Copied from some notes I wrote for myself this morning...
Pictures to follow - but it's not very easy for me to upload them from this tablet, and it's quite hard to take pictures of people's scooters without looking weird.
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Another day, another poorly thought out series of ramblings. I’m bashing this out on an old Android tablet and my faithful servant of a Bluetooth keyboard, bought for £5 a few years ago and somehow still running through thick and thin.
I’m sat on the balcony of our flat (for the week) somewhere near Belfiore in Florence, though I’m not entirely sure of the localities here. It’s probably less scenic than it sounds. It’s Monday morning around 9AM, traffic is heavy and builders are starting work on the building opposite. The small bicycle repair shop opposite is also closed, although it’s opening hours have been something of a mystery to me. The proprietors seem to come and go as they please, and spend most of the time outside of the shop smoking and talking on their mobiles even when they are in residence.
In the distance, highlighted by the skyline of the narrow street, I can see the Duomo looming up. It looks a lot closer than it actually is, which is testament to it’s obscene size. It really is spectacular to behold.
Anyway, I’ve harped on enough for now. Let’s talk about the automobiles.
As you’d expect, the Italians are pretty keen on Italian vehicles. The undisputed king of the roads is the Fiat Panda, which is popular at home as well, but here seems to make much more sense. Gone are the parasitic SUVs that blight the streets of the UK, and smaller cars are all the rage. Lancia still have a bit of a presence here, and old Lancia Ypsilons cruise around, looking a bit worth for wear. They are seriously ugly cars.
The commercial vehicles bring me joy as well. The Italians like their vans small, and there’s quite a few Piaggio Apes still around, carrying mostly fruit and flowers as far as I can tell. If you haven’t seen what one is, now is the time to search the internet for a picture. They’re bizarre. They are also very noisy. You never miss one approaching. The Piaggio Porter is also popular here; a “bread bin†mini van that appears in all sorts of configurations. There’s one shaped like a pickup truck down in the road below me now. In the UK, we used to have these; the Suzuki and Bedford Rascal, and the Daihatsu Hijet later on. Now, however, they’re all but gone.
Anyway, let’s talk about scooters. We all know that these are what I get excited about, after all!
I think I’ve figured the system out now. Basically, if you want scooter respect, there are only three options open to you; a Honda SH150, a Piaggio Liberty or an Aprillia Scarabeo, which is a model that’s all but disappeared everywhere else in the world. If it’s a two stroke, all the better. There are two strokes running around the streets here that should have been blown up and dead ten years ago, and the Italians don’t seem to be preoccupied with new models in the same way that they are in the UK.
Conspicuous by their absence are two models; the Honda PCX and the Honda Vision, the biggest scooter in France and the UK respectively. Despite sharing a border with the French, who totally love the PCX, there’s none here. I may have seen one, although I’m not sure. The Honda Vision, beloved in the UK and used by every delivery company without fail, isn’t here either. I can’t see why you’d have a Piaggio Liberty and not consider a Vision 110, so I’m a bit foxed by this if I’m honest.
Also conspicuous by their absence are Suzuki and Kawasaki. Apart from the occasional Burgman (Burgervan), Suzuki just aren’t here. Kawasaki, as far as I can tell, don’t exist here.
At the tier below the three undisputed gods of Italian scootering, there’s a tussle between a few more models. In contrast to my visit a few years ago, ownership of Vespa models seems to be on the down. A handful of battered PX models are still kicking around, but they’re far from ubiquitous as they once were in this country. Snapping at the heels of Vespa are the giants from Taiwan, Kymco and SYM. There’s not many streets you can walk down without happening across a Kymco Agility, and this is likely the result of every Piaggio dealer I’ve seen also being a Kymco dealer, whether for spares or dealing parts. The dealer network seems really strong and the network of small scooter shops throughout the city reflects the reality that 25% of the traffic here is scooters. If you really like scooters, as I do, it’s some version of heaven.The Agility models are pretty evenly split between the older, small wheeled carburetted versions and the newer “City†models with larger wheels. It’s perhaps testament to the quality of the Agility that they’re racing around the city, two-up, running happily past 50,000KM from the odometers I’ve seen.
Snapping at the heels of the Agility is the obvious European contender from SYM, their “Symphony 125â€. It’s quite hard to pick them out from the Honda SH models kicking around, so I haven’t actually spotted that many. In the UK, SYM dwarf Kymco, but here their showing is on a much more even ground. They are great models. I have a lot of time for SYM; well built, dependable and with a nice range of scooters.
Notable again by their absence are Chinese scooters. In the UK, the Chinese import brand “Lexmoto†rule the roost of small-capacity machines. Here, however, there’s nothing Chinese at all. It seems that Italians may be more discerning, or maybe just more loyal, preferring their Piaggios and Aprillias to many machines from outside. Let’s not forget that the Piaggio Group (which has owned Aprillia since the mid ‘00s) is the fourth biggest producer of two-wheelers in the world, and it’s right on their doorstep. The SH model from Honda has clearly made it’s reputation here from quality, and I suspect Kymco’s foothold has come from being the budget offering of every Piaggio dealer. It’s a market that has everything it needs, and perhaps doesn’t need the influx of budget machines in the way that the UK did.
With a fairly narrow selection of bikes on the streets, let’s turn our attention to aftermarket parts.
I have seen maybe two bikes here that don’t have a significant screen, coming up to at least eye level and often shielding the hands as well. At first I struggled to work out the purpose of these, but then it became clear; everybody likes to ride with open-faced helmets without visors, and the screens essentially become their eye protection. The screen brands are predictable, with Givi, Isotta and Puig ruling the roost. I’d be surprised if these bikes are leaving the showroom without screens, and most of them seem to shun factory-fitted goodies for the aftermarket offerings of Givi and Shad, especially when it comes to top boxes. In the UK, top boxes and screens are predominantly Chinese. Here, they’re predominantly from Givi. Personally, I’ve never been able to justify the expense of buying from Givi, but perhaps I’m missing a trick.
There’s no doubt that the glorious scooter culture of Florence is fed predominantly by it’s very agreeable weather. It is February at the moment, and I’ve been walking around for a few days with a t-shirt on and occasionally a jumper. If it were this nice all the time at home, perhaps more of us would be riding scooters. In stark contrast to even my home city in the UK, the traffic here isn’t very bad at any time. Although I can’t deny it’s a bit frantic, the smaller proportion of cars really makes getting around easier, and there’s a large number of locals also using bicycles and the pay-per-use “Mobikes†to get around the city. The tram’s well used, and the busses are cheap and plentiful.
I do wonder if riding good quality scooters makes for a happier scooter culture as well. There are some absolute sheds riding around the city, but they’re still running, and older bikes are much more common than newer ones. We haven’t really been able to buy two stroke scooters here in the EU for a good few years now, but they’re here in force and the dense air has a distinct whiff of two-stroke in the mornings when you get down to street level. It’s a culture that’s more in love with their scooters, and sees commuting on them as a no-brainer rather than a chore. Perhaps, with the screens, top boxes and lack of protective gear, they’re on to something.
