Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Vespa Scooter and Bandung Antique Vespa Club



Vespa scooter is undoubtedly one of the most legendary two-wheeled vehicles ever produced.

Vespa was first produced by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A of Pontedera, Italy, in 1946. The name Vespa, which in Italian means wasp, originated from the exclamation that Enrico Piaggio (the son of Piaggio's founder Rinaldo Piaggio) made when he was shown the second prototype of the vehicle (which until then was called MP6) and heard the engine's buzzing sound. He reportedly exclaimed, "Sembra una vespa!" ("It resembles a wasp!"), hence the name.

I took this photo at the motorcycle parking lot of The Faculty of Language and Arts Education building of the Indonesia University of Education (Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia), Bandung. I think this vintage Vespa belongs to one of the students. As can be seen from the plaque above the rear lamp, the owner of this scooter is a member of Bandung Antique Vespa Club (he is member number 1011).

Antique Vespa Piaggio scooters have a lot of fans in Indonesia. Bandung Antique Vespa Club (BAVC) is one of quite a few Vespa lovers clubs in the city and country.

A well-maintained and all-original antique/vintage Vespa Scooter like this, by the way, can fetch a very high price at an international collector market.

7 comments:

Dina said...

That's pretty cool. Is that a spare tire, even? Nice one can leave it out like that and not get some or all of it stolen (as always happened to my little Honda in Israel).

rob said...

BEautiful vintage Vespa! I have one too, but mine is much more new! PX150!

Jane Hards Photography said...

Chuck, Seattle daily would like this very much. Such iconic images especially the red white and blue so aligned with the swinging 60's of the uk.

Laurie Allee said...

Beautiful and iconic. I love Vespas!

Anonymous said...

Pretty Vespa. Here any fancy cars or motorcycles are off the road from about November to May for the winter weather...

escape said...

very very cool vespa there. i like it that way though it may require a lot of cleaning and maintenance yet it's still is cool.

Anonymous said...

Ohhh Geee

that vespa on the pict was mine
i sold it 4 months ago to someone from Jakarta

that was the most perfect vespa i ever had.

u remind me "Si Denok", the name of my ex-vespa.