PIAGGIO CELEBRATES ITS 140TH BIRTHDAY ON THE OCCASION OF THE VESPA WORLD RALLY IN PONTEDERA, WHERE THE LEGENDARY SCOOTER HAS BEEN MANUFACTURED SINCE 1946. MOTORCYCLIST AND MOTO GUZZI FAN TORRESAN WAS THERE, AND SHARES HIS REFLECTIONS WITH WIDE READERS
April 2024 – Article by Daniele Torresan. “Taking part in the Vespa World Days is a rite of passage for any Vespa owner, but if the invitation comes directly from Pontedera, it becomes a worthy pilgrimage: to the place where Vespa is manufactured, in the famous “2R” factory (which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, ed.). This is where its history is preserved for posterity, in the beautiful newly-renovated Piaggio Museum, the biggest motorcycle museum in Italy.
More than 30,000 Vespa enthusiasts responded to the call, passing along Viale Rinaldo Piaggio between Thursday 18 and Sunday 21 April. I was among them (I flew into Pisa from Bavaria, and hired a Vespa at the airport) – despite not being an original Vespista, at the Vespa World Days in Mantua in 2014, I really caught the bug for this amazing vehicle, although rather late in life!
Everyone loves the Vespa. It has that rare quality of being embraced by everyone – it unites rather than divides, unlike other types of motorbike and certain car brands. Motorcyclists love it of course, but car drivers like it too; cyclists take a benign view, and it doesn’t disturb pedestrians or frighten animals.
It’s no coincidence that no one complained about the crackles generated by more than 15,000 Vespas, the majority of which had two-stroke engines... On the contrary, despite the fact that temperatures were more like chilly Valle D’Aosta than Valdera, the roads from Pontedera to Peccioli were packed with grinning crowds greeting the cheery procession, between two streams of blue smoke.
The Vespa is crafty, and this craftiness is most in evidence in the realm of tuning - although the Italian Highway Code doesn’t permit technical modifications, and the manufacturer declines to provide warranty cover for modified vehicles, most Vespas on the road have been subject to some form of tuning. However, the bike’s politically correct image means that the risk of being prosecuted is quite remote wherever you are, not just in Italy. Usually, the police check the Vespa rider and not the bike itself, even if it’s fitted with a dragster engine, like the Vespa 50 Special I saw on parade with a TM cylinder from the MotoGP...
As a result, the tuning market is still booming, to the extent that at Pontedera, Pinasco and Polini were the main sponsors of the Vespa Village, with engines on display costing over 4,500 euro, with more than 25 hp of power. At any rate, whether modified or not, every Vespa gives away a lot about its owner and what said owner wants people to know about them – a little like a social media profile. Journeys, experiences, personality, passions, provenance, and of course, club membership.
Vespa is everywhere. The proselytism of the Vespa World Club is perhaps even greater than that of Harley Davidson's HOG. Across five continents, the WVC boasts 63 national clubs, and these in turn are made up of local clubs. For example, the Vespa Club Von Deutschland, founded in 1952, has 200 affiliated clubs and a total of 4,300 members, and has been responsible for organising Vespa World Days eight times, the most recent of which in 2017. ( vespaworldclub.org/national-clubs/germany)
Club members can be recognised by a 20cm-wide sash that wraps around the front windshield of the Vespa, enveloping it like the curves of a beauty pageant contestant. These sashes display the city and country of the club, and members are involved in a host of different activities. The most adventurous take part in acrobatic gymkhanas, while others like to show off their rare specimens in elegance contests. Meanwhile, anyone can take part in the Vespa Trophy, which rewards those with the most kilometres on their road book, with Vespa dealerships checking the stamps collected by the riders.
The Vespa is a bestseller. In 2026 , the Vespa will be 80, and will celebrate its birthday in Rome, where its unstoppable success first began. Even today, around 9,000 Vespas are sold each year in Italy, despite the fact that the market is primarily for high-wheel scooters. This is not the case elsewhere - in Germany, for example (where Vespa had a 50.1% market share among all 125 models) and also in Switzerland, the Vespa has always the best-selling scooter, while in Austria it has the record number of registrations (with Vespas numbering almost 7,000 of circa 35,000 motorbikes sold in 2023), coming in ahead of Honda, KTM and Yamaha.
Riding a Vespa is good for your health. I hope that on reading my modest reflections, anyone who has an old Vespa gathering dust in their garage will be inspired to restore it to its former glory, or even buy a new one - the model that commemorates Piaggio's 140th anniversary, for example - and will perhaps take part in the next VWD, which will be held in Gijón (Asturias), Spain in 2025.
In any case, any trip on a Vespa is an effective antidote to stress, giving us the time we need to observe the world around us and to meditate. It’s also affordable and practical. In short, riding a Vespa from time to time is good for your health – biker’s promise! Daniele Torresan
Daniele Torresan with his vintage bikes: a Moto Guzzi 1100 Sport and a Vespa PX.
Who is Daniele Torresan. Daniele Torresan (55) lives in Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria (Germany), where he is responsible for the relaunch of a historic German motorcycle brand. He was previously the press officer and external relations manager for an Italian motorcycle company. He has a strong connection to the Piaggio Group, where he worked (from 2006 to 2015), first as communications manager for Moto Guzzi at Mandello del Lario, and then as a press officer for the Group. A fan of the Aprilia Racing team in the MotoGP, he is passionate about the history, numbers and statistics of the world of motorbikes.
