Good to see you back in the saddle, Old Man. Clearly, the Vespa is your favorite ride and the repair investment was money well spent. Too often we discard old items that still have a good bit of life left in them. Repairing, re-purposing, and renewing old items is often the most responsible, cheapest, and gratifying path. Replacements often fall short of what we liked about the original item, Pay a tailor to repair the zipper of a favorite jacket. That jacket always just looked good. It fits perfect. The pockets are right where you want 'em. A new one, although similar, will never be the same. You got your Vespa back. Rides 'like new'. Kept it out of a landfill. Nothing new to learn. Starts up just the way you remembered, and park it just where you always did. Victory!

I'm loving your channel. I'm 70 years old and thinking about getting a Vespa.

I had two Vespa back in the mid 1970’s, I always prefered Lambretta in those days becarse they looked slicker. Between then and now I had big bikes in the 1990’s for a while. Ten years ago as of yesterday (6th June) I started riding again on a Vespa 300. I thought it would be a short lived fad but no. Today I am on my forth Vespa GTS 300, a 75 years anniversary model. It would have been my third but I had my last Vespa stolen in January and written off. So, I empathise how you feel, I love the Vespa GTS, it is the most fun I have ever had on two wheels and the most satisfying ride. I have had so many in ten years becarse I toured and commuted. There was nothing wrong when I upgraded but wanted to keep ahead of the game. Happy ridding and I’m glad you enjoy your Vespa as much as I do.

Happy that things worked out i have a 2020 GTS HPE the ABS pump went bad Vespa was nice enough to agree to pay for that part when they didn't have to... Because there is a defect item which is well known but the labor is still 4-5 hours at my very honest dealer and you are going to pay 10.5 K to walk out the door at any Vespa dealer today to get a new one you did the right thing without any doubt in the world .... love your channel.. always have/always will thank you for continuing to remind us that NICE PEOPLE, with NO agenda continue to inhabit KZfaq

Hey Sreve, glad that you have your scooter back and that everything turned out well. Now there is no excuse not to make more of your great videos on the Vespa and other bikes! Love your channel and sage musings. Btw, I am 73 and have a 2023 Gts 300 and a 2003 Goldwing. Hope to keep riding for years to come. Looking forward to your next video on whichever bike you choose. Thanks

Well worth invigorating a loved machine, sounds like you made the right choice

Hey Steve, welcome back once again, we missed you! Remember I told you that this was the right choice and, there it is! As a previous GTS 250 ie owner, I can tell you that fond memories growing up inside my mind! Great deal, on a great scooter!! Keep up mate! Always safe and upright! Greetings from Athens!

I always did think you were making the right call to overhaul your scoot vs. replacing it. Now I KNOW you made the right call!! Your mechanic belongs to a very small club. Kudos to him! Great to see you back out and about.

Wow , you hit the Lottery on that price ! Nice , Thanks for the Videos

Thanks for sharing your story Steve, it was a reasonable decision to repair your Gts👍

Nice to have you back Stevy All the way from Malta

Ahh, Steve…it’s great to see you reunited with your GTS. It puts a big smile on my face and feels like the balance of the universe has been restored. So glad to hear your decision to restore was so resoundingly rewarded! You’ve made a lot of wonderful memories on that machine and glad you’ll have the opportunity to add to them.

I'm glad it worked out for you Steve. People are always tossing things aside instead of doing needed maintenance. You and the Vespa are joined at the hip so it deserved the fix.

I am so happy for you when i hear about the total cost of this repair. I think it’s definitely worth it. It’s kind of like re-conditioned work done for your lovely scooter. Enjoy and happy riding.😊

I congratulate you, that was a good decision. Greetings from Germany

Good to know you have it back Steve. We share the same model & colour. Like you, I've also gone the route of fixing up rather than replacing. Two weeks ago I took mine on a 300 mile round trip to Kent in England. It was a fun ride & I look forward to many more in the future.

So glad you are back connected with your GTS! I can picture a smile inside that helmet of yours. I know my GTS brings one to my face every time I ride. I imagine if I were in your shoes I’d probably just have replaced it since I don’t know any good independent mechanics here in Ohio and most likely would have to pay dealership prices. Really happy that it worked out for you the way it did. Looking forward to the next one. Happy riding!

Well it looks like you made a wise choice and I hope you get many more happy years on that Vespa. Keep the entertaining videos coming. We just had a similar experience on our 11 year old Jeep, having a complete service - all fluids checked and or changed, inspection, undercoating, brakes replaced, virtually everything carefully checked over - all for a surprising low price. Done by an independent mechanic in your neighborhood BTW.

Steve you got me there when you said “are you ready” on the cost 🤣 I have been waiting for the Vespa video for the longest time!

Glad to see you back on the scooter again. Look forward to a Summer full of riding adventures.

I have a 2006 Vespa GT200 (carbureted) I bought it about 8 years ago, with 1800 miles on it. It looked brand new, and it rode like brand new. It still had the original 2006 tires on it, which I went ahead and wore out. I did have a couple of problems to begin with. The vacuum petcock failed, and left me stranded. I had to call a tow truck. Then the water pump started leaking. After replacing that, replacing the coolant, oil and filter, final drive oil, brake fluid, and battery, I rode it up to 10,000 miles (replaced tires at around 6,000), then did the valve adjustment, new spark plug, belt and rollers, and a few other things. I have changed the oil every 2000 miles, and the filter every 4000 miles. It still only has just over 13,000 miles (I have other bikes) and I recently replaced the tires again. Other than the petcock and water pump, the only other problem I have had with it was electrical. I finally traced that to an open circuit in the wire between the kill switch and CDI box. I am 65, and plan to keep it for the rest of my life, or for as long as I can ride it. I'm a carburetor guy, and always will be. And carburetors have never cause me any problems. I have 6 bikes, all carbureted. One of them is a Genuine Stella 2 stroke manual shift scooter. Basically an Indian made P series Vespa. I definitely think you made the right decision to keep that one going instead of replacing it. I don't believe motor vehicles have a life span. I have a 58 year old truck that still runs just fine. I put a new engine in it a couple years ago. It will easily outlast me.

Looks lovely where you are riding..enjoy the revamped.machine.. 👍

Glad you're happy with your scooter renovation, you'll probably end up keeping it forever now 😀. I've just bought a new scooter it's a kymco dtx360 but the 125cc engined one not the 320cc. I can't believe how good it is,so relaxing to ride, cruises at 60-65mph,I did 270 miles at the weekend and it's fuel consumption was 114mpg😁. Hope you have a great year riding 😀

Wow! That is an amazing good deal for all the work you had done. Turned out to be a great decision to repair vs replace. Glad it all worked out for you!

Congrats, made the correct choice, I’d love to have that mechanic near my house, I was recently getting quotes to get my brake pads replaced and a private mechanic quoted me $280 for labor only, told me he was thorough and been working vespas for 35 years, still, that was a tad much for me so I’m still shopping, dealer is my last hope.

Great to hear how this turned out!

Great to see the scooter back and nice to hear your happy with it and the price I’m not quite at that stage yet but it may come to a scooter in about next 7/8 years I’ll be 70 in 6 1/2 years and with problems I’ve got I’m slowly deteriorating I can feel that but as well as a car I can still have 2 wheels and that’s what matters to me anyway take ride safe and hope you enjoy all your bikes

I've always only owned/ridden one bike at a time. Right now it's the '22 GTS. (had some Suzukis and a Yamaha) I don't go off-road, so one suits my purposes. Aside from needing something for that alternative riding surface, I never quite understand when riders have multiple bikes. I guess that's a little obtuse, but except for being in the mood to shift or not is the only reason I'd have 2. This is certainly not judgement, please understand. If I were in your shoes, I'd have the GTS and the W650 - I love the look of that thing - (to shift or not to shift, that is the mood) and the Himalayan because you like the trails. That's a personal choice but I understand peoples' love of different choices. just my $.02. Enjoy, stay safe. keep posting, please.

Steve, I've test ride two Piaggio X-Evo 250 with the same engine as yours from my local 2nd hand market .. Both where severely trashed overall but the engines where ok.. I liked them a lot, they have pull from low rpms for a scooter and where very pleasant to ride. I fall in love in that model, looking for a good one to buy. It is discontinued few years ago, so no new.

Wowwww! I thought it was gonna be 3-4k. Great. I’m looking at them hard. Trading up from an electraglide.

You got a fantastic deal on the labor cost Steve. Most shops are charging well over $100 an hour shop rate. I'm wondering, did you replace your water pump? They usually don't last beyond 25 to 30 thousand miles. Take good care and thanks for this one.

A GTS300 or Primavera 150 were on my list before I bought my Honda Trail 125. I love my Trail, but videos like this sometimes make me wish I'd gone a little differently. Later down the road, maybe.

I'm really happy for you Steve! And thank you for another inspiring video! Did you get an Insta360 camera? I love the front view it provides!|

steve, just a friendly head’s up…you should blur your license plate, i think. But, more importantly, more content! i look forward to your ice cream runs

What was the criteria for replacing the head gasket? Was it routine? I have a 1963 VNB and a 2023 Primavera. Like your musings. Keep it up.

I guessed $5k, what a great deal!!!

Great to hear! Did you ever have any rust issues?

👍😁👍 ✌

A scooter is a very small machine. I always think work done by others will cost and I overestimate too much as well. But I was shocked when you said you thought the Vespa needed in your humble estimation $2k's worth of work. I thought you must be looking at the cost of spares there in the US. And even that seemed shockingly expensive. I am glad it was a pleasant surprise for you. It is better to keep things going than just replace them. That scoot has been a faithful servant to you. Any who watch some Germans on some really old Vespa's making themselves dizzy....... kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jtOchs55l766qYk.html&ab_channel=SIPScootershop

We are all glad you got your GTS back. That was a huge list of items to replace. It should be good as new. 🛵💨

What a great result Steve. I'm very glad it all worked out for you, especially as I seem to recall commenting on the old video that you should get it repaired ;-) You would've lost more in depreciation than the repair costs the minute you rode a new scooter out of the dealership...