Vespa GTS 300 2011-2013

[capitano]

Capitano, good luck with the eye recovery. It's a bugger when you can't see proper! Went through the mill myself over the years with various eye surgeries, including going completely blind so know where you are coming from.

Anyhoo, you won't be sorry if you buy a good GTS. Yes I am a fan, but with good reason. All of them are good, whatever year but if you want the most trouble free experience get one of the 2014 onwards bikes. They are very different to the previous 2013 and earlier bikes. In fact there are far too many upgrades & mods that Vespa made to the 2014's that there's almost not enough room to mention them here.

So for starters, & you may know this so please excuse me going on a bit, they get abs & traction control. Big bonuses & they work well. You have digitally controlled Speedo & Odo's plus other digital functionality. Speedo is very accurate too! But there are lots of other mods for the engine. Better fuelling & ignition maps giving much more low & midrange power courtesy of a 32bit ECU instead of the old less reliable 16bit unit. This removes the earlier bikes tendency to sometimes stall when hot, also making the newer bikes more economical. The fuel injector also gets a new stronger support bracket, a weakness on earlier bikes that left some owners stranded if the owner hit a big bump causing the bracket & injector to break. Plus a completely new wiring loom for better functionality & reliability.

Front suspension is also improved with ESS (enhanced sliding suspension) fitted between early 2014 & late 2016 which keeps the front wheel totally perpendicular to the road over rough sections. It reduces front end dive too under heavy braking. There are some other advantages but these are small. Unfortunately, Vespa stopped fitting ESS after just two years. We now know this was likely due to the advantages of ESS overall, although real, being not considered enough to justify the extra cost. Having ridden both ESS (mine has it) & non ESS bikes I can say I definitely prefer ESS equipped bikes. No front end wobble either that some non ESS bike can sometimes suffer. Although even then it's not a problem as they only ever do it when you let go of the handlebars!

So...if you can splash the cash on a 2014+ bike would be my advice. They have just about all the earlier bikes querks & weaknesses ironed out. They are well sorted. Not had any issues with mine, except for a slight weep from an under floor coolant hose. Easy fix. And, the whole bike is easy to service, even valves which are screw & locknut. Totally cheap to run too! Sorry, going on a bit now, but you all know I do!! Suffice to say that there are some videos showing all the amazing upgrades. I'll find one or two & post later.

PS. Don't worry about rust. I've serviced many old & new GTS bikes with massive mileages on them. No rust! Even on those that didn't get loved much.

PPS. On MV I'm stromrider. I have many friends on there but I no longer post. I've written many thousands of posts over many many years about the GTS. Hopefully helped a few folks to. Be careful though. MV can be a slightly unwelcoming place if you disagree with the many myths that circulate. Folks post completely incorrect information on just about everything over there. It's not like on here where facts matter. Many posters are fine but some are not. I, like many, suffered considerable abuse on some occasions.

PPPS. It's a myth that the GTS 250 is as powerful as the 300. Yet some folks deny what the Dyno tells them. Go for a 300 if you can.

Great info, thank you. So far, so good regarding m eyes which is why continuing riding PTWs is in my plans.

It's good to know the start and cut off years for various things. That advice is golden, particularly the fuelling and ingnition information as I recall that being an issue for GTS owners in the past.

Rust was/is a concern, simply because of what I've seen regarding GT200s particularly and rusting panels from the inside out. But you will have seen a LOT more as regards GTS corrosion so it's reassuring to hear that it isn't a massive issue.

While I'm still self employed, any Piaggio product I own will go to Kevin at Brighton Moto for anything above day to day fettling. That might change in a few years (certainly in 7,) but we'll see.

As regards MV, I don't post much there myself. I can applaud Jess, and appreciate the community created, and the standards they uphold. I don't necessarily agree with them all, but there's enough common ground for me to flit in and out occasionally.

The GTS 250 was only really an option for me when the 300 was in its infancy. Not to say that if one turned up, "mothballed," low mileage and at the right price I wouldn't consider it. The power drop wouldn't phase me in the slightest. I've learned to live (and ride) at a slower pace in the last decade. I'm serious when I say I'd be quite happy on a 125 these days.

Once again, Thanks for such a comprehensive reply.

[capitano]

I’ve got a HPE one, superb it is. Smooth, quick enough, comfy and cheap to run. Looking at posts on the Vespa Facebook forum rust isn’t something you should ignore. Check underneath as they can pick up stone chips and the seams can rust. Having said that both of mine are/were fine, no rust but I’ve got a decent front flap which helps stop the chips. Mine have been very reliable, no issues at all. I love it, I keep lusting after another Guzzi but the GTS is so good I can’t justify it.

The front flap is a good tip, thanks. I'm a big fan of mudguards being as large as needed, not cut down for fashion, so that makes perfect sense.

External rust isn't a massive issue to me as regards cosmetics, but is if it is a warning of structural rust elsewhere. I'll have a look through the FB group, too.

I hear ya on the Guzzi v Vespa dilemma too. The fact that I've had thoroughly decent, well sorted PTWs that will do the same job as a GTS is one of the main reasons I haven't got one. In reality, I stil have, and selling a perfectly good bike that meets one's needs is never a natural act.

Yes, I agree you cannot totally ignore the fact it's a metal bodied scooter. But the rusty ones are in fact very few and far between. I personally haven't seen one and I've been involved heavily in the modern Vespa scene for years now. Trust me, rusty ones are the neglected bikes owned by folks who don't care or are naive about such matters. Touch up any stone chips and you'll be fine.

I remember having the same conversation with Kevin at Brighton Moto (formerly CD Scooters) some years back (again when I was seriously considering a GTS purchase) and he was offering a service to inject waxoyl behind the panels and inside the frame. He did say that it was a bit overkill in his opinion as he'd never seen anything structural since some early GT200s, despite some 4T Vespas coming back to him looking like they'd been kept in the sea, externally.

[Data]

The thing that changed the corrosion picture was the adoption of "electrostatically" applied "electrophoretic primer". Same as on cars. This is of course applied at the factory after the bodies have been acid bathed, then rinsed & neutralised, and then electrically primed. It gets absolutely everywhere, into all the places ordinary primer cannot reach. It's also sacrificial so if you get a stone chip it won't rust for ages even if you don't touch it up. The primer bleeds together to stop the corrosion with a catalytic action.

I rustproofed my GTS, but frankly this wasn't needed. I too used waxoyl. Inspecting the bikes internal panels revealed a very neat factory finish inside & out!

You may notice the odd picture posted on MV of bikes rusted right through underneath. In all cases these are bikes that have been totally neglected, never being washed underneath. Owners never touched up a stone chip. Even then, it takes years & years to rust through. Plenty of time to remedy the situation if someone notices rust.

Electrophoretic primer or not, metal will eventually rust if totally neglected. It's interesting too most of these bikes have often been left abandoned on the beach for years before being photographed. Consensus is though from MV, rust not an issue. And these are very tough rigid frames, on average 2.5 times as stiff as the average steel trellis frame so Piaggio tells us; for example, a Burgman or Kawasaki J300 frame is not as rigid or stiff. You notice this when you ride a GTS.

Totally agree MV's Jess is the very best.