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I have loads more to share so I'll update this some more tomorrow.
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Wowzer.
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Wowzer.
Wowzer is right.
Eric, I will say this.
"Talk about a round about way to get that gray Vespa you wanted!"
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I didn't make it out of the dealership 1 lousy mile before I got rained on. Gah!
I was in a hurry to get home to try and ride with Wolfeboats on the Blue Ridge Parkway but today wasn't happening so we exchanged texts and we are staying Waynesboro, VA and will hit up the BRP tomorrow.
All set up at the hotel. Hmmmm.... seems legit, the blue and the gray meet in Virginia?!
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An Outback a stones throw away we had a great meal and enjoyed swapping war stories. I have a new friend in life.
Wolfeboats bought my supper tonight becuase I help Doug get his new scoot. Wow, what a nice gesture.
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(More to come tomorrow)
Enjoy the ride, life is short.
Eric
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I got home very late last night and hydrated and went to bed. Riding for hours in 100* F heat zaps my energy and I wilted right after a shower.
We were up at 7 and met for coffee and breakfast at 8 am. This pic is wolfe and me figuring out the route for today's ride. Temperature was rising quickly by this time in the morning so we gassed up and headed to higher elevations to beat the undeniable heat that was looming.
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First stop.
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Love this picture!
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Wolfe beaming with pride and joy!
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There's a hiking trail at many of these lookout stops as well. I hiked my happy buns over to the scooter and hit the parkway!
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Now I will premise this with say I/we didn't take too may lookout pics as they tend to all look the same after while. I hope you don't mind?
Wolfeboats getting a nice backdrop for his scoot for a pic opportunity.
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Another stop...
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The weather as we climbed higher and higher elevations felt like air conditioning! It really was quite nice out riding in the heat today.
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A few feeble attempts at some kind of artistic photos...
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Now some of you may remember me talking about the James River that spits out down at Jamestown? Here's the mighty James river passing through the Blue Ridge Mountains.
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So this very spot was a choke point and Gen. George Washington knew it to protect Richmond and transport much needed resources.
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And the aqueduct lock as seen today.
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We stopped for lunch at Peaks Otter Lodge, if you are traveling the BRP this a great place to grab a room with a view to die for and the restaurant was amazing too. Read about it here.
https://www.peaksofotter.com/
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Our view during lunch! No too shabby for a couple of meandering scootistas!
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The food was fresh cooked and fairly priced for what you got.
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Wolfe's seafood sammich.
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Some of the trees around here have to be hundreds of years old. For all we know old George Washington himself could of took shade under this tree?
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Parked with all the other riffraff that was out today!
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The treasure find on the day, the very last unicorn in the U.S.; a gas station with 3 hoses so I don't get ripped off on pumping premium AND!!! it was ethanol free. lol
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Last stop of the day at the ranger station before I had to peel off and start the 100 degree death march home.
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In closing I would like to say that I have a new friend through this forum and by reaching out to yet another member has made a quality impact on my life and another soul meandering out on the open road. Don't talk about, do it folks! I promise you will reap huge rewards.
A few texts from Wolfeboats when I got home last night. Our memorable awesome sauce waitress at Outback.
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And a heartfelt note from Wolfeboats, thank you my friend! Until next time..
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Thanks for reading my meanderings and remember, life is short, enjoy the ride!
Eric -
One last terrible pic of me that Wolfeboater took and shared with me.
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When I get time and a few more hours/miles under my belt I'll share some thoughts about this particular variant that Vespa is offering, specifically focusing on the SuperTech and if it's worth the extra Lira. I'll be needing a first service soon.
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TBT - Throw Back Thursday
The scooter that started it all, Briggs & Stratton, no brakes!
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Into everyone's day a little rain must fall...
I have a upper respiratory infection, bronchitis so off to the doc's and then to the Pharmacy to pick up meds (thus the Bruce'd in scooter tag) and when I left the Pharmacy someone had knocked over my GTS. Yay... Picked it up, went in the CVS and spoke to the manager to view the surveillance tapes and no joy there.
Mirror
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Brake lever
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Center stand
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LH lower right platic panel
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Edge molding and under belly a little
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Front fender
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I called Scooter West and I spoke with their parts person (who shall remain anonymous) and I didn't even get to finish my ask before he interrupts me saying 1. too new i can't get parts 2. All I have is brake lever and a bar end 3. may take up to 3 or 4 months. 4. I will have to call and find out 5. I don't have any pricing. So I waited for him to spew his spiel, then said I have heard 5 reasons NOT to order from Scooter West and I have yet to have 1 reason to do business with you. I have an issue that needs resolved and whether it takes 3 days or 3 months has no bearing on the resolution, I need answers not claimed information that is 100% speculation. Do your damn homework and call me back. Man I was hot! He emailed me this late last evening here's some of the parts that I need. Looks like a $450 tip over. Ouch! :hs1: There goes my painted topbox I wanted... :head:
I'm so annoyed by this persons attitude and treatment that I called AF1 where I purchased my 946 from and waiting for them to get back with me.
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So I'll order a few pieces at a time and get her 100% over winter and yes, this is a sad day but it will not tarnish my riding experience and enjoyment of owning this fine scoot. As my pops used to say when things get rough; "more Christians and bigger lions, bring them on!" lol
Snip: Here's the story behind that saying..., no I'm not very religious, just always remembered the quote
As you probably know, in the early days of Christianity the NFL and hockey hadn’t been invented yet, so to satisfy the public’s lust for violence, Christians were thrown into the Roman coliseum to be eaten alive in front of sold out crowds. Why? Well, not because they were violent, mean criminals who deserved death. Many historians believe that the biggest reason behind this unthinkable brutality was the nature of their message. Christians dared to carry on the same message that got Jesus killed:
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). -
When life is throwing you raspberries, go for a ride. Believe me it's therapeutic, to hell with the rain.
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Supertech
Is it worth it?
So you're thinking about getting a new '20 Vespa HPE, there's only 8 different trim levels (I think) to choose from. Is that too many for essentially the same scooter? You have the GTS, GTS Super, GTS Touring, GTS Yatch Club, Sei Giorni, and GTS 300 Notte (murdered out, last years drive train so no HPE) finally the GTS Supertech! There is zero difference in the riding and handling of all of the models, the spring rate is the same for all of them and only the spring color is changed from model to model. The pricing ranges from $7,149 for the base model and in my case the Supertech sells for a whopping $7,749.
So what I'm attempting to answer here is the Supertech worth the extra $600? I won't answer that question for you but provide real world use and my synopsis of it. Hopefully my testimony will answer the question for you.
For your $600 you get what I call the farts & darts package, which I happen to love! Blacked out wheels, murdered out with a T-tech sticker, yellow tinted badges, yellow stitching on the two tone vinyl seat, blacked out horn chevrons, yellow front spring and the Vespa Mia. (more on that later) Oh, and you get only one choice on color Grigio Materia translated means Gray Matter. So Internally I'm going to take a guess and say the farts & darts package adds maybe $100 or 200 to the price of admission. That leaves roughly $400 to $500 for the Vespa Mia.
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What Vespa says:
SUPER-CONNECTED WITH VESPA MIA
Riding is safer and more practical then ever with the new Vespa Mia connectivity system on board the Vespa GTS [bgcolor=#FFF500]SuperTech[/bgcolor]. Using Bluetooth to connect your Smartphone to the bike’s electronic system, it allows you to handle calls and messages, choose your music and access data about the bike, performance parameters and trip statistics, with ease.
(more to come)
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The Mia or the heart of the Supertech is all housed in your TFT (A thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display) screen connected via Bluetooth to your smartphone, basically a cool color screen. Much like the Kymco Noodoe.
When you first turn on the scoot you are treated with an animated Vespa flash screen. Note: the usable screen is only a portion of the entire dash, the rest of the dash houses the idiot lights.
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You can set your display to day or night settings or have it on automatic which the dash has a photostatic eye to switch to different modes for less glare.
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Your setting you can change the language, configure miles or kilometers, back-light, and graphics.
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Here's an example of the "graphics", ooo ahhhh! lol What I call the swimming pool at the bottom. I prefer the tasteful small Vespa logo.
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The info also provides you miles, trips meter, mpg, miles to empty, and a couple other features.
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Let's get to the heart of it! The menu is operated via a joystick located by the horn button, Up, down, right and left with the "push in" to select, much like a mouse button.
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I pair my phone with my Sena S20 so I (hopefully) have audio for music, nav and warnings.
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Let's talk about the navigation for a minute. Vespa uses their own mapping app that is not based on Google Maps, Waze, or others so it's a stand alone mapping app.
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You have the option to filter your route a bit which it works very well!
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On my trip to Antietam yesterday I rode through an area that had a speed camera set up, I got an audible tone warning me and a warning on the dash and yes, it was spot on. I think [USER=305942]@CashCow[/USER] recently got nabbed in MD by one of these...
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Note the speed warning icon just to the right of the gas pump. That's telling you the posted speed limit at that piece of road you're riding and flashes if you exceed it. Well... the speedo is generous by 3 to 5 mph so I'm always going over the speed limit to accommodate and the flashing is a bit annoying... -
The bad news is I get no audio in my Sena for nav, just tones for warnings. For reference I'm using a Samsung Note 9 Galaxy and this may work for iOS? I am getting audio for music, podcasts, phone calls, audio beeps when I get SMS texts etc. The joystick does allow me to skip from song to song, the up/down should adjust the volume but this feature does not pair up with my phone and Sena. No biggie, I have the rotary dial on my Sena.
The Vespa mapping app DOES tax your battery on your phone so you will need to keep your phone plugged in to a USB charging port at all times. There's a USB port in the pet carrier on all GTS's. I experienced about 40% loss in battery usage on my phone in 1.45 hrs. of use not on a charger. The bad news is the pet carrier gets HOT as it's tucked behind the radiator and its plumbing. ON 100*F+ days I would pull my phone out to take pic and was unable to do so because the phone was overheated and went into self protection mode. On normal riding temps it has been fine.
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How accurate is the nav? Well... this is a two part answer. In one sense if I have say a 70 mile destination set, as it ticks down it lops off 10 mile increments, so not very accurate. But, when you drop below 10 miles to your destination it becomes spot on and counts down the tenths of a mile and even yards when you get real close. Here's an example.
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The Vespa app has some detailed information that it keeps track of shown here.
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Turn off your scooter and Poof! It's gone. :hs1: Bizarre to me...
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However it does retain an ongoing record or your travels, even when you refuel.
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This is getting WAY too long winded. So let's get to my summary. Would I get the Supertech Mia for the $400 to $500 bump in price, the short answer is yes. I'm the worlds worst at getting lost so nav is imperative for me, I have been a user of the Garmin 550 for 10 years and within the last 2 years upgraded to the TomTom Rider 400. More money than the Supertech nav plus Ram mounts, running wires to charge it that when get moisture inevitably short out the power and my nav craps out. Happened many times on Michael's delivery. I have had a cradle release snap off and was unable to remove the nav on a much longer trip. Another $150 to replace that.
To have it all wired into the bike (with no maps mind you) and not have to worry about removing the nav off the bike when i'm traveling long distance to make a pit stop is huge for my needs. Now when Wolfeboats and I were in the Blue Ridge Mountains I lost cell signal and poof! my nav was on hold. There's your argument for a GPS based nav. That said the cell phone maps/navs are much more intuitive and easier to program routes and change on the fly.
So pick you poison folks! I'm hopeful that Piaggio/Vespa first attempt at this arena on nav is cutting its teeth on this scoot and I look forward to firmware updates and updates on the nav application.
I hope my thoughts help out a future 2020 Vespa buyer. Apologies for the long winded read if you even labored through that mess.
I'm at 800 miles on my scoot and the first service is tomorrow.
Peace!
Eric
(more to come)
Let's get back to meandering, shall we? -
Eric, sorry to hear you're under the weather a little. Real sorry to hear about the tipover!
But I'm glad to see you not letting it get you down, to the point of even enjoying a ride in the rain. I always enjoy reading your in depth reviews of the bikes/scooters/etc you ride. That Vespa sounds like a pretty sweet scoot. 
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Eric hope you heal up quickly. The tip over sucks, but the parts seem reasonable enough especially for an Italian--definitely not DUfuckingCATI prices. Ride on with the battle scars they'll heal up soon. Take care.
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Eric, sorry to hear you're under the weather a little. Real sorry to hear about the tipover!
But I'm glad to see you not letting it get you down, to the point of even enjoying a ride in the rain. I always enjoy reading your in depth reviews of the bikes/scooters/etc you ride. That Vespa sounds like a pretty sweet scoot.
This ^
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Sam had me worried for a minute, I thought you were hurt on the tip-over.
Heal up fast; both of you.
The integrated GPS looks like a great feature.