Modern Vespa

Hey Jess,

Instead of sharing in your ironbutt woes tonight (I've actually been very envious for the past couple of weeks, coming to realize this would not be my first group ride) here's how i got over it today.

Went to look at/pick up a '77 vespa p200, ~250 miles south of us. Put new tires on the cage this am, took off, and met Babs............wow, she smells like early childhood memories, most identified with a boat............

Anyway, fell in love, loaded her, Babs rode bitch back to her new home tonight...........

Pictures soon.

Oh, Ketut who went with me, warns future passengers of our new/used pu truck, there is a steel bar running horizontally to your balls in the middle of the passenger seat, and be careful sliding in too quickly.......you've been warned. Whatever that means.

MMMMMMWWWWWaaahhhHHHH!

Ahh,longest ride... Great Yarmouth scooter rally in 1985 (oops,showing my age here...) 200 miles in 12 hours(!!!) on a vespa 100....

So you got it! Fantastic! We want to see it in pictures, of course, but I'm sure at some point you're going to bring it to a rally or an SFSG meeting or something, yes?

I came home from the Iron Butt and immediately started working on my 1966 150 Super, trying to get it back on the road.

Yesterday I did my longest ride. Nothing like some of you guys, but it was an adventure for me, since I am mainly a city commuter.

I went a total of about 90 miles. Home to office to baseball tournament to home again. For Southern Ontario people that is Toronto Beaches (southeast) to Steeles and Dufferin (northwest) to Burlington (Dundas and Appleby line) and home again along Dundas/Bloor.

I did stretches of sustained 100 kph on a gusty day with no problems. It has done wonders for my confidence for more and longer trips. I laid out my route using Mapquest because they have an "avoid highways" option. Google always picks 400-series highways and expressways.

I rode with Harleys for some stretches and a sport bike for another bit. Once we got into the real city traffic, the scooter's strengths really shone. I was much more nimble and left the motorcycles behind.

I also had an old veteran chat with me at a stop light about his memories of scooters in Europe. All-in-all, a very nice day.

hahah last night I was discussing with Julie my plans on possibly going to Seattle on the GT.

That's gonna hut miarse a lot, if I go. Unfortunately, all of the funding for that trip is likely going to end up going to my friend Katie's wedding in Italy. Maybe I'll rent a motorino out there

.....around 350 miles in one day. I think I did that in Feb. on the GTS with heated gear. Just got back from a one dayer on the BMW of 400 miles. On the way back over the pass hit major snow, but kept going. Picture is of the only place I felt comfortable stopping, the snow was nearly stopped.

You don't have to ride a thousand miles to have an excellent adventure, do you? We should start a new thread, "What was your Most Excellent Scooter Adventure?" And your post should be first in the thead. Nice report!

Our longest one way was our trip to OKC on rt.66.....about 100-115 miles one way....sure was fun.

You don't have to ride a lot in a day to have a good time, just being out there is what counts.

I do have to say that a 300 to 400 mile day on the GTS, every now and then is cool (to me). Coming home to a hot shower, home cooked dinner and a glass of wine, after a long ride.....it really doesn't get any better then that.

Did my longest ride to date so far. 300 miles (100 up 100 around the winding roads and 100 back) WOW it was great. It was up in Dutchess County. We took the historic route 9 and deep into the scenic Hudson Valley Region. Best twisties I've ever rode. There something to be said about getting out of town and on some open roads. Oh and lastly I manage my fastest top speed yet...79.7 gps recorded. I thick I could of gone faster but this was on NYC westside hwy, so cars and traffic prevented better speed I feel. Had a freakin blast. Soon another 300+ from NYC - PA but in one day! "cue dramatic music..."

x

Off for this year's run to Cornwall on the 12th... just deciding if I'll be taking the GT of the Mrs's LX... Speed won't be an issue, as I'll be with a Rally 180 being run in!

Oh dear..don't you ALWAYS find that someone's running in...

Yep, every longish run to a rally.....

Hi all

370 miles (595km) from Morinville Alberta to Biggar SK. Bald ass prairie the whole trip. Occasional rolling hills. Lots of farm trucks and equipment. With a computer strapped to the seat between me and the top case. Return trip the next day. I was only carrying a clarinet on that trip. Took about 7 hours. The hard part was refueling as I had to unload the computer to get to the tank and then reload to take off. Made for very long stops.

Man do you get some odd looks rolling through small town saskatchewan covered in dead grasshoppers riding something that would fit in the trunk of most of the cars.

What a great trip. I think I might shoot for Winnipeg this summer.

Wow, There are som elooong trips mentioned here. My longest ride probably is around 40 miles.
My scoot is mainly a commuter vehicle. Of course on a nice and sunny weekend day... I putputting away...

My most recent long ride was a couple of days ago on Wed when I drove from Newport, TN over to Alcoa TN, then after grabbing a friend to tag along on his ET2 we both rode the tail of the Dragon to Deal's Gap, then back home. It was roughly a 200 mile round trip. I've actually done this ride (Newport to Deal's Gap) 3 times so far.

My longest ride however was from Newport to Chattanooga and back in one day, about a 340 mile round trip (to go to the local scooter shop)

a 340 mile trip would take (roughly) me to the other end of Belgium and back

In Minnesota we have shopping malls as big as Belgium!

I did 450mile in a day from London - UK to Cologne - Germany on country roads and went hoe on the motorways (350 miles) a day later.

In 2004 i did a european tour on my Vespa T5 and covered 1000miles in a week.

Goint to Torino in June for Euro Vespa 2006, will cover 1000miles over 3 days there and 1500miles over a week on the way back.

Cant Wait!

Ciao

I did a 650 miles trip on my ET4 from Deerfield Beach, Florida to St. Augustine, Florida and back. The longest day riding was 220 miles.

On my Burgman 650 scooter I did 381 miles in one day.

Janine

vespaman, we expect pix! Don't dissapoint your eager fans---

Thursday was a 400 mile plus day on the GTS to the coast and along the Columbia River.

I guess since I have just gotten my first scooter this week that today was my longest ride ever for the marathon distance of about 7 miles

Oh well, you gotta start somewhere I guess!!

Mesmer posted way back in this thread about doing an Iron Butt ride on the GT200. I have been thinking about it with the LX150... 24 hours straight averaging 42 MPH. Just seems impossible, especially in the east with so many hills and such. Maybe in the west with long stright roads though then there is the gas thing... And with stops for gas, bathroom, etc it would mean all day WOT.

And finally my butt isn't made of iron. A quick check of the certified rides show that no one has done it on a Vespa. There is a Piaggio listed but it could be a BV500 or something.

Here's their link:

http://www.ironbutt.com/ridecerts/

Do any of you think it is possible to do the IronButt on a 150?

steve

last weekend, westside's cinco scoot.
rode from glendale to venice, venice to manhattan beach, the PV loop with tanktop leading it back to manhattan, and then manhattan back to glendale, then glendale back to the valley and then finally valley back to hollywood.

by end of the evening i had done 198mi... and used a whole quart of motul 800... all on my 59 series one lambretta.

my ass still hurts!

previous long haul was orange crush sat. ride last year. man... that was a trek!

best,
-greasy

p.s. matt, you know i'm gonna hafta beat you for not calling when you were in hollywood! ass!

I posted yesterday about mine. Probably should have used this thread. Went 250 total miles to a one day rally. I woke up ( very early) this morning sore and stiff. My shoulder blades are hurting, and I have got to get a throttle rocker for these long rides.

I really do not know how the Cannonball folks do this day after day! My hat is off to you, Beale.

925 miles in one 18 hour day.

http://www.vespausa.com/company/news.cfm?NID=142

+- 10,000 miles on the trip described above.

Yo!

Best regards,

Mike Lynch

Last edited by Mike Lynch on Sun, 29 Apr 2007 22:24:06 +0000; edited 2 times

My wife and I did a nearly 700 mile trip on 50cc scoots. We averaged 20mph, even though we could have gone faster. Took a week and partied every night on the way. Honda Metropolitans were as reliable as the morning sun. All back roads and lesser highways. We want to do it again on the same scoots, different scenery. Low and slow. We saw and smelled everything.

I guess the spammers are at least helping to revive old good threads....

- Why?
Well, how else was I supposed to get there?

- Where?
Austin, Texas to Blythe, California.

- How long?
About 6 hard days of riding. I didn't have a set timeframe, but the main goal was to take less than two weeks. I do have to admit, I was fairly suprized that I crossed most of New Mexico in just one day.

Mike cool story about you there. I didn't know you did such an awesome long ride in the past.

From Paris to Lyon, to Antibes, to Arle, to Sarlot, to Loire Valley, Back to Paris , over 2,100klm. Next Southern Italy to Sicily.

I rode from crestline ca. to atonofvespas and took the back route back to crestline taking the 138 up the back of the mtn. I saw killer scooter spiders on the 215 and swarms of devil cages inhabited by one eyed drunken aliens without insurance. I was scared, then I got to the mtn and the cages went away and i had a very beautiful ride up the summit and back to the house. Round trip approx. 140.

I've done two hundred for sure. Some felt like they were longer days, but I don't think so.

The Roadbum

Wetspeed cave creek beer is the best. My longest rides here are circle island 100-110 miles. When i had my helix 250 i did the freeways. It was a much heavier scoot than my piaggio LT150. I don't like the way the piaggio handles in the wind. It's higher and gets knocked around. I hear ya jess. The helix is just an old workhorse it did quite well on the freeways. Piaggios more fun to ride. I rode a scooter around cyprus years ago i don't think i went more miles than i have here.

Longest ride was on Oahu with my daughter as our fairwell drive on the island - left for Germany a week later.

We went from Hawaii Kai around the east side of the island and followed the road until it ended out by the old coast guard station in the northwest corner of the island. Spent an hour or two at a remote beach - the road literally stops there.

We then cut across the middle of the island, and went out to the state beach on the south west corner of the island and spent some time there too.

Rode back home through downtown Honolulu, and along the shore past Diamond head, then back home. Great memory, great day - daughter still talks about it. I think it was about 145 miles total.

I have been "cleared hot" by the CSM of the house to travel from Heidleburg to Rome when I get home from Afghanistan. I think she plans to be the support vehicle (in the mini cooper) so really I think she just wants to go to Rome too - pretty sure the GT won't fit inside the mini if I have a problem

My goal is to be the "Mike Lynch" of the old world before my tour in Germany is up!

i haven't ridden any further than several laps around the neighborhood years ago on my friends honda met and recently around a little parking lot. but all these great stories are what inspired my desire for the scooter world/subculture. scooters although small seem so limitless. they are limitless! when i tell people about my lust for a vespa/piaggio scooter they actually ask if i can take them on the streets! they get quite a strange look from me.

i can't wait to ride out to huntington beach and just ride along pch till wherever, whenever. that's pretty much my ideal trip for now.

Xman i grew up near the hudson valley. Beautiful country. I lived upper area. Still have family outside hudson . Just there at thanksgiving. Got me thinking. I could find a used vespa and get my friends to garage it and actually do some mainland rides.HMMMM He would take good care of it. His benz ragtop is so clean it looks showroom.

My longest ride yet (I'm a noob in this field of riding), is of 400 km ~ 250 miles, taken just for fun

Here's the story:

http://www.modernvespa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6442&highlight=


The next one this Summer is Bucharest - Sibiu (3 days rest ) and Sibiu- Bucharest - on another route - a total of 580 KM ~ 360 miles. I'll post pics and stories.

My longest ride to date was the day I picked up the ET4 from Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire and rode it home to Boston, Lincolnshire, about 100 miles. It was a bit scarey as I hadn,t been on two wheels (motorized) for about 11 years, luckily the weather was good to me. .

Wendy