Fried cold drink series... Let’s talk about Vespa300

Since paying attention to scooters, I started to pay attention to Vespa300. Because several friends around me have purchased this car, and one of them even bought three cars. He started with a Vespa 150 and upgraded to a 300; later the 300 was scrapped due to a crash and he bought a Vespa 300. It looks like a small scooter, but you must know that when it was made in Italy, the price of Vespa300 was between 67,800 yuan and 69,800 yuan, which is not something ordinary people can consider.

Vespa should be regarded as a luxury motorcycle brand and cannot be evaluated based on cost performance. Look at LV clothes, they are no more comfortable to wear than Uniqlo. But it is so expensive and has its own specific market. Vespa is the same as LV.

After Vespa300 was produced in Vietnam, it began to step down from the altar at an affordable price. The production price started to sell like crazy with a direct discount of 20,000 yuan. I have a car owner here who waited nearly four months for a yellow Vespa300 after ordering it, which shows its popularity (yellow model).

I was lucky enough to buy it early, so I got it after half a month of waiting. It’s also a pretty car.

The reason why I like the bright yellow Vespa300 is that I think this yellow is a safe color. There are relatively few motorcycles of the same color on the market, which is a bit refreshing, and I think this bright color will not go out of style; Second, although it is said to be a single-cylinder engine, the 278cc displacement was thought to be quite large at the time (please note that it was "thought at the time"), and it is water-cooled, which can meet the requirements of some motorcycle tours besides commuting; third, knock knock. This body, with its metallic texture and clanking sound, is indeed incomparable to those plastic cars.

There is another reason to mention separately, because I have always liked retro-type cars, and retro scooters are also a kind of prey in my heart. Vespa300 can be regarded as a retro scooter, but I think it just inherits the name, and there are still many gaps between it and a true retro.

Let’s take a look at the scooters that I think can be called retro:

The Vespa series products, starting from the 1990s, began to look like a plump young woman. It has lost its youthful and capable look, and has also deviated from my favorite retro appearance.

Nowadays, many products, not just motorcycles, have changed their classic appearance into something nondescript in order to upgrade, either actively or passively (forced by competitors).

It’s not that I am against upgrades. I fully support your upgrade of engine power, chassis, brakes and fuel consumption. But be careful when making changes to the classic appearance. If it's not new, it's good, because in addition to matching the overall appearance design, retaining the pedigree is the most important, especially for retro cars. I often say that Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was created many years ago. Is it old enough? Are the works of modern painters more valuable? The appearance is a work of art and has nothing to do with technical upgrades such as the engine engineering department.

Vespa300 is known as the 300 model, and it is a water-cooled car. It should be satisfactory in terms of power, right? I drove this car on a trip to Chongqing (Hangzhou-Chongqing round trip). After more than 3,000 kilometers, I came to the conclusion that it is only suitable for driving in cities or general national highways. If you use it to run on the highway, or on a better national highway, you will not be able to speed with it. The 15.8 kW engine produced in 2008 shows a maximum speed of only 117 km/h on the Guide APP. So much so that when I went out for a run with the Loncin Wuji 300R, I was often beaten to pieces by the Wuji, making me the ultimate loser of the Wuji 300.

Once I switched to a 2018 Peugeot City Star 200 with a car friend, and I was surprised to find that the engine power of this Peugeot is definitely no worse than that of the Vespa 300, and it may or may not be better. Today I wanted to go to the official website of Peugeot Motorcycles to check the engine parameters of the City Star 200, but I couldn't get into the Peugeot website.

In addition, the original brakes of Vespa300 are weak. One time, when the speed indicator was showing 80 hours, I met an old man in front of me crossing the road. I squeezed the two brake handles tightly, and with my heart pounding, I finally stopped running about a meter away from my uncle! But the ABS is very good.

I immediately ordered brake modification parts and replaced a complete set of brake calipers and pads. I chose the product of Cheliwu Frando, as shown below:

The braking effect improved immediately. But if you have higher requirements, it is best to upgrade the pump as well, which is also Frando brand. However, when installing the pump, you need to destroy the plastic part of the handle of the Vespa faucet, as shown below:

One more thing, it may be a problem with my character. I helped my friends pick up several 300 cars made in Vietnam, but my own car had no rear wheel damping at all! There is no damping in the shock absorber. When there is a bump on the road, after the shock absorber spring is compressed once, it will bounce upward without restraint. In severe cases, the vehicle will fly! This is a huge issue affecting vehicle handling and strangely only my car won the prize!

There was no other way but to order modified RAM shock absorbers from an online store in Taiwan. After replacing it, the problem was eliminated and the performance was improved.

My car also has a bug, that is, the height of the headlights cannot be adjusted.

After checking, I found that the gourd head of the adjusting screw was disconnected from the inside of the lamp, so tightening it with a screwdriver was useless. But since it required destructive repairs, I gave up and had no time to file a claim.

Another problem that Vespa300 is not suitable for long-distance riding is that it consumes huge amounts of fuel and has a huge fuel tank! A tank of fuel can only run about 170 kilometers, and even less at high speeds. In September, a tank of No. 95 gasoline cost about 60 yuan. Look at the fuel consumption of this car.

But for this car, the city is its battlefield. It is more suitable for white-collar workers traveling to the CBD and cafes. It is full of style and can also be used for short-distance intercity travel. Of course, Vespa is also a very good car to drive to the annual retro car meeting. In the original design of Vespa300, its long-distance function was probably not considered, so my requirements for it were too high.