The prototype was introduced to the world in 1946 in the posh surroundings of the Rome Golf Club before a gathering of Italian leaders and aristocracy. Quickly, it was hailed as Italy’s first post-war innovation and recognize for its practically and usefulness. And for the first time in many years of militaristic oppression, the scooter represented something that was fun and uplifting, just as it is today.

The first run of Vespa scooter was examined and tested by skeptical journalists, who were soon won over by the scooter’s surprising attributes, despite their early negative reactions. Most impressive, the press decided, were the handling, the performance from the two-cycle engine, the ease of operation, and the fact that anyone wearing a skirt or a nice pair of dress pants could ride in comfort and arrive at his or her destination without mussed clothes.

Yes, it was immediately obvious that here was a two-wheeled vehicle that could be used by woman as practically as men. Besides its light and easy operation, the motor scooter offered its unique protective apron and floor, step-through entry, and a seat that allowed the rider to sit upright as in a chair, rather than having to straddle it like a motorcycle—a highly unladylike position in 1940s Italy, especially while wearing a dress.

Bolstered by the favorable reception, Piaggio immediately had 100 scooters made in a preliminary run. A deal was forget with Lancia, a prestigious make of automobile, to sell the first batch in its dealerships. The 100 were soon gone, and a production run of 2,500 scooters was undertaken. In all, 2,181 were sold in 1946, 10,535 in 1947, and nearly 20,000 in 1948.

Still, some critics panned the scooters as being unsafe, or noisy, or just not up to snuff. Motorcyclists and the motorcycle industry were harsh in their criticism, stating that the Vespa 8-inch wheels were dangerously unstable, that the scooter was too slow and didn't handle well. They said was impractical for anything more than short jaunts around urban areas.

But many others loved the Vespa scooter and all that it represented. It was innovative, it was stylish, and it was affordable, all the things that poor and war-weary Italians were longing for. Piaggio weathered all complaints, confident that its new motor scooter would take the world by storm. Which it did.

Italian women were greatly affected by this new mode of transportation, giving them a taste of freedom and mobility they’d never had before. The Vespa scooter’s sophisticated, feminine form was quickly viewed as the stylish and cosmopolitan way for women to travel and be seen traveling on Roman roads. And for young men, the motor scooter became a means of both attracting young women and spiriting them away for a more private rendezvous. As they buzzed about those drab post-war city streets and country roads, the whimsically modern shape of the scooter must have seemed like bright spots of joy.

The early scooters, with their rigid rear suspensions, fender-mounted headlights, exposed engine covers and bicycle-style handlebars, are today know mainly as “rod models” because of the complex system of solid control rods that actuated the gear change. While rod bikes have plenty of appear today because of their novelty, at the time, the changeover to flexible cable in 1951 was greatly appreciated by contemporary riders. Still, 65,000 of the last run of rod-model scooters were sold during 1950.

The earliest models had no provision to cool the engine, despite its confined location. In 1948, the air-cooled engine was kept from overheating by cleverly incorporating a fan attached to the flywheel that forced air over the cylinder’s cooling fins, a design that remains to this day.

And so began Vespa motorscooter’s rapid rise in popularity that very quickly encompassed the entire world, eventually being produced in 13 different nations and totaling more than 15 million scooters sold in more than 50 years of production. Piaggio’s Scooters are still being made in plants in Italy, Germany, France, Japan, India, and other Asian nations. The Asian scooters being built today are not very different from the Vespa models made during the 1970s.

Piaggio’s only serious competition arose in 1947, when the Innocenti corporation began producing its Lambretta, outwardly similar but fundamentally different from the Vespa design. Where the Vespa scooter had a stressed-steel structure, Lambretta used a backbone frame. The suspension, drivelines, and most other details were also different. Most significantly, it was the Vespa design that became the archetypal scooter, identified as such around the world, while Lambretta always ran a distant second, until its last scooter in 1971.

SMALL CHANGES
Though updated many times over the years, the shape of every Vespa scooter is basically the same, from its contoured steel apron to its low, rounded-off rear. The steady progression of change in the details and mechanical parts endow every Vespa model with its own character, its own style, and its own personality. Naturally, some models have become more desirable than others, capturing a certain stylistic era or performance edge that sets its apart. Some have a stronger personality than others.

Like the VW Beetle, every Vespa scooter is a classic, its basic style staying the same but with the mechanical and stylistic details ever changing. And like the Beetle, it’s easy for many people to see all the Vespa models as looking the same. But when one starts looking more closely at the details, the various change made throughout the years, such as subtle contour changes in body style, taillights and trim, become easy to identify. Plus models come in various size and engine displacement, from the small-frame bikes with engine size ranging from 50-cc to 125-cc, to the bigger body with engine going up to the powerful 200-cc models.

One thing that has stayed the same is the one-cylinder, two-cycle engine that is the heart of every Vespa scooter. The first models were powered by a 98-cc two-cycle engine, rated at 3.3 horse-power, mounted horizontally, and acting directly on the drive wheel via a three-speed transmission. Although the engine changed over the years, the design stayed basically the same. Simple to maintain or repair, each two-stroke engine produces a surprising amount of power and torque for its size, allowing most of urban traffic. The bigger displacement models are able to go cross country touring in comfort.

The engine and transmission are durable and reliable. The Piaggio corporation had so much faith in the durability of Vespa transmissions that, during the 1960s, it provided all its scooters with a lifetime transmission warranty. But the two-stroke engine were also the downfall of the Vespa scooter in the United States, where pollution concerns created emissions standards that the engine could never pass. Piaggio temporarily suspended roles of scooters in the U.S. market in 1986, steering its production to other parts of the world.

 

PLEASE VISIT SHOWROOM VESPA & SCOOTER
www.vespaitalia.info

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