My wife has ridden this Vespa precisely once, since I bought it in September 2018. The time had come for me to finally ride this thing enough to get the 5/8 of a tank of old gas out of it. I changed the oil and juiced the tires a few weeks ago to get it ready.
Thankfully it is fuel injected, so I did not suffer the wrath of a clogged carburator. It fired right up, although it did not want to be ridden until it was properly warmed up. After a few minutes, I was able to set off.
I rode it three times over the last few days, putting on about 80 miles total. Here are my riding impressions.
The Vespa is geared for top speed. It takes off from a stop far slower than any of the other 125+cc scooters I’ve owned. The power train is happiest at 30-50mph. It moves along quite nicely at speed. 55mph is pretty easy to achieve, unless you’re going uphill or into a headwind.
I find it strange that it’s geared this way, because the Vespa is also the twitchiest handling scooter at high speed that I’ve ever had. Taking turns or dealing with road imperfections at speed is decidedly less fun on the Vespa. I’m sure the mismatched tires aren’t helping that cause, but the heavy steel body is top heavy and the little 10" wheels just aren’t suited for speed runs or hitting the twisties with vigor.
The Vespa would be perfect for around town or city, if it were geared lower. It takes off so slowly from a stop though, that it’s really hard to interact with traffic. It does soak up bumps very nicely at low speed.
The Vespa is made to cruise while looking stylish. If there’s still gas in it next summer, I’ll ride it again to get the stabilized gas I just put into it, back out. Until then, I look forward to getting back to bombing around on my Zuma and my Hooligan.