Do you have any doubt that you should love your Vespa? Don’t give it a second thought!
These scooters are cooler than a cat sipping iced chai tea with a lemon twist. They were built by a bike-hater, and after all these years they are still easy to love.
1. Vespas Feel Great. The Vespa was created by Piaggio & C., designed by an Italian aeronautical engineer who was drafted unwillingly into the project.
Piaggio’s reluctant recruit (Corradino D’Ascanio) went to work on this shortly after World War II ended. His goal was to make a product that the average Antonio could use to scoot around easily over a countryside ravaged by war, so he focused on maneuverability, and he also designed it with a splashguard protecting the entire front of the rider from all the nasty road splash-ups.
With this still a part of today’s engineering, it feels great to travel the roads with minimal road dirt in your face and steering that responds quick and tight in city traffic.
2. Vespas Look Great. Who can complain about the clean, lean feel of the Vespa? You have to give the Italians credit for really knowing something about producing a fine, lean design engineered for quality and making it look good in the bargain. Unique. Creative. Smart. Elegant. Those are the buzzwords of Vespa. And motorcycle mamas always want a ride on ‘em.
The above picture was the first Vespa model with a rigid frame. It has a horizontal one cylinder, two stroke petrol engine (three-speed gear, 98cc) and reached speed of 60 km (Max) and a travelling distance of approx 250 kms.
3. Vespa Riders Love the Quality. You can look at the Vespa website about all the Vespa features. But what do Vespa riders really love about their scooters? The braided brake lines. The metal uni-body. Expensive if you get a dent, true, but it’s cool. The No-Pets sticker. The step-through body so you can walk the thing into a parking space. The single-cylinder, air-cooled engine, no matter what size—and, by the way, the 300 goes really fast!
4. Vespas Go Everywhere. Originally engineered, as we already explained, to navigate a terrain still tumultuous from the wounds of World War II, Vespa’s creative engineer truly responded to drivers’ needs. It was designed to be different from motorcycles, which travel best at high distances on the open roads; Vespas were designed to maneuver through city streets at a slightly lesser speed. But they’ve been everywhere since two-wheel warriors the world over embraced them in the Sixties—to the Arctic Circle, to the Andes Mountain, across the English Channel, and even to the Moon. Well, we’re just kidding about the Moon.
5. Vespas Run Cheap. We do admit that if you dent up your load-bearing single-sheet chassis, you’re going to pay some buckos to get it fixed. You also have to be serious about getting your scheduled maintenance. But how can you beat the mileage? You’re getting 62 to 122 km/hr, or 65 to 90 mph, no matter what model you pick. With today’s gas prices, how can you beat that? That’s cool!
6. Vespas Flaunt Style. Yes, we already told you, when you take it to a place where there are lots of hog riders, their women are going to ask you how your Vespa rides. But beyond that, they offer style that’s just unmistakable. Everybody recognizes a Vespa. People remember their dads driving one. You can buy them with today’s modern styling, or get one with a retro look that mimics the 1970s, or with a classic look from the 1960s. Look at the threads you’ll find on the Internet from Vespa drivers—once they get on the Vespa, their four-wheel vehicle stays in the garage.
7. Vespas Take You Away From It All. You get on your Vespa. You put away your cell phone—no calls, no texting—be done with your Blackberry or whatever personal electronic devices you carry. It’s you and the machine, no multi-tasking. You are riding, getting where you need to go, the wind’s in your face, and your drive time is a third of what it used to be. You’re avoiding and evading, traffic jams are no problem. You can turn it on a dime and park it on a dollar. And that’s cool!
