I'm thinking of moving up to a bigger bike. My dream bike (vespa) has 12" wheels and I'm worried about vibration at higher speeds. My Kymco has 16" wheels and I've had no problems with vibration. I'd love it if people with 12 inchers would give me some feedback!
Thanks!

You will undoubtedly feel more stability on a 16" bike but there are other factors that can help such as handlebar weights and keeping the load in your topcase to a minimum.

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Jess
PIAGGIO BV500 for sale!!!!

I would wonder why you think you'll get vibration at higher speeds off the Vespa. I just got a sweet used 200 GT at Thanksiving so its been too cold here in PA to take it for a real nice ride. I test rode before I decided I was gonna buy one and I describe the ride of a Vespa this way: "Like riding a stick of butter with wheels". Its beyond smooth AND STILL FEELS LIKE A SCOOTER. Although I cant personally testify since I haven had the scoot above 50 MPH but, why would the Vespa vibrate at high speeds and have such a loyal following?

Test ride the Vespa ask other Vespa owners who have the newer style go online and ask at modern vespa oh and I think scooterworld recently did a comparison test vespa VS SYM 200 HD.

No disrespect but....
Because when riding a GT or a GTS you do get vibrations at higher speeds.

Some vibrations can be normal and hardly noticable, others can be attributed to dangerous situations that your mechanic should be aware of such as faulty tires, deflated tires or loose steering. Please do not read this as me telling you not to get your bike checked out if you do feel vibrations.

You should probably have any vibrations checked out initially, to rule out other causes beyond the dreaded front wobble.

MY GTS is perfect and I still get little vib going once I hit 55-60 mph. My BV500, has larger wheels, I can cruise up to 75 before the vibrations start. In both cases the "wobble" was there before I installed my top cases and only got worse after them. I am still researching heavier handle bar weights for each end. I hear they do wonders!

Here's a great link supporting my opinion.
http://www.modernvespa.com/forum/topic38689?highlight=front+end+wobble

Here's one link to a place you can order heavier bar ends if and when the time comes.
http://www.jettin.com/ProductBarEnds.htm
scroll down to the right bottom to the
"Chrome 15 ounce "barbell" barends
for the rider that needs a heavy barends"
I've been procrastinating on ordering because I still have to take mine down to the Post office to have them weighed...I think I might allready have heavier than stock bar ends. I purchased my GTS from a owner who was very knowledgable and had allready done several upgrades and like me he rode very fast.

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Jess
PIAGGIO BV500 for sale!!!!

My GT is indeed "smooth as butter" up to around 70 mph
There is a characteristic "wobble" at around 35 mph when one's decelerating
Otherwise, the only challenge is road imperfections (16" wheels do handle those better)

The husband's GTS on the other hand!!
I don't ride it enough to catch the pattern, but I need to keep both hands planted on the handlebars at all time
He's got the heavy bar ends that go with the topbox, so it's not that
and the GTS has a noticeably higher center of gravity, so that may be a factor

But, my best guess is that the problem is the GTS's Sava tires
I've always had Perellis on my GT
They're much better tires (particularly when cornering)
but they're more expensive and they don't last as long

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~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

That's good to hear..I switched to pirellis, on the GTS, a short while ago and have been waiting for the weather gods to allow me to ride ever since...I'm hoping it may help.

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Jess
PIAGGIO BV500 for sale!!!!

So that's how you spell it!
I was going crazy this morning, trying to remember

The Savas could well have been the problem
They're knobby tires and become more so with age
(I've heard that the thick part sometimes wears through
before the worry marks on the grooves begin to show)

The Pirellis also give you a much better grip when it's cold & wet
(Their rubber is a softer, stickier formulation)
I think you'll notice the improvement right away,
once you get a chance to ride on them

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~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

I had to look it up too. I'm a horrible horrible speller. I figured out how to have fox fire check on my lap top but not on my desk top for some reason.

You should see/feel my old ones. My fiance came in the house yelling at me after he took the the rear one off. (He never yells.) He was so upset I had been riding around on such crap. I thought of posting a video of me sticking my finger or a pen through them to demonstrate how done they are...and the danger of not checking your tread depth often.



I absolutely love the pirellis on my BV (but I still have the front wobble). I can't wait to ride with them on my GTS! (also with my new Leo Vince exhaust and my speed kit ) I do realize I will go through them like tissues but if the fantastic handling of my BV is at all a result of the Pirelli's then it will be totally worth it.

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Jess
PIAGGIO BV500 for sale!!!!

Thanks, ladies, for the helpful info. I was warned away from 12" wheels when buying my people so have been leary of them since, but it sounds like there's not a real issue with the smaller wheel. I'd love a Vespa GT200, but am also looking at the BV250 and BV500 by Piaggio. Price is an issue and the fact that I'd like to be done "upgrading" for a while has to be weighed in, too. But the Vespa is just so darn CUTE!!

Thanks again!

Hi Andiamo Girl!

The biggest issue with tire size is how fast you'll be going on them
I find that going above 60 mph (on anything but perfectly smooth roads) can be just terrifying!

If you are thinking of doing that with any regularity, then yeah, you need bigger tires

And the BV250 is really cool, just in a different way from the Vespas

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~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

For CatskillNYRider:
I just remembered that I did have a bit of a challenge after one of my early misadventures,
when the handlebars got a bit loose (and consequently kept getting a bit crooked)

The proper loosening & retightening of the handlebars is quite a hassle (there are instructions on MV),
but if the tires don't do the trick, you may want to look into the front end alignment thing

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~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

Thank you Linda. Advice like that is always welcome. It's important for scooter virgins too! That was the second thing my mechanic checked, after my tires, when I first got my GTS. I really enjoy riding 60+ mph and the road I ride to work on is 65 mph. It would be irresponsible and unsafe for me and other drivers to do less than 55 mph. Perhaps the pirellis will do the trick...perhaps it's the GTS and like many other GTS owners, I will just have to deal.

Andiamo,

There is a big difference/improvement between my GTS 250 and the BV500's handling..but the truth is, I really don't like my BV as far as its looks go. I'm actually am kinda embarassed when I ride it. I totally understand the "it's so cute" feeling when looking at a Vespa. There's a reason they can't keep the new ones in stock during riding season! That said, I have no complaints about the 2007 BV 500's performance and I found it was the perfect solution to end the upgrading cycle.

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Jess
PIAGGIO BV500 for sale!!!!

Oops!
Yeah, for the benefit of the newbies: the first thing you should check is the tire inflation
You can get steering/wobbling problems on most any scooter if your tires are underinflated

Oops, again!
I had forgotten that you usually ride that fast

And I was wrong about it being all about the tires being all of it
I should have mentioned that the suspension on the GTS is way better than the GT's at those speeds
Riding the GT at high speeds on rough roads is sort of like riding a bucking bronco,
but the ride on the GTS is much smoother

So speeds over 60 are not as scary on the GTS,
even though the tires & the scooters are exactly the same size

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~~~~~ Linda ~~~~~

I wanted to know i f any one had a pic of handlebar weights I never heard of them. I guess my high opinion of the Vespa comes from what I had been riding prior a Daelim Delfino 100 cc 2 stroke with 10" wheels. You wanna talk about feeling the road! A good looking performing scoot for $1900. The only problem it rode like a 3 legged horse! I really learned to street ride on that scoot!

Here you go Wild Thing,

The Handle bar weights on Vespas and Piaggios screw into the end of the handlebars on the outside of the grips.


You can get different color ones and different weighted ones. Scooters and motorcycles basic design flaw is that there is little or less weight on the front wheel, compared to the rear. Many people attribute the "wobble" to this flaw...so the added weight is supposed to help with the balancing act and create a smoother ride.

Hey Linda,

What's with all this "oops" stuff. Everything you post, in my opinion, is good stuff. No need to apologize. We're all different and we all ride different.

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Jess
PIAGGIO BV500 for sale!!!!