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Why Vespa Scooters

 We were young and wild and needed the ride and the money!

I remember when we were 16. We lived in the suburbs of a small town. Buses were rare and if you wanted a girlfriend you needed a moped or a scooter. Enduros were for farm boys! So only Vespa or Lambretta remained ! That is why Vespa Scooters were so popular!

Vespa Shops or how to find parts in 1992?

There was no internet and today’s market leaders for parts were still sitting in mom’s garage. You had to drive there for hours with a buddy in the car and catalogs were available on copy paper.
For chrome side covers, you had to spend days stripping paint by hand. Then you polished for another few days before maybe someone wanted to take 300 marks from your pocket money for reluctantly chrome plating it for you.
A bench with Union Jack or Canabis leaf ? For that you had to buy a musty flag in a junk store from African immigrants. Then you had to find an apprentice to the interior decorator, who wanted to cover it with a tarpaulin as a journeyman’s piece. One built a Garelli fender, because it was lighter and looked cool.

Vespa Tuning ?

First we just unscrewed EVERY unnecessary acessoire, because we believed every gram counts to get 3.5 km/h more out compared to the neighbor boy. And to achieve that we lay like Superman on the scooter. From a friend of a friend 100km away one bought a 207 or 135 cc cylinder which had already soft seized once. Another one put the cylinder head flat on sandpaper and turned it for hours by hand until he had taken off few mm to alter compression. This of course totally messed up the compression. This resulted surprisingly  in a full fully seized piston – at night in the rain at full throttle on the highway. We were on the way home from to a rally / mud meeting in a gravel pit. Then we cut a hole in the fence of the highway and hid the scooter in a bush. We spread out on the remaining scooters to pick it up hours later in an old VW bus with 50 hp. In the process, fuel ran into the seat and it welled up.

Responsibility?

We also fell flat on our faces practicing wheelies or Vespa cross in swimming trunks and flipflops! In the process we destroyed the chrome side panels and bend the mudgard. We built switches on the glove compartment, which only darkened the tail light and license plate, to run away from the police over the dirt road – because of the illegal tuning or the 2 grams of grass, which certainly one of us always had with him.

Did people like Scooterists?

We had to meet under highway bridges, because at some point no one wanted the group of chaotic people in front of the house. They wrenched while they ordered pizza and music from the car radio in the glove compartment drone until the battery was empty. The street in front of the house was a racetrack where they daily got on the nerves of the neighbors with the speeding and the noise.
I summarize – we had no idea what we were doing, but we really had loads of fun!

Were we fast? We only felt fast!
I admit we were silly bullies and we had no respect for anything or anyone – not even for the weather or the police.
We just wanted to drive, every day, no matter what the weather, with the few bucks we earned by washing our cars, delivering newspapers and mowing the lawn. We wanted to practice cornering in the traffic circle until the gearbox sprayed sparks into the night. Mixture came either from the special gas pump or measured by the eye.
Were there parts? Hardly! And too expensive for teenagers!
Meeting with a trailer and in a hotel? Impossible. Never ! Supermarket tent, canned beer and salt sticks by campfire. Sometimes slept in the entance of a bank like homeless.

Mods or Scooterboys ?

Polo shirts or Bomber Jackets ?

No! Just hoodies and baggy pants while listening to Run DMC and Beastie Boys!
Were our conversions dangerous? Sure – there were always a few screws left over. Occasionally someone lost a wheel at full speed, because the scooter was assembled late on Sunday night to get to school on Monday.

Were we cool ? More like crazy!

But that was better than the guys who nowadays build 30hp Faro Basso Racing projects and drive with the trailer to the event! They sip prosecco with their retro outfits ordered from Amazon and celebrate that they have money. In the evening, they sleep in a fancy hotel and give each other fancy awards and prizes for being there and maybe driving through the rain for a few hours or giving a mechanic a lot of money to rebuild their overpriced collectible.

Why Vespa Scooters ?

I wish for more of those days again, when some tools, passion, an idea and a spray can plus some stickers were enough to build a “custom scooter”!

When a shitty scooter was enough to do unbelievable crazy things with it and make memories for life!

 

 

Vespa Photo Louvre

The fastest Vespa Photo of my Life !

This was the quickest Vespa Photo Shot of my life!

 

 

During my first big Vespa tour through all of Europe, I also visited Paris of course. I took some nice pictures next to the Eiffel Tower and then I rode over to the Louvre! I rode my Scooter to this famous spot exactly next to the famous pyramid and had about 20 seconds. Then heavily armed guards from both sides stormed with angry faces toward my position. I did not have it on the radar, that due to security concerns after 9/11 and other terrorist attacks they had altered the security level for the Louvre as well. They were probably afraid that the guy with the dark skin from all his kilometers on his beloved scooter and the big box full of dirty laundry on the back of his Vespa carries a bomb to the Louvre… Read more

2 Taxi driving heroes and a vespa

Stranded in a desert without money or cards on Vespa Journey

Los Monegros / Zaragoza in August 2014!

Great Memories from a Vespa Journey… in retrospect.
Today was not exactly my best day.
After my Farewells in Madrid, I just made 80kms and the bike broke down. I could fix it thanks to a friendly, helpful polish Truckdriver who gave me a cable connector. Later I met the awesome Cuatro Acentos Escúter Club and had a good time there.
Vespa on journey in zaragozaA few hours later I did not smile anymore. At 10:30 PM at a gas station in Los Monegros Desert I realized I had lost my wallet with all documents, vehicle registration, cash, and credit cards and only had 1,50€ in my pocket. I used the cash to buy myself water and then walked over 20 km on foot with a flashlight along the national road in search of my wallet. After I  repeated the distance on my Vespa standing and searching I finally gave up. Sleeping the night between rubbish and rats behind a gas station wasn´t my best Vespa Journey moment. Even a guy from the national police showed n0 interest in my situation when I told him. The next day I had to pass their station and fill out some forms because all of this happened in a village with 3 houses in the middle of nowhere in Spain.

Taxi Drivers can be heroes, too

After an awful night, I searched the roadside again for some kilometers at daylight till it became too crazy hot. Then I send a message to the guys from Cuatro Acentos Escuter Club and they did not hesitate a moment to rush out into the desert to save me! Only thanks to my heroes Oscar and David, two Taxi Drivers from Zaragoza I was able to continue to Perpignan! First, they bought me drinks and fed me, then helped me look for the wallet again, and then simply offered me 100€ so I could continue my trip. Real Friends are the ones that save you in the desert! Literally!
 In Perpignan, I was able to coordinate with my family to get western union transfers from home every 10 days. That was the only way to do 12.000 km more to finish my journey after 22450 km.
Memories are the best souvenir!
No problems, no losses, no story!

Read more

Monthly Vespa Travel Summary – La Vida Vespa June 2014

La Vida Vespa June 2014

What happened in June 2014? Yes I was living La Vida Vespa or La Vida Loca! I intend to write a summary of what happened each month for the last 8 years! Seriously? Yes Seriously!

Why? For myself! I lived through so many adventures and stories that I fear forgetting them and I want to keep them all in this blog.

Beautiful Sunrise after a Night Ride through Milano

 

 

In the early days of June, I started on my first very Big Vespa Tour through all of Europe. In the first month, I crossed Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein and headed all south through Italy.

Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein

So I first rode along Lake Constance to get towards Liechtenstein end visit the castle. Afterward, I continued my trip to Italy to visit Friends near Zurich. I spend two days there. The Passes in the Alps were already opened but still full of snow. I crossed the Alps over one of the most famous passes: St. Gotthard.

Bella Italia

I did not want to stop riding and then got lost at night in the rain in the streets of Milano. In the morning after I witnessed one of the most beautiful sunrises of my life near Mantova! During the Vespa World Days, I was part of the world’s biggest Vespa Corso of all time. In the following days, I visited the Vatikan, the Piaggio Museum, and rode my Vespa through the streets of Rome. I also got a parking ticket near the tower of Pisa and won a prize at an Italian Vespa Rally in Battipaglia and I  saw a dying City!

Marco Quaretta next To Sophia from Vroom with a view

 

 

 

One highlight for me was the visit to the small private museum of Marco Quaretta in Livorno. He is famous in the Vespa world and was part of the Book “Vroom with a View” by Peter Moore. A Book I read before I started my long travel to get inspired. I was even able to stand next to his famous Vespa “Sophia” from the book! I loved it! Please forgive me that I will always just show a few highlights! Of course, a lot more happened and the months were full of breakdowns, sunsets, good food, and Bella Italia!

Visiting the Vespa Museum Pontedera

Attending the world longest Vespa Corso at VWD 2014 Mantova Italy

Riding up to the Vatikan and visiting the Famous Square

 

St Gottard Pass Crossing in June 2014

Waking up above the clouds in Italy 2014

The Castle of Liechtenstein on Vespa June 2014

“The Dying City” June 2014

 

How to make a fool out of yourself in 3.23 min / La Vida Vespa

La Vida Vespa Video Shoot for Kickstarter 2011

Back in 2011, I tried to do a Kickstarter for a photo book about a Europe Vespa Tour and the European Vespa Scene and I failed gloriously!

Nobody wanted to even meet me or talk to me from the scene because I was a nobody!

I decided to postpone my Vespa Trip and it ONLY took me 3 more years to get started! :-D.

What did I learn? Patience and Persistence is the key to achieving your goals and dreams!

And don´t set up a Green Screen in your bedroom 😉