Modern Vespa

Went in at 10pm, came out at midnight, and bike was on the ground.

Paint is scratched up on the cowl, and the leg shield trim is scratched up. A few scratches on my windshield, which is like, not even a week old.

Ill post some pics in the morning, maybe you guys can give me a ballpark on how much it will cost to fix the paint up. I checked her out as well as i could on the street, and the ride home seemed fine, so i dont think anything serious was damaged.

Was hoping to go a year without something like this happening. Almost made it too

Also, posting on Craigslist MC to see if anyone saw anything.

PHOTOS OF DAMAGE

Any security cameras in the parking lot? Hot weather that made the kick stand give way? Covered by insurance? Called the police?

Just brainstorming here - what a horrible thing to happen to you and your scoot. Just know Karma is a b**ch and what goes around comes around!

It was on the street. Main drag of the business area. No cameras. Not sure if insurance would cover it. Didnt call the cops, as there didnt look to be any damage on the side of the scooter that would have been hit by a car backing into it.

Should i report it in the morning? Call insurance? I have progressive, and i have no idea if they cover this.

Heck yea, if your fully insured file a comprehensive claim.

Andy

You could aways put large magnet decal on the
butt of the scooter, in this way when it falls it will hit the magnet decal and
not scratch the butt of the body. My et4 would offen be on it's side during
hot whether and bec of the magnets placed on the side
butt of the et4 there were never any
bad scratches. And what there was, rattle can paint can take care of it.

I would recommend getting getting the chrome side protection for the next time. I have the OEM vespa ones on my GT200. I park in Midtown Manhattan and I came back one day to see my scooter on the ground. With the side protection on, I just had a couple scuffs on the chrome, a mark on the bar end and a small chip on the topbox which I touched up. Having seen what happens to bikes w/o the side protection on, I know I got off super light.

Also I know a few lucky dealers were able to get some OEM vespa touch up paint (in your midnight blue), it might be worth it to talk to the dealers on here and ask them.

Which side did it fall on? If it was the left, then you may need to clean gas out of the air filter and out of the evap canister. Is it riding rough at all or sounding any different?

As for insurance, as previously stated, comprehensive should cover it. You can always cancel the claim if the costs are <= to your deductible.

The costs could be anywhere from $500-$2000. Mine was pretty bad and pretty scratched up. It cost about $2000. I have heard of others, with your type of accident, getting away with $500-$1000 worth of damage. They usually want to take everything off to paint any part of the steel frame/body, which the cowls are part of.

I highly recommend the crash bars in the future. It saved my bacon twice. Unfortunately, I had to learn the hardware by dropping it first without them.

Good luck

Did you check the asphalt under where your scooter stood for holes?

I had a very similar experience yesterday
and this is a copy of the post from the Easy Peaseys that describes it:

Well, mine fell on its right side
and it sounds like I need to get to work on the air filter
(my evap canister is long gone)

Thanks, Soniam!

It did fall on the left side. It was a little rough to start at first, but its fine now. If i have trouble today, ill take off the evap hose and drain any gas. Worked like a charm when i overfilled my tank earlier in the year.

WACO that sucks. I'd guess kids(teenagers). Try your insurance. Gouges are deep enough that they will rust if not taken care of. Turtle on yours also. It's been real hot everywhere so i'd keep an eye out of asphalt. Wouldn't park on it on a hot day even with a pad for the scooter stand

I was shocked in my early scooting days when I went to a movie in downtown Boston. Parked the scooter outside and chained it to a post.

When I came out of the movie it was on its side, pulled to the extent of the chain, and the ignition was mangled with a screwdriver. I couldn't believe someone had the balls to do that outside a crowded well lit movie theater. They must have lurked and waited for a quiet spell where there weren't many people around.

Get an alarmed lock so it starts yelling at anyone who jostles the scooter. Might stop them before they get too far in monkeying with or attempting to steal it. I can't say I do this often, but if it's a sketchier neighborhood I'm traveling to I will bring my cover as well for extra security

About cleaning the air filters:
There's a lovely video in the Wiki that explains how
Please see: Air Filter Cleaning

The obvious is being overlooked here... what movie did you go see?

The Girl Who Played With Fire

it was pretty great.

That would pretty much mean never riding it anywhere and parking it in Texas I haven't seen the problems other people are having. I think they expect it to get boiling hot here, so maybe they build the asphalt appropriately. I do see bits come off sometimes, but it doesn't leave a hole. You can also usually tell which bits have become molten, because it looks like tar or black lava. Those are easy to avoid.

It happens to a lot more people than you think. Read my story from 2 months ago, it may make you feel better.

Sometimes you are better off staying home (Full Story Now)

Sorry to hear about your downed scooter. Mine went down in a parking lot earlier this month. It went into the shop today to repaint the right cowl. It will cost $250. Not too bad...sad it happened to me, and to you. Here is a before picture. I'll post an after shot on Friday for you.

Thankfully, parking lots here are paved with cement.

Sorry about your scooters guys. It is heartbreaking when you get damge from crap like that. My (blue/green) scooter was blown over by the wind many months ago so a new paint job is (again) in order when I get back from Italy. Not a lot of damage but the side of the rear cowling landed on a rock and dented it pretty deeply. The damage is already beginning to rust so I have to do something about it.

I am going to send all my chrome bits to the US to be powder coated. I am sick of replacing it when these things happen.

What a pain!

Soniam, I'm in Dallas and I think you're right. Around here it seems when they do asphalt, it's usually over a concrete surface. I've never seen anything like what they are posting, and it gets hot here.

Yup,
this problem can be easily avoided by using proper paving techniques
You mostly see it in parking lots that are "paved" with a single layer of asphalt

Y'all Texans would probably shoot anyone who tried to get away with that

Were you parked on Murray Ave? Did you have an entire parking space or did you squeeze in between two cars? Murray Ave is a pretty safe area but there are a lot of senior citizens who don't drive too well. If you were between two cars, I could see someone bumping into it and not even realizing that they did it. School hasn't started yet (I taught at Allderdice) and most of the local kids aren't the kind who would knock over a scooter on purpose.

I sometimes park in the lot under the Carnegie Library. I park next to the pay station so I am protected by the poles that protect the pay stations.

I used to live in Dallas too, and I don't remember it being a problem. I grew up in Oklahoma, which has some of the crappiest pavement I have ever seen along with high heat in the summer, and I don't remember seeing it there either.

My husband was telling me that a co-worker grew up in Arizona. At the college, the motorcycle parking had metal plates to put the kick stands on. He also said that people's bicycle tires would blow during the day due to expansion caused by heat

There's a spot near my house on the road that has a constant pothole, even after being scraped and repaved. They filled it last Spring, and it hasn't occurred again since. It will probably show back up once we start getting a lot of rain though. I don't know why it doesn't have a problem now though.

Well, just got back from my meeting with the insurance adjuster.

When he totaled up the cost of repairing/ replacing EVERYTHINING and labor, the cost was above 3k. 3k is also the salvage price, so he couldn't give me that much for repairs. Instead, he gave me a choice.

1. 4k, and they take the bike to salvage. I paid 4,700 for it new last year, and it runs fine, damage is all cosmetic.

2. I get $2,887, and keep the bike, understanding that the dealer will need more than that amount to replace/fix everything. He estimated that just painting it would be around $1,500.

I chose option #2. It seemed stupid to scrap a perfectly good bike.

Might try and sell it and upgrade bikes.

That seems really high to me. Your damage looks like mine was, maybe even less. I had to have the handlebar housing/headset replaced as well. My front fender was toast, so they had to replace it. All of the other bits look damaged, or even more mild, than mine was. My damage cost a little of $2000. I don't think labor is particularly cheaper here. At least that hasn't been true for our cars, compared to other places.