i’m opening myself wide open for ridicule here – but i’m proud to announce that i am the new owner of a grigio avio (aviator gray) vespa gtv 250i.e.
yes – that would be a second (who can really say how many is too many) scooter
yes – the green (small, little, meek) scooter arrived just 2 months ago
yes – i can only ride one scooter at a time
so in my defense:
- two scooters parked outside the house provides better feng shui
- just as a sharp knife is safer than a dull one, a bigger scooter is safer than a small one
- the new one is quieter, cleaner and more fuel efficient
dark gray is easier to see- and the new scooter was *just such a good deal…*
ok – so really. what made me buy a new scooter when i already had an almost brand new one? when i first started looking for a scooter i was fairly confident that i would enjoy it and use it – but there have definitely been a few purchases in my past that i was sure i would use like crazy and history has shown otherwise. so my plan was to start entry level and confirm that a scooter was right for me. a big second reason was that any scooter over 50cc requires a motorcycle license that i didn’t have. so the vespa lx 50 seemed perfect. and it was. but maybe for not as long as i would have expected.
the lxv 50 is a great scooter and instantly became my nearly exclusive means of transportation. almost every day back and forth to work. jackie and me scooting into town for the rugby matches. a great day out scooting around the peninsula. the only drawback was the 50cc engine was challenged by the wellington hills – even more so when we were ridding double. it’s max speed is 50 kph (30 mph) and that’s with one rider on the flats. on my rides to and from work i sometimes found myself leading a parade up a hill as my speed dropped down the low 30’s (kph). with the limited speed the lxv is not allowed on the motorways and due the wellington geography, you can’t get north of the cbd without traveling on state highway 1. this put a damper in our ability to get out and explore.
(we have really embraced the whole looking young and italian thing)
so when i saw someone on trademe (nz ebay) selling a gtv 250 with only 523km (about 300 miles) for a huge discount i got the go-ahead from the jboss (she could sense this was a boulder already rolling down hill fast) and put my bid in. in parallel i began the long process of getting my motorcycle license. start to finish in 7 easy steps:
1) attend a basic skill handling class
2) take a written test
learners license
3) hold a learners license for 6 months
4) take a road test
restricted license
5) hold a restricted license for 6 months
6) take a road test
full license
i’ve made it past step 2 and currently have my learner’s license.
last saturday i won the bidding and the gtv 250 was mine. the gtv has a 244cc engine and with a top speed of 125 kpm it can easily handle 2 on the motorways. it’s magnifico.
the green scoot went up on trademe today and should have a new owner in 2 weeks. i suggest you get your bids in early.
now that i have become a total scooterista and spend all my time learning italian and hanging out on on-line scooter forums, i stumbled on this posting from vermont.
easy to admit that it made me and the jboss quite bummed. selling our vermont cabin was very hard and this road could very easily be the road our cabin was on. i’m sure we would have had a great time scooting along the vermont country roads.
now i realize that if this photo were taken today the road would likely have snow up past the top of the scooter, but it’s easy to just remember the best parts.