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June 14, 2007
Drivers won’t be bored riding around town on the fuel-efficient, stylish and surprisingly powerful Vespa
YOU MAY HAVE SEEN them zipping around Atlanta lately. Too small to be a “real” motorcycle, too big to pedal. With gas prices on the rise, it seems scooters are everywhere these days. In recent years, there has been an explosion of models flooding the market, and it’s easy to make a mistake and settle for something that’ll get you from boring old Point A to boring old Point B. Luckily, the company that started it all way back in 1946 is still around. That company is Piaggio, makers of the one and only Vespa line of motor scooters.
Since the end of World War II, Vespas have been ridden the world over, bringing a touch of Italian class and style everywhere they go. Originally, the scooters were produced with a noisy, temperamental two-stroke engine mated to a manual transmission. The two-strokes were bad polluters, which led to the end of Vespas in the U.S. in the mid-1980s as well as the bankruptcy of Vespa’s U.S. importer.
Luckily, in the late 1990s, Piaggio executed a complete redesign of the iconic little bike. New features included a more powerful electrical system, a cleaner four-stroke engine, better brakes and above all, a fully automatic CVT belt-driven transmission—no more shifting.
The new Vespas took off in Europe but took a while to gain acceptance in our SUV-loving society. Early models were hard to come by and parts were even more so. Not so much these days. Vespa has a standard line of scooters with engine sizes ranging from the small-town grocery getter 50 cc LX to the highway cruising, 80 mph, 250 cc, fuel-injected GTS model. For the sake of the scooter novices out there, this review will focus on the mid-sized, mid-priced Vespa LX150.
Posted by Frank at June 14, 2007 8:33 AM
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