It was raining slightly on my ride in to work this morning. I kept my legs tucked in behind the cowl on the Vespa, and my legs stayed almost perfectly dry. Nice!
I miss the smooth, powerful brakes on my Triumph, however. I realize that the Triumph is, for all intents and purposes, a supersport and as such has exceptional brakes to match the rest of the package. The Vespa, meanwhile, is not a supersport, and shouldn't be compared to the Triumph.
The Vespa rockets from a dead stop to cruising speed pretty quickly, though, and my tendency to speed on the Vespa makes for a lot of hard squeezes on the brakes (It doesn't feel that fast, I swear!). Since it was wet this morning, I took it easier, but the brakes still felt kind of... agricultural.
However, my legs were dry, and I was happy, so I'm not going to bag on the scooter too much. I might look for some upgraded brakes for it, though, as a Valentine's Day gift for Lady Luck.
7 comments:
Agricultural? Maybe it's been too long since I've ridden a motorcycle but that front disc on my Vespa seems to stop just fine. Fantastic compared to my friend's 64 Vespa GL with drum brakes.
Which Vespa are you racing around on at 65MPH? Must be the GT200 or GTS right?
Well, it's not really a fair comparison. The Triumph has dual front disks, whereas the Vespa only has one lonely disk up front, and it's much smaller than the Triumph disks.
I didn't mean to imply the Vespa isn't a fine machine. It is, and I'm tickled with it. The brakes do a fine job of stopping the bike before I smash into things.
In comparison, however, I have to grab a lot more brake than I'm used to. I can stop quickly with a couple fingers on the Speed Four. I've got to grab a much bigger handful of brake on the Vespa to get the same braking power.
The scooter is a GTS, and it's a very slick bike. I'm going to save my pennies so I can get a scooter of my own.
The Triumph is NOT going anywhere, though. Just so we're clear. ;)
Oh NO, your a scooter zombie!!!
Would a scooter zombie shuffle around moaning "Peee Beeee Arrrrrr"?
I don't know, would they? lol :0
They sure are a blast. I stopped by the garage to get an oil change (on the car) last week, and started talking motorcycles with the service writer. He whipped out a Piaggio brochure and proudly said that it was going to be his next purchase. I am seriously considering getting a Honda Ruckus to keep at my folks' property in Tennessee for buzzing around the country roads...
Big Ruckus, or little Ruckus? They're sure cool, either way. I certainly wouldn't kick one out of my garage.
I've heard they're a little underpowered, but if you're only going to be going 30mph or so on backroads, I don't see why that would be a problem.
My pal Baldy-Beard wants to get a Piaggio. They're pretty slick, though not really to my taste.
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