I've always liked Vespa scooters......

........so I finally bought one!

For some months I've been pondering the purchase of a Vespa. It had to be the traditional shape but I wanted it in a modern, automatic "twist-'n'-go" configuration, not one of the earlier geared models.

I umm-ed and ahh-ed and did nothing about it other than a lot of research and looking and a couple of test rides until I decided to sell the Yamaha SRV250 Renaissa on which I had the "off" back at the beginning of April (is it really that long ago? Wow!).

I never felt fully comfortable on that little bike after my accident so it was advertised on eBay a few weeks back and a nice chap from down the coast bought it - he'd been looking for one for a while.

So over the past fortnight I've been deliberating about getting a Vespa, something not less than 150cc in capacity.

Purchase price + on-road costs meant that my budget (taking into account the money from the sale of the Renaissa) would not extend to a new model; a Vespa LX150ie is over $7,000 on the road.

I looked at several ads for "pre-owned" 150cc units (The ET4 150) and they were more in my price range - from $3,500 to $4,500.  They looked quite promising...........until this morning (said in the fashion of Jeremy Clarkson).

I ventured over to Motorini, in the Woden suburb of Phillip, and had a chat with the proprietor, Nico Wright, about a second-hand Vespa.

Lo! and Behold!.......there at the back of his workshop (actually parked outside) was a GT200 with 17,000 kms on it that had recently been traded for a new GTS300. (The previous owner had ridden it over from Adelaide, incidentally).

The GT200 is equipped with the small windscreen, a top-box, heated handgrips and was undergoing maintenance and replacement of the head gasket. To round it out it is finished in the not-often-seen Portofino Green livery.

Price is within my scope so I have committed to buy and would expect to add it to the stable within the next fortnight.