The Vespa LX 50 2T is one of the best selling scooters on earth, partly because it’s a Vespa and partly because it’s Vespa’s entry level model. So why do so many people begin their scootering life on the LX? Well not being particularly loyal to any one brand I was always confused over some people’s outright worship of the Vespa brand. I guess it’s just how some people are, I’ve a few friends who are big Apple fans, they simply buy anything made by Apple. Apple could make a car with no roof; square wheels and a pack of hungry gerbils for an engine…my Apple friends would simply buy it. They wouldn’t even test drive it, they’d buy it and defend it regardless of how terrible it was. “What? No the square wheels are fine, it’s just a bit bumpy…oh the gerbils are cheap to feed...and look it’s got a built in holder for my i-pod”

I went into this test thinking the Vespa would be something like the Apple car. All form and no function. Well…I was wrong. One hundred percent wrong. There’s a reason people buy Vespa’s and the LX is a good example. I’m not normally a 50cc scooter guy; I prefer the bigger and more powerful models. It’s funny because I always thought it was because 50cc scooters were just too slow for me…it turns out it was something else. My 50cc experience was limited to the usual cheap or old Japanese models; most with high kms on the clock. I simple hadn’t ridden a modern Italian 50cc scooter like the Vespa 50 LX. It’s the quality…you feel it as soon as you get on, the bike is solid, the suspension is tight and contrary to what I’d read elsewhere on the web, the brakes are strong. Most entry level 50cc scooters feel like they are about to break the day you ride them out of the store. Not the LX; the demo I rode had nearly four thousand kms on the clock and it still felt brand new.