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I 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 o
by esperent 4mo ago
I 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 4mo agoCould they just shove an electric motor into a beautiful Vespa?
- nsbk 4mo 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 4mo agoAgree, as long as you don't use it around other people it's probably fine.
- lostlogin 4mo 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 4mo agoIve seen someone make electric retrofit kits for vespas which sounds great to me
- amarcheschi 4mo agoThere literally are og electric vespas, I don't think they're great value for money but I guess people like the way they look. Then again, I'd rather see more of them in the city than loud motorcycles https://www.vespa.com/it_IT/modelli/primavera/primavera-elettrica-45-electric-moped-2024/ https://www.vespa.com/it_IT/modelli/primavera/primavera-elet...
- lostlogin 4mo agoThe Sprint also does an electric model too when I look around that site. https://www.vespa.com/it_IT/modelli/sprint/sprint-s-elettrica-45-electric-moped-2024/ https://www.vespa.com/it_IT/modelli/sprint/sprint-s-elettric...
- GenerWork 4mo agoAre you thinking of older Vespas? There's a few modern ones near me and they've never struck me as overly noisy.
- flkiwi 4mo agoA guy across the street from me has a new one. It's loud as hell, but this guy is the type to remove his muffler to make whatever car he has this week sound "cooler". I'm not ready to blame the scooter yet.
- rwyinuse 4mo agoYeah, even most two stroke mopeds are tolerable in terms of sound level with stock parts. At least where I'm from youth often replace the exhaust pipe with larger one that maybe brings slight power boost, and a massive increase in noise level. Unfortunately police doesn't really care although it's technically illegal, and these hooligans get to ruin other people's sleep.
- ex-aws-dude 4mo agoYeah I have no idea what they are talking about I have a 150 4-stroke that is fuel injected and it’s way quieter than any motorcycle and has very little exhaust smell
- dghlsakjg 4mo agoThe older ones or modified ones. My parents have a newer 50cc and even at full speed it doesn’t make more noise than any car. I had an old p200e 2-stroke Vespa and it was indeed smoky and loud. And also way more fun and useful.
- esperent 4mo agoI'm talking about the Vespas I actually experience on a daily basis. I don't know if they're new or old, but I can assure you that they are loud and smoky.
- weberer 4mo agoIt sounds like you're describing a 2-stroke engine, which older Vespas did use. But modern ones use a 4-stroke engine and should have the same emissions profile as any other motorcycle.
- realo 4mo agoYes, but still terrible, pollution wise. Electric Vespa anyone?
- esperent 4mo agoThey did make one for a while but it's terrible. €5000 with similar specs to a €1000 bike from other companies.
- FinnKuhn 4mo agoThey still make some models in an electric variant.
- asveikau 4mo agoI haven't been following the latest developments but about 10 years ago they launched "Vespa elettrica". It was very expensive and low powered at launch. Not sure if they've iterated on it since. I suspect that other brands of electric motorbike may be better
- anal_reactor 4mo agoI live next to a road and combustion-engine mopeds vary from "holy fuck this is loud" to "I can't wait to move out". I used to live close to an airport and that was much better. The specific noise that mopeds make drills into your head. Funnily, I'm never bothered by nails on chalkboard or cutlery on plate, but mopeds, holy fuck, if hell exists, it's full of mopeds.
- mulmen 4mo agoVespas aren’t mopeds.
- joshuaheard 4mo agoVespas have been around for so long because it is such a great design. They now make an electric Vespa. https://storeusa.vespa.com/elettrica/vespa-elettrica-45-mph.aspx https://storeusa.vespa.com/elettrica/vespa-elettrica-45-mph....
- boomskats 4mo agoThat og elettrica has been all but cancelled in most markets. It was grossly underpowered and overpriced, which is a shame. IIRC they relaunched it as the primavera elettrica, without all the green/yellow bits, but it's still the same bike.
- boomskats 4mo agoI have a couple of Vespas - a '98 T5 and a 2011 PX Unità d'Italia - and honestly my favourite safety feature is the noise they _can_ make. Modern Vespas don’t sound like the old ones from the factory anymore, but the retro scene is strong, so a lot of tuning kits bring back that classic buzz. In town, filtering, weaving through traffic, getting to the front at lights etc., being able to make a sound which is so ubiquitously embedded in culture that it's instantly recognisable, and so easily localised, really makes a difference. It might be audible, but it's still quieter than many bigger bikes that people ride around town on, and less obnoxious. I guess I'm not the only one who feels that way, as I get a ton of smiles and so many people make an effort to move out of my way - much more so than other bikes I see on the road. I've been super excited for electric motorbikes for years. I nearly bought a Zero FXS/FXE during covid, and then for the last year or two i've been looking hard at a BMW CE04. But they’d change how I ride, and I’d be more hesitant using them around town simply because being almost inaudible makes me nervous in UK traffic. In saying that, I'd be a lot more comfortable riding around places with a decent cycling culture like Cambridge, where people are used to looking around for smaller quieter vehicles, so I guess this too will change over time. E-bikes are great, but there the problem isn't the ride, it's the theft/security/insurance aspects. So yeah, I guess until a few of these things change, my buzzy Vespa, with its awesome clutch and gears and crappy little drum brake on the front, will continue to be my go-to.
- bananamogul 4mo agoSolving the safety problem by making it loud does not seem like a great solution. Fast forward and everyone is driving nearly silent electric vehicles. I wouldn’t want loud Vespas then. Cutting city noise pollution is one of the benefits of electric vehicles.
- toast0 4mo agoShould license movement noises from Hanna-Barbera. Jetsons or Flintstones are good, but there's probably other options.
- boomskats 4mo agoIt's not a great solution but it's the best one I've got, and it's still more ecological than driving the (electric) car for the same one-person trip. And audible != loud. Anyway, don't most places legally require nearly silent electric vehicles to emit some kind of artificial noise?
- jb1991 4mo agoI have to agree that the amount of pollution these things put out is really a dealbreaker in modern times, in my opinion. They really smell up a street when they go by, it’s so noticeable after having mainly electric cars and bicycles going by.
- MomsAVoxell 4mo agoSwitched from Vespa (combustion) to Unu (electric) and Black Tea (electric) .. and the one feature I yearn for, from the Vespa era, is its noise factor. Electric is damn quiet, damn smooth, and damn fast. (And damn comfy.) And that can be a problem. Especially in a city like, say, Vienna, where people just do not check before they cross some of these little cosy streets. I became a much more alert and guarding rider when I switched from Vespa. Maybe that's a good thing, I dunno, but I am gonna put a whistle on my helmet some day soon, I swear ..
- esperent 4mo ago> people just do not check before they cross some of these little cosy streets. Yes, you're supposed to be the one checking that you don't hit pedestrians. Cities are for humans first, machines second. Drive slower. If you want to drive fast, take a road trip.
- skeletal88 4mo agoYou can check around all you want but it is not going to help if someone blindly decides to just step in front of you without looking anywhere. Pedestrians sometimes move totally randomly. This is a similar problem when riding a bicycle on a shared path. Sometimes they walk like they were alone on the path
- jcims 4mo agoWhat a goofy comment. Pedestrians are *also* subject to right-of-way rules, just like everyone else on the road. Many examples of people running between parked/stopped cars and getting smoked when they hit an open lane with a vehicle they did not expect to be there. Not the driver's fault.
- bcraven 4mo agoUK law says if you hit someone, it's your fault. If you're going fast enough in an area where someone could step out, and someone does step out, if you hit them then you were clearly going too fast.
- filoleg 4mo agoThe lack of noise and smoke is a big one. I used to ride Honda CBR500R as my primary commute vehicle for a few years in Seattle. And while the rumble of the engine was not at the chainsaw-levels of annoying, it still sucked, it still emitted smoke, and I still had to wear ear protection. Which I would need to wear even on an electric motorcycle as well, to be fair, given that I took highway (and the wind noise at speeds above 60mph absolutely hurts hearing; after catching myself speaking way too loud after a ride a couple of times, I just invested into ear protection). But even at low speeds, the engine noise was imo annoying for pedestrians. And, mind you, I ran it with a stock exhaust. I absolutely despise people who install extra-loud (illegal) aftermarket exhausts on purpose, because they know that nobody is gonna enforce it. Electric is kinda solving all those problems. Just yesterday, I was walking outside in NYC, and an Amazon delivery van (manufactured by Rivian) was passing by. It was such a relief, because I initially saw a big van approaching and braced for noise and smoke. Beautifully enough, none of those concerns actually materialized, and it was just a fast/quiet/smokeless van. I am not some radical pro-EV-at-all-costs person, but I would be lying if I said that EVs of all kinds don't bring tons of immediate benefits to me, even as an outside observer who doesn't currently. No noise + no smoke + lots of torque already makes the outside way nicer for passerbys. And it is way more fun for an operator of those too (I happily drove an EV car before for multiple years, until I moved to NYC and stopped driving).
- lostlogin 4mo ago> I happily drove an EV car before for multiple years, until I moved to NYC and stopped driving Having followed a similar path, the lifestyle upgrade of moving to an EV, then abandoning car dependant commuting use is great. In the pouring rain and howling wind I do occasionally wonder what I’m doing, but sitting in a traffic jam is awful. > And, mind you, I ran it with a stock exhaust. I absolutely despise people who install extra-loud (illegal) aftermarket exhausts on purpose, because they know that nobody is gonna enforce it. Add to this: car stereos and the craze for adding (stolen) school PA speakers for playing obnoxiously loud music.
- bborud 4mo agoThis is a really weird take that does not resemble any modern Vespa. Are you sure you looked at a modern Vespa and not some old 2 stroke thing? Also, the range is pretty good. About 160 miles on a full tank, which no electric motorcycle or scooter I've tried can match. Drive it carefully and you can extend that range to probably 180 miles. You'll be lucky to get 80-100 miles out of an electrical motorcycle. As for torque, sure the smaller Vespas could use more torque, but the 300cc has more than you will ever need in a city. And to be frank, it doesn't do too badly on longer trips either. It is certainly more comfortable than my Ducati. Update: As for "modern". Note that my 300cc Vespa is about 10 years old now. So it isn't all that new either.
- bobthepanda 4mo agoadmittedly i have not used a vespa myself, only seen. but an e bike is a pretty good mode of motor transport.
- odiroot 4mo agoThey're noisy, underpowered and way too expensive (also in maintenance). No wonder most of developing world rides Hondas.