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Travel

WIDE REWIND
BY 05/15

CROSSING THE STATES ON A VESPA
FROM LOS ANGELES TO NEW YORK

THREE YOUNG GERMANS RIDING THREE PX 200 SCOOTERS, 9,253 KM COAST TO COAST IN TWO MONTHS. A DREAM MADE TRUE THANKS TO ENTHUSIASM AND DETERMINATION. AT LOW THROTTLE, TO SAVOUR EVERY MOMENT OF AN UNFORGETTABLE ADVENTURE

This is the story of a dream. And of an American adventure involving people and places, lived with genuine spirit, almost with a devil-may-care approach. The dreamers are three German lads, who chose three vintage Vespa scooters, the standard PX 200 cc model, with a two-stroke air-cooled engine, to undertake a coast-to-coast ride across the United States, in the tracks of “Easy Rider”, the legendary movie that still inspires youngsters searching for something different and for themselves.

So, a journey of exploration, through an inner world too, to get to know oneself better and learn more about life. It takes courage, a spirit of adaptability, an irrepressible desire to discover the world, even if you don’t have much money in your pocket. You also have to choose the “right” vehicle, not just any two-wheeler: for almost 70 years, the Vespa has incarnated the values of freedom of movement, friendship, joie de vivre. “Promises” it has always kept. The result is a constant flow, decade after decade, of wonderful stories about journeys on the saddle of the world’s most famous and fascinating scooter.

Now there’s another story, fully documented with video and photos. Want to know what the three young Vesparados said at the end of the trip? Almost unable to believe they had made it, admiring the characteristic skyline of the Big Apple, they treated themselves to coffee and cheesecake, remembering the months of preparation for the journey, and the thousands of miles through city streets, deserts, and mountains, the faces and stories of the hundreds of people they met, in a great country that “showed us friendship”.


The trio write: “It was an intense, challenging adventure, fun, eventful, strange, illuminating, enriching and, above all, the realisation of a great dream.” They also declare their passion for their scooters, even if they are small and not very fast: “We call them Motorliebe, Love Engines. Love of the kind that binds us to the Vespa. At first sight, they didn’t seem to be suitable companions for this trip. Yet our three PX scooters opened up opportunities and horizons, inspired sympathy, and attracted a warm welcome from hosts of people. And they took us to our destination.”
CREDITS. Idea & video: Motorliebe. Taken from “VESPA USA” (Delius Klasing). Text: Lars Ringel, Michael Blumenstein, Dani Heyne. Photos: Daniel Phakos, Dani Heyne.