Long term test update Vespa GTS 250 i.e. Long-term update Another three months have passed under the long-term Vespa’s wheels and we just keep scootering on
JEREMY BOWDLER So, 12 weeks have passed since the last instalment and the Vespa GTS 250 i.e. just keeps going on. With another 888km added to the odometer, it still doesn’t need another service, so we just concentrated on using it as nature (and Vespa) intended.
Despite the at times embarrassment of riches in the twowheels garage, the GTS remains the perennial favourite, thanks to its ease of use, amazing gear-carrying capacity and sheer bloody practicality.
It will see commuter use, be ridden as a photographer’s hack, carry me and my massive gearbag (complete with two sets of riding gear) to the airport and back and not complain once.
The overall fuel economy for the period fluctuated from 4.1L/100km (two tanks)to 3.5L/100km (two tanks) with one tank at 3.8L/100km – more evidence of the different riders using the scooter than anything else – for an average of 3.76L/100km for the past three months.
In issue #8, we reported the fuel economy as 3.74L/100km, the slight increase in consumption perhaps being down to a dirty air filter causing the machine to run rich, the approaching need for a service, or just heavy throttle use. We’ll see what the next service and three months will bring.
Since this was going to be a very short piece thanks to three months without a problem, we thought we ought to give you something to read, so we mounted a Tom Tom Rider GPS unit and waited until it was cold and wet enough to test the Vespa Hot Cover. Read on...
From the beat, beat, beat of the Tom Tom...
I took a French girl, Catherine, home the other night – the Vespa GTS 250 i.e. is a babe magnet – and, apart from a few mix-ups with communications, things were going along very well until, on the home straight, she told me where to get off. French women can be like that. Headstrong.
Ever since I fitted the Tom Tom Rider GPS unit to the GTS (a simple matter of unscrewing a mirror, fitting a bracket and screwing it up again) life has been a lot more entertaining. Having set up home as Home, I navigated my way to work using the route demo function. Apart from telling me to use a street that wasn’t there (or more accurately, not open to traffic yet) it studiously ignored my carefully crafted rat-run, honed over more than decade of experience and kept me to a slightly longer, much straighter one based on main roads.
In the interests of objective journalism, of course, I tried the suggested route. A bit straighter, a bit longer, but much more exposure to traffic. It’s not a bad route and, with a clear run, maybe only a minute or two’s difference, but my route is not traffic- dependent – peak-hour or the middle of the night, the timing’s the same. I then punched in cycling as a preference. Same route. Walking? It wouldn’t let me walk down one- way streets the wrong way. Then, instead of following its instructions, I chose my own route and, let me tell you, it wasn’t letting go.
 The Tom Tom kept trying to make me turn around, turn right at the next opportunity, or just turn off. I finally bent it to my will with about one and a half kilometres to run.
Then I gave it a real test: to take me from my house to Scooteria. Now this is all of two corners and a kilometre. You wouldn’t think that by asking the GPS to take me to 150 Parramatta Rd, Stanmore, would result in it’s trying to send me to Ashfield, some 10km further along Parramatta Road. I’m a busy guy. Maybe it has a sense of humour.
But you’d hardly use a GPS to get you somewhere you know perfectly well how to get to in the first place. That’s an unfair advantage and that finishes my criticisms of the Tom Tom, which turned out to be something I just didn’t want to give back When I wanted to get cross town from Alexandria to Leichhardt – and there are any number of routes, none of them good – the one selected by the Tom Tom was simple and direct – and quick. And this is where it shines.
Unfamiliar territory. It makes you an expert, instantly. And plotting a destination couldn’t be simpler. The Tom Tom uses a similar sort of predictive input to a mobile phone, so entering addresses is easy.
If you don’t like part of a route – and you can, as previously mentioned, preview them before you leave – you can always ask for an alternative to all or any part of it. You can plot itineraries and, if you spot something you like, just hit Add Favourite and the Tom Tom Rider remembers it as an address which you can rename later on.
Having satisfied myself that simply having the visual cues made my scootering even more pleasant, I stuck the speaker and microphone kit into my Shoei full-face helmet. Now I could hear as well as see. The speakers plug into a cabled Bluetooth unit that you can clip to your belt, lapel, pocket, etc (though one mounted on the actual helmet shell would be more convenient). Once it has been paired to the Tom Tom Rider then you need never be alone. It’s like a very well mannered co-driver; one that never complains or gets flustered, even if Nav-Bitch can get on your goat sometimes, maybe just because she doesn’t share your frustrations with the traffic or the world in general. There is a choice of traveling companions for you, with five English speakers: a US male and female (Lori) couple, a very British couple and Ken, the token Aussie. He was my first choice, since he was most likely to be sympathetic to my reticence about asking for directions.
I thought, as an Aussie bloke, somehow he’d just understand. And he did – he never complained once – though he was a bit on the dull side. The only conversation he seemed to have was along the lines of:
“After 50 metres, turn right”. I’d pay extra for a voice that had repartee like: “Good on ya. You’re a dill. I said hang a left back there, you moron. Now we’re going to have to chuck a Uey”. It’d be much more like my usual travelling companion.
I decided not to pair my mobile phone to the Bluetooth device (yes, you can no longer escape those pesky Indian call centres merely by being on the move) because of the safety implications, though I know this feature will appeal to many, perhaps with a longer commute than mine (“Honey, I’m five minutes away...”). Nor did I sign up to the internet-based live traffic system that allows the Tom Tom Rider access to traffic information to fine-tune routes, mainly because it’s currently not available in Australia.
So what I did was to brush up on some of my largely inert language skills, by turning to Catherine the French woman (cinquante metres, tournez droite) or Olympia, my Greek squeeze (apo pentakosioi metra, aristera) and there are so many more to choose from. It’s like a bevy of international Nav-Bitches just waiting for you (I couldn’t come up with an equivalent masculine term, but rest assured women, there are plenty of persuasive and helpful chaps of all nationalities just waiting to hook up with you).
The only problem with my united nations harem is, in the end every single one of them told me where to go.
The lap of luxury Bring back the lap rug. Wet and cold is no way to ride a scooter and even though the Vespa has pretty good protection, especially with the screen fitted, a week of heavy, cold rain in Sydney and the unfortunate situation I found myself in with me at home and my wet weather gear at the office or vice versa (note to self: make more use of underseat storage) saw me succumb to dagdom and fit the magnetic hot cover Vespa has kindly supplied for test. Well, at the cost of having my masculinity questioned by the rufty tufty bikers from Live to Ride (and we won’t get into what they wear to stay dry, no siree – too smelly for one), I popped the hot cover on, strapped the Velcro belt on (which left my arse a bit exposed, a bit like all those chaps in chaps at Mardi Gras) and thought ‘Bugger. Forgot to put the key in’. Aha, there’s a Velcro flap that gives access to the ignition. They think of everything these Italians. Then I was warm and dry despite wearing jeans and Blundstones. It felt a bit funny poking my leg out from under the blanket to put my foot down, but I coped.
A bit of care needs to be taken when fitting the cover since the powerful magnets are loose in little pouches and can fall out, or tear the pouches if the magnets are stuck together and you give them a tug but, with a bit of care the cover is a doddle to fit and anything that prolongs the riding season is okay by me.
Long-term figures:
Odometer: 3758km
Kilometres added: 888km
(74km/week or 14.8km/day)
Tank 1: 6.45L/158km 4.08L/100km
Tank 2: 5.34L/154km 3.47L/100km
Tank 3: 6.55L/189km 3.47L/100km
Tank 4: 7.07L/185km 3.82L/100km
Tank 5: 8.27L/202.7km 4.08L/100km
Total: 33.68L/888.7km 3.76L/100km
As published in TW SCOOTER MAGAZINE - 18/10/2006
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