Vespa from Hell

I have never had this much trouble with my Vespa ET8 150 than what I am having with this Vespa GTS300ie Super. Although in June the ET8 150 underwent a major service which cost me over R4,000, I rode it home and parked it, now with the GTS300 out of commission, the ET8 150 doesn’t even start, go figure, even after checking battery and fuel, sigh Vespa!

Anyway back to the Vespa GTS300ie Super, soon after buying the bike back in June, it started cutting out on hot days and only starting again after 30 minutes of cooling down. At first I thought it was no fuel, then after ruling that out my thoughts went to a heat seize but that too was ruled out so my investigation went back to a fuel problem. Finally after lots of research I found out that Vespa did major recall in Europe and America in 2011 due to faulty fuel pumps which they replaced free of charge and my model and year falls smack into that recall group. Now that it is getting hotter the cut outs became every day it was becoming un-useable as a reliable mode of transport. Maybe I should have gone with that gold BMW C650GT that I too had my eye on.

Speaking to Vespa South Africa, they just shrugged it off as dirty fuel even though the symptoms were the same as the recalled faulty fuel pumps overseas. Uhmmm I had this bike for only 4 months and it is virtually new with less than 15,000km on the clock. Well I had to fork out R3,030 just for a new fuel pump, not nice at all Vespa, not nice.

Bad Vespa, bad! No biscuit for you! I am becoming disillusioned with Vespa now, we have been through so much together. Through snow, Through the Wilderness tracks and streams, Vespa has carried me to hell and back, but now as we ride through the valley of darkness it leaves me stranded, I want to simply kick its tyres goodbye and walk away. That is what is running through my head, while my heart still holds on fast to the adventure of Vespa.