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The Vespa at 80
- xnx 3mo agoIconic design, but way too noisy and dirty. Article doesn't mention "electric" once.
- pjmlp 3mo agoMaybe because not everyone cares, while the planet gets destroyed with wars, private jets and AI centers?
- otabdeveloper4 3mo agoNoise pollution is a different issue than "saving the planet".
- pjmlp 3mo agoThat is only an issue when driving 50cc and applies to all of them, regardless of which kind of motorbike. Or those that love "tuning" taking the noise filters out of the escapes.
- stefan_ 3mo agoYes, all of them are terrible and should have ceased to exist 10 years ago? Now is just the next best time. It won’t save the industry addicted to them of course, China has long gotten rid of them.
- pjmlp 3mo agoWell, everything is doable when following the same kind of government based "education". Also lets ignore drilling the planet for rare minerals in the process, that China owns.
- shrubble 3mo agoTaylor Swift just used how many tons to get married?
- gambiting 3mo agoAnd that's relevant how? If you live in a city where everyone owns a petrol scooter it's absurd. Can't wait for all of these to be electric, it's just common sense.
- mdp2021 3mo agoWhen electric will be equally practical (recharge time, mileage) and accessible (we do not have electronic money). And the noise pollition I hear coming from the electric to me is a million times worse than ICEs.
- esrauch 3mo agoWhat noise pollution do you hear from electric? You mean the noise cars make when they are backing up or what?
- mdp2021 3mo agoI mean the three: -- the additional alarms you mention; -- the noise from the engine (according to the assessment of mates, it should be that): it whines; -- the additional noise made to increase their "presence" which is typically an unnatural synth chord. All of that is absolutely unbearable to us.
- esrauch 3mo agoThere is literally any noise from the engine, whine or otherwise. Whether a noise is bad or not can be subjective but silence is objective. So at least for that one it kind of draws into question your overall conclusions here. You might be hearing an ICE and thinking it is electric, or some specific badly tuned vehicle or something.
- nxpnsv 3mo agoThe electric range of Vespas are using the same iconic design.
- tiew9Vii 3mo agoAre you talking about a 1950’s Vespa or a 2026 Vespa? A modern 300cc four stroke Vespa will use 3.3 litres of fuel per 100km and Euro 5 means noise is quiet. As far as things go, modern scooters are great, practical, economical vehicles.
- TheChaplain 3mo agoEuro5 also means >90% less exhaust fumes compared to Euro1 which was introduced 1999 iirc. The difference between a 1950 and 2026 Vespa must be huge.
- wiether 3mo agoEven the new ones are awfully loud. But, yeah, they don't smell like the old ones thankfully
- guenthert 3mo ago> A modern 300cc four stroke Vespa will use 3.3 litres of fuel per 100km Uh, I know motorcycle engines aren't particularly fuel-efficient (it's not a priority), but there seems to be, er, room for improvement.
- PunchyHamster 3mo agoyou can get some 125cc motorcycle/scooter and run on half that
- cindyllm 3mo ago[dead]
- synecdoche 3mo agoA 2026 Honda SH150 uses 2.2 l / 100 km (up to about 70 km/h) and is very quiet. Made in Italy too.
- tiew9Vii 3mo agoScooters main priority have been cheap practicality. Fuel efficiency is part of the “cheap” part. Yamaha’s blue core engine used in its mid sized 300cc scooters can do 2.8L per 100km. It’s 125 engines can do 1.8L per 100km. They’re incredibly efficient little vehicles So far electric scooters can only compete in inner city with the equivalent power of a small 125 and limited range/speed due to size/weight constraints
- esperent 3mo agoI like Vespas, they're very stylish, but damn they are noisy, and not a nice rumble either but more like a very loud chainsaw. They give off a terrible amount of smoke compared more modern scooters too. I do often wonder why so few other new small motorcycles or scooters have similarly beautiful designs though. However, for me, having lived in a country with a motorbike culture for the last decade, the coolest thing on two wheels is electric scooters. So much torque, range nearly equal to same sized gas scooters, and no pollution of the noise or smoke variety. It makes such a difference when everyone is zipping around on these quiet, non-stinking scooters. That's cool. Now it just needs someone to make an electric scooter design as iconic as a Vespa.
- jimbokun 3mo agoCould they just shove an electric motor into a beautiful Vespa?
- nsbk 3mo agoMy brother and I restored my dad’s ‘64 Vespa 150S and the thing is extremely loud! It is very smelly as well as it’s a two stroke engine, but I don’t mind that at all. Quite the opposite
- lavela 3mo agoAgree, as long as you don't use it around other people it's probably fine.
- lostlogin 3mo agoA friend races Vespas. They are apparently well suited to tuning (perhaps being poorly tuned from factory?), and power is much increased. The noise seems to go up vastly. He has to re-weld the frame from time to time due to the cracks that form.
- dv_dt 3mo agoIve seen someone make electric retrofit kits for vespas which sounds great to me
- kalessin 3mo agoThanks I hate it, extremely noisy and dirty. I really wish the brand dies with fossil fuels.
- fooblaster 3mo agoThankfully all this stuff has been or is being killed by ebikes and escooters which are vastly better technology.
- kenty 3mo agoI hate to say it but good riddance! OK to keep as a classic icon for everything on the road but definitely not something that I would want to continue being popular.
- wffurr 3mo agoKeep the body shell, modernize the internals. I think they have already done so...
- casta 3mo agoThere has been an electric vespa for quita a while: https://storeusa.vespa.com/elettrica/vespa-elettrica-45-mph.aspx https://storeusa.vespa.com/elettrica/vespa-elettrica-45-mph....
- amarcheschi 3mo agoAt least in italy there's also a cheaper, not Vespa looking, ev piaggio, the piaggio one
- nickthegreek 3mo agomodern vespas are none of those things.
- timbit42 3mo agoVespa has electric models now.
- timonoko 3mo agoThe horror that was aluminium engine. You could open and close a screw only twice and goodbye threads.
- derefr 3mo agoThe trade-off being (I'm guessing) that those threads would be pretty easy to re-tap by hand?
- dnemmers 3mo agoI think the usual move once threads are gone, is to move to a steel threaded insert (helicoil, time-sert, etc) https://www.mcmaster.com/products/thread-repair-inserts/threaded-inserts-3~/ https://www.mcmaster.com/products/thread-repair-inserts/thre...
- convolvatron 3mo agoor go up a diameter if that's feasible.
- TacticalCoder 3mo agoAh ah my youth! I had a Vespa with a 200cc engine, three speeds, from the 80s: this thing would do a wheelie in 1st gear. And very hard to control wheelie for the weight is uneven on a Vespa. My brother had a rare Vespa 125 cc from 1961 or something: when he left the country he sold it to a friend who still owns it. Another friend of mine --the reason we all had Vespa back then-- could disassemble and reassemble them with his eyes closed, including the engine. We'd go to flea markets and garage sales around the country looking for Vespa, Lambrettas and even french Solex for sale. Best find was not a Vespa though but a real Honda Monkey Z50. One day I forgot to put oil in a Vespa and the engine just froze: cylinder expanded in the piston and rear-wheel locked in place. Somehow I didn't crash. I put oil (you typically had oil with you, in a tiny trunk), waited for the thing to cool down: it just started back up (!). These were the days, thanks for posting that on HN. P.S: it's really sad we cannot have nice things posted without having the majority of comments being from environmental-jihadists : (
- perching_aix 3mo ago> without having the majority of comments being from environmental-jihadists Not to break your wishful thinking filled bubble, but those are very clearly not "will somebody please think about the environment" type comments. Plenty of people simply fucking despise the ever living shit out of this class of vehicle, just in general. You really don't need to give two hot shits about the environment to find scooters obnoxiously loud smoke factories, to have a problem with that, and to be absolutely fucking over them as a result. Delivery drivers made sure of that in the past years. I'm sure it's much more convenient for you to just file it under your favorite political grift, but I assure you with confidence, the hate on these is entirely self-interested and genuine.
- lostlogin 3mo ago> the hate on these is entirely self-interested I’ve never before considered altruistic hate versus self interested hate. I’ve a foot in both camps over scooter noise and fumes, but do love a good Vespa.
- 3mo ago
- Lio 3mo agoTimeless iconic Italian design. I'm surprised that the article didn't mention the role Vespa (and Lambretta) played in the British Mod scene. You can see it's influence in the RAF roundel stickers on bikes in the article. For anyone interested Quadrophenia is still a fun introduction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrophenia_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrophenia_(film)
- jgalt212 3mo agoCheryl Tunt: "Mopeds are fun, but you don't want your buddies to see you riding one."
- pjmlp 3mo agoUnless you're in UK. https://lambrettauk.co.uk/post/rockers-vs-mods-a-short-history-431 https://lambrettauk.co.uk/post/rockers-vs-mods-a-short-histo...
- amelius 3mo agoThe coolest thing if you're not behind them inhaling their exhaust fumes.
- timbit42 3mo agoThe older ones had more fumes. Newer models are cleaner. There are also electric models now.
- akmiller 3mo ago…and here I am a dumb American tourist who knew nothing about Vespa’s and was just upset because I couldn’t get my uber and missed my train. Now I want one!
- stackedinserter 3mo agoIt's the coolest thing on 2 wheels only in CBC's imaginary world.
- amarcheschi 3mo agoPiaggio also designed a car (well, more than one including bad prototypes), which unfortunately wasn't sold in italy due to a gentleman's agreement with fiat (fiat being much bigger basically went if you start selling cars, we'll build motorcycles). The English Wikipedia doesn't include this snippet of history, the Italian page does though https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACMA_Vespa_400 https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACMA_Vespa_400
- pmontra 3mo agoPiaggio also designed the Ape (bee) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaggio_Ape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaggio_Ape a 3 wheel tiny pickup. It was hugely popular, but of course not as much as the Vespa because of the smaller market. I still see some of them especially in country areas.
- amarcheschi 3mo agoWell in italy I definitely see a lot of them although they're not assembled here anymore The funniest version is the presidential one gifted to the president of the republic in 2008 https://www.museopiaggio.it/it/collezioni/2-piaggio/57-ape-calessino-presidenziale https://www.museopiaggio.it/it/collezioni/2-piaggio/57-ape-c...
- 2dvisio 3mo agoStill remember driving one with my dad (I was 6) back from a vendemmia (grape harvest) with the back fully loaded of at least 18 100-litre harvest buckets, on a 7-10% slope, which the ape did effortlessly.
- rldjbpin 3mo agoi lived in an interesting time and place combo where i'd see more apes around than vespas. primarily because we have local alternatives for vespas, which were also levied a lot of import duties to begin with. while vespas came earlier and had the advantage of interchangeably calling scooters "vespas". however, did not figure out that they both shared the same parent company.
- arnejenssen 3mo agoThis is a nice movie https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8885658/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8885658/ (Enrico Piaggio - Un sogno italiano)
- amarcheschi 3mo agoI will now go off topic a bit. I guess that Americans might not know about it, but Pavarotti enjoyed driving his scooter. There are photos of him in his villa driving his scooter that nowadays might make you think they're Ai generated but they're real and very Italian https://www.inmoto.it/news/curiosita/2025/08/14-8327674/pavarotti_in_booster_lo_spirito_guida_del_ferragosto_a_due_ruote https://www.inmoto.it/news/curiosita/2025/08/14-8327674/pava...
- lormayna 3mo agoI have a Vespa PX 125 from 1984. It's a very robust motorbike, very less maintenance and really funny to drive with the gearshifter. The only problem is about brakes: there are basically useless and you should be really careful on using them, especially if you are driving on wet road. Bad brakes and small wheels is a terrible combination. Probably the main regret to WFH is not using my Vespa anymore as I did when I was going everyday in the office.
- bushwart 3mo agoVespas are fashionable and cute but the coolest thing on 2 wheels award goes to Simsons of all colors and stripes (2-stroke or electric, pick your poison). In Germany, the grandfathered 2-strokes are also the only way you can legally ride somethibg faster than 45 km/h on a moped license.
- lostlogin 3mo agoThis sort of thing? The bars look like an 80s bmx. https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2021/12/27/23/50/motorcycle-6898358_1280.jpg https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2021/12/27/23/50/motorcycle-68...
- bushwart 3mo agoYes that's a Simson, one of several models
- moeffju 3mo agoSecond Ride is offering electric conversion kits giving you the best of both worlds: electric scooter, going 60km/h...
- goethes_kind 3mo agoMeh. I guess people like the style. The Honda Cub had far more impact worldwide and is a superior machine in every aspect.
- lostlogin 3mo ago> a superior machine in every aspect. Style?
- elevaet 3mo agoThere's a culture for modding Vespas in Indonesia that I think HN folks would find interesing - check out "Vespa extreme"/"Vespa gembel" - sort of like if mad-max was in the jungle culture of chopping and rebuilding old Vespas into all sorts of wild road machines. Pretty interesting kind of hippie/punk subculture.
- CommenterPerson 3mo agoThese are wild, very creative, Thank you for the reference! https://youtu.be/uVeVZ-Iugkg https://youtu.be/uVeVZ-Iugkg
- Sam6late 3mo agoI hated our Vespa when I was a kid in the seventies but their calendars were cool. You know that instinct you get when you're slowing down or coming to a stop, where you just want to stick your feet out for balance? Well, every time I did that, I felt like those sharp metal edges on the Vespa were just waiting to scrape my leg or catch my ankle. It wasn't a bike to me; it was a hazard on two wheels. So when the opportunity came to "borrow" it while my father was napping, I gladly handed the honor over to my brother. Off we went, buzzing through the dark to see the aftermath of an airstrike on an oil refinery at the edge of the city. It was pitch black out there, and before we knew it, we'd tipped right into a ditch on the side of the road. Panic was not because we were hurt, but because we were convinced our father would somehow know we'd taken his Vespa. Luckily, a few strangers happened to pass by and helped us haul the thing back up. You'd think we'd have learned our lesson, but soon after, I pulled a similar stunt, this time with our white Volkswagen.
- lostlogin 3mo agoAir strikes? Where was this?
- Sam6late 3mo agoHoms, Syria https://www.ebay.com/itm/376362709347 https://www.ebay.com/itm/376362709347 What is interesting is that our Volkswagen car is still running til today by the guy who bought from us, in a village there, this car escaped the so called planned obsolescence.
- lazyant 3mo ago> "The first ads for the Vespa featured a woman," said Sarra. "You could call it a kind of feminist design." Well, a big feature of the Vespa design is that, unlike other motorcycles, women (or Scottish men) can ride them with skirts. Surely that helped with their initial popularity.
- naishoya 3mo ago'Kilt! Whas happ'n tae'e last wee rocket as call't a skirt' https://www.amazon.com/Kilt-Happened-Person-Called-Skirt/dp/B07HCZ6R9V https://www.amazon.com/Kilt-Happened-Person-Called-Skirt/dp/... But you're not wrong. I haven't rode and actual Vespa, but have been on a Yamaha Vino YJ50 in my full montie gallus kilt, frae bunnet tae brogues.
- bborud 3mo agoReading through the comments I somehow doubt that many have owned or ridden a Vespa that was built in the last 10 years or so. I've had a 300cc Vespa GTS for a decade now (alongside a few motorcycles) and the thing that is the most striking about it is how relaxing it is to drive. Despite being somewhat heavy, they are very manoeuvrable due to the low center of gravity. The suspension is very good and despite the roads here being awful it just glides over any bumps and smooths them out. The 300cc engine is fairly quiet and provides more torque than you need. When the lights turn green you'll be over the intersection before the motorcyclists have had time to release the clutch and get going. It does well on the open road too. It isn't a race machine, but it'll do 120km/h (75 mph) which is good enough. And you won't feel stiff and bent when you arrive if you decide to take it on a 6 hour ride. I didn't get it for the looks/style. Yes, I did think it was a bit of a gimmick. And then I tried it. I thought I was doing 60/kmh when I was doing 80km/h. And it just glided over bumps. (And yes, I have a motorcycle as well, but I'm European so it means I don't ride a motorcycle to get into road rage incidents. We actually try to get along here)
- rconti 3mo agoI'm surprised the small diameter wheels allow for such a good ride.
- mulmen 3mo agoThe 300GTS is amazing. It can do anything. Split traffic on the way to the farmers market while getting waves from random people? Easy. 80mph up a hill on the way to the park? Also yes. Ride through the park to set up a picnic? Not only yes but it literally has a built in cooler. Just a total zero compromise vehicle. And you can buy one for what five grand? All other motorcycles (which I have many of) are stupid.
- mulmen 3mo agoI love Vespas. I have a bunch of old Hondas that are amazing for different reasons but they’re all motorcycles so people will randomly try to kill me to prove a point. But on a Vespa you can do anything and people will just smile and wave. Literally everyone loves them. I went on a day ride with some friends and while they were refilling their motorcycles I just rode circles around them in the gas station because I could. Then I passed everyone on the highway because I could do that too. They’re hilarious.
- lostlogin 3mo agoPossibly the coolest thing I’ve ever seen was a guy coming up to an intersection on a Vespa. Somehow he chucked it sideways and skidded down the lane scrubbing off speed, then straightened up, split the lanes and hit the front as the light went green, and took off. Completely alarming and rather dangerous to all around him.
- incanus77 3mo agoI've had a 2016 150cc LXVie in silver with maroon leather since new; have put about 6,000 city miles on it. It's a wonderful machine. I bought it when my wife died after we had taken the motorcycle certification together in anticipation of getting one someday soon. I'm in the process of selling it now, though, as it's time. But it's such an iconic brand and I constantly get thumbs up and even notes left on it.
- marques576 3mo agoVespa VBB 150 from 1969 owner here, love it!
- marques576 3mo agoVespa VBB 150 from 1964 owner here, love it!
- ziofill 3mo agoIn my 20s I tried with two other friends to raise some money from local businesses to sponsor a coast to coast trip in the US on our vespas (I had 1968 150 Sprint Veloce in red). It didn’t work out, but now that I’m in my 40s I understand it would have been a terrible idea ^^’
- johnea 3mo agoUm, sorry. If you've ever sat behind a poorly maintained vespa at a stop light, and in it's cloud of exhaust when it takes off, then you definitely don't think it's cool... Same thing for old beetles and VW buses. Total smog creators. Electric is where it's at. Can the cool kids catch up?
- academicfish 3mo agoHeavy, uncomfortable, not eco-friendly, and overpriced.
- timbit42 3mo agoThere are electric models now.
- michaelmares 3mo ago[dead]
- srameshc 3mo agoGrew up in India riding my Vespa (LML Vespa). A 150cc scooter. It was very old technology I guess but I never had problems with it. The new Vespa looks very cool and seems to have much better balance. It makes me very happy to see Vespa now on the roads at times where I live. I always think, someday I will buy one.