loose but it was under warranty so I got it fixed at the Vespa dealer but the idiots bolted it crooked and damaged it.

2) My rear tire is worn and needs to be replaced so another 200$ (tire + work).

3) I had the oil changed and did the checkups at the start of the season 100$.

4) And now a new battery 120$??

Total maintenance cost this year: about 600$!!! (Last year was about 400$ of regular maintenance at the dealer)

Damn it this is starting to get ridiculously expensive!!!

Oh well I was just venting... I feel better now.

I have a 2006 GTS I do my own maintance and the costs are as follows:

Oil Change with filter $20.00
Rear Tire $ 46.00
Battery $ 45.00
New Exhaust Bushing $ 32.00
New Belt and Rollers $ 125.00

I suggest you learn to wrench.

PS Even the Ladies in our club do their own Oil Changes

Sorry to hear about your troubles. When you get a new battery you might want to keep it on a trickle charger since it will extend the longevity of the battery. Trust me you can DIY on the oil change and some other things. Go to the wiki section and there are some great tutorials with pics on how to do most everything. I would change shops if they screwed up your muffler Do you have any clubs you can join in your area? That's a good way to meet people and to learn how to wrench (assuming they wrench). Maintenance on anything is always expensive if you can't do some of it yourself. Good luck.

If you pay over about $50 for a replacement AGM battery you are being shafted. Try the Powersonic line. Your local battery shop should carry them. (PTX9-BS)

Wal-Mart may also have the correct battery for your scoot, for about $50-$60 USD.

To my knowledge, most batteries in the US and Canada are produced by about 3 major manufacturers regardless of the name on the side. You can often tell by the first character of the battery. They all have a different numbering schemes but they all cross-reference to the same standards for physical dimensions, capacity, and terminals.

I can do oil change,clean filters, battery etc. But the other stuff I really don't want to or care to do it, I just want to ride and have fun.

I'll shop around for the battery prices. Thx

Doing basic maintenance should be part of the fun. It also gives you an understanding of how the bike works etc. Buy the new battery and keep it on a trickle charger like mentioned above. I would also ask around for advice on a good service shop with better repair prices.

107 $ + taxes for AGM battery at walmart.ca
Everything is more expensive in canada.

Yeah, Vespas are expensive when it comes to parts and service. They're the luxury vehicles of the scooter world, these days. And it does help if you can learn to do some of the simpler stuff on your own or with a friend. Parts will still zing you though, so shopping around is well worth it!

1+ If you have a friend or a group locally and work together it could be beneficial...and therapeutic. Added to the list should be changing brake fluid and hub oil. The removal of the exhaust from the header could be a little tricky. Then one of the more involved tasks would be the changing out of the variator belt and rollers...when necessary. Take it a step at a time and review the instructionals in the Wiki Library...

How do you get your tire mounted?

I took my wheels off and had the new tires put on at a Big O tires for $10.00 total!

In all fairness to lilscoot the costs of service and parts in Canada are sometimes double than the US...

lilscoot the rear tire change at $200 plus is excessive. I would find someone in a scooter club near you and learn the basics....

It really isn't that difficult once you learn how to change you oil and hug oil and be able to check your muffler if its fastened to your scooter.. sometimes the dealer isn't exactly working on your behalf so you have to be able to check out your own scoot.

Take the advise from the guys who replaced there batteries with non oem battery or order own from our neighbours south of us... I order all my parts from online vespa shops saving a ton of dough..

Good luck , you can bring the operating costs down a bit if you spend some time checking it out..

Ps... where are you located and which shop do you work with that charges so much ?

Cheers!
Hp

Nuh - peanuts - my last tyre change set me back `nearly 300 ostrayian pesos.

The previous mechanic did not do the job right, and it needed extra effort to pull it apart, fix it, and put it back together, with a new tyre!

Not Happy, Jan

Bought a Harbor Freight tire changer for 100.00 a few years ago. We have 3 people riding scooters in the family. After the first few changes I broke even, now its free

PS Skippy tires are the worse to change

It is just empty marketing talk saying that scooters are cheap because they eat very little fuel. Maintance and servicing is the real cost of having a scooter, far higher than you pay for the fuel. I started making notes of all my scooter-related expenses last year and with an average 1,000 miles/month, the fuel is only 25% of my total expenses. The rest is parts, servicing, insurance, gear, etc.

I bought tools - including clutch holding a variator holding tools and learned how to do some maintance myself. It saved me good couple of hundreds this season already. That's about all we can do to reduce the cost.

If you can change a tire on a car, you can change it on your Vespa.

Tires.
Dealer price Front/Rear Tire $250
My cost and 1 hour of work. $98

Oil Change (including filter).
Dealer $150
My cost $20

Battery.
Dealer $120
My cost $50. (4 screws and pos/neg leads. 5 minutes)

If you have the dealer do ALL the work, then YES it's EXPENSIVE!!!

Seriously, you can do most of the work yourself. The bike is more simple than it seems.

Have some fun and get to know your scooter.

Really? To change the rear tire you need to take out the engine and put it back in. The rear tire is what 65$. 75$/hr for mechanic + fed and provincial taxes .... it all adds up quickly.I don't think I'm getting screwed, things are just expensive.

I used to go to the place on Rue de la Roche to get it fix. But no more!

Bad news what I tough was just a dead battery now appears to be the alternator or something. Because no charge gets to the battery. Yikes... I hope it's just a disconnected wire because ordering parts from Piaggio USA is really painful and can take weeks!

Can you believe the Canadian Vespa site is down again FFS Piaggio needs to fire some one for the web site and get a canadian dealer for parts!


Now that the warranty is expired I guess you guys are right, I need to start doing my own repairs just like the good old days when is used to do all the mechanics on my 1983 accord ...

Unless the 50s are different from the 150s in that regard (and I don't think so), you don't need to pull the engine to change the rear tire. You just need to drop the exhaust. I can do it in about a half hour on my LX.

Just changed my rear tire and no engine needed to be pulled. As SS said all you have to do is drop the exhaust. Have a impact wrench handy in case you need it for the damn bolt. Mine was a wee bit rusted in there Good part is that my muffler (backside) has very little rust. Which for here is amazing. LILSCOOT i hear ya on your taxes For the tax alone you pay to get your scooter fixed you could buy a new battery

Here's a good how-to on changing the tire:

LX150 Rear Tire Change (Video Tutorial)

I would learn how to do a lot of that stuff yourself. $200 bucks for a tire change? If you do it yourself, you can buy a tire for $70, pay $20 to get it mounted, a couple of hours to drive around, remove and re-install the exhaust, and you're good to go.

Incidentally, I've had my LX150 for 4 years. It has 21500 km on it and I've never taken it to a dealership for service. I've done all of the oil changes, belt and roller changes myself, and I'm not a particularly mechanical person.

The GTS is quite heavy on its batteries. Canada and cold also is a factor. The regulator has been known to be naughty.

You can do servicing if you have tools for transmission locking etc.is the outlay right though if you are solely a commuter? The exhaust gasket is a real pain, costwise as discussed before.

In short I would have to agree that the GTS is way more "clever" than my PX. The water cooling is more to have to worry about to a degree? LOL

PX200 is much cheaper to look after, if not tuned, its just not a magic carpet like the GTS.

Subject to congestion busting and free parking, a good condition Toyota 1.5 would be a potentially cheaper commuter service wise. Wow, why did I start that?