Vespa GTS 300 HPE2 Review

Since I swapped my old GTS 300 for the T5 Millennium we don’t have any scooters suitable for a rally like Woolacombe especially if we want to go two-up.  If you follow me on Instagram then you’ll know about the mechanical issues various of our scooters have experienced this year so I needed something more reliable to do the 200-odd mile trip to North Devon.

Enter the helpful team at Dearden Motorcycles in Hythe near Southampton who said yes when asked if I could borrow their demo machine for an extended test ride in return for an independent review. 

Much as we would love another GTS, we’d need to sell one of the other scooters to fund it, so it would be really useful to see how they’ve improved over the years.  Sadly, our local Vespa dealer closed recently, so Dearden is now the nearest one to us.  They have a very impressive airy showroom with an extensive range of scooters on display, as well as Vespa merchandise and other biker clothing and accessories.

Disclaimer: this review is my own opinion and I wasn’t paid by Dearden Motorcycles to write it.  They lent us the scooter free of charge for an extended test ride.

Vespa GTS colours

From an aesthetic perspective the demo model was a glossy black, which in my opinion is so much nicer than the matte finish which Piaggio seem hell bent on continuing with.  Nigel, Dearden’s co-owner, said that the gloss colours fly out of the door so much quicker than the matte ones; quelle surprise!  Apparently, Italians don’t like their design decisions questioned though, so it’s not likely to change any time soon.

When we checked out the other GTS 300s on display I personally loved the mint green one, whereas Lee took a shine to the orange one which comes with go-faster stripes. 

The great thing about Dearden is that they aim to have every model and colour in stock, which is really helpful, as the colours sometimes look different in real life to how they look online, and it was nice to see them from all angles too.

The new models have chrome finishes on a lot of the headset switches which Lee thought looked tacky and cheap, but that’s purely down to personal preference and I’m sure you’d get use to them very quickly.

New features for the GTS 300 HPE2

Nigel explained about the some of the new features which our old 2008 model wouldn’t have had.

The first obvious one was that it didn’t have a key!  Like many cars these days you just have a little remote control which needs to be near the scooter, with a dial on the steering column to turn it on and off.  Our initial reaction was that we didn’t like it – probably because it’s something new and there’s always the worry that you’d lose the remote.  More about this later…

Riding comfort

The seat was definitely comfier than our old GTS, certainly for me on the back.  It still wasn’t perfect for Lee however, but I’m not sure any seat would be good enough for him to ride upwards of 5 or 6 hours in a day.  It’s probably his size or shape, or maybe just his age – he’s tried all sorts of gel pads and sponge inserts over the years, but none really prevent the aches and pains which continue for a day or so after a long trip. 

The HPE2 definitely handles really well and was noticeably better as soon as we started riding it.  The suspension was really good, even over the deep potholes we encountered on our ride to Woolacombe.  I had braced myself for the first couple but barely noticed riding over them, so that helped with overall comfort.

The braking is definitely much better than the older models too, and the anti-dive is a great addition, as is the digital speedo.

Vespa GTS Footpegs

I shouldn’t really complain about the rear footpegs but they’re one thing that doesn’t seem to have changed (or improved) since 2008.  I’m not sure if it’s because I was wearing boots with a heel or whether I’m just too short but my feet don’t naturally rest on them comfortably.   For our old GTS Lee had bought some of the footpeg extenders from SIP and they made the whole pillion seating position much more comfortable.

Speed and wind

Another advantage of the old GTS is that we had a small flyscreen, and without one of those Lee felt a lot of buffeting in the front seat.  It was windy on both our outbound and inbound journeys, and although the GTS is heavy (especially 2-up) having a screen would definitely improve the aerodynamics.

The scooter had only done 43 miles when we picked it up so we were really just running it in.  Having said that, on the ride up from Hampshire to Devon there weren’t many opportunities to open it up anyway, so we didn’t hit the rev limiter and didn’t take it over 70mph.

The only time we were sitting in traffic was on the bridge at Barnstaple and we could hear the cooling fan kick it, as it’s designed to do.

Indicators and fuel

I’m not sure what it is with Lee and indicators, but on his chop he’s forever forgetting to turn them off and I suspect he did the same on the GTS, but as I wasn’t riding behind him I can’t possibly say for sure!  But one piece of feedback he gave was that it was hard to see the indicator light on the speedo.  He did like the idea of having lots of data available on the digital display though, but we didn’t investigate as we were only using the scooter for a couple of days.

Although we always try and use E5 petrol (for our car as well as our scooters) we had no choice at Barnstaple on our second petrol stop and had to use E10, but for the other stops we filled up with E5. Julie at Dearden confirmed that she would recommend E5 for modern bikes despite manufacturers saying that E10 would be OK. Like many of us, they’ve experienced problems which are fixed by draining the petrol tank and refilling it with good old E5.

We’d ridden through a lot of roadworks at that point and the front of the scooter was really filthy! That’s one problem with black, I suppose, as it wouldn’t have shown up so much on the mint green one.

The keyless operation certainly took a while to get used to but by the end of the weekend Lee could actually see some advantages. It was handy to be able to keep it in a pocket without having to get it out all the time, just to start the scooter.

HPE1 vs HPE2

Peejay Hinsley is our local Vespa Club Of Britain representative and we had him to thank for putting me in touch with Nigel for this test ride.  We met Peejay at the Red Barn on the Saturday of the rally and he was keen to hear our experience of the HPE2.

Peejay owns a couple of other GTS’s (one from 2021, and relatively new) so was keen to hear our opinion on the front fork anti-dive feature as he was due to take the scooter out for a ride on the following Tuesday while his own one was being serviced.  

Here’s Peejay at Woolacombe where Lee was very impressed with his screen, which nicely housed his satnav behind it (which sadly I didn’t take a photo of!).

After that ride Peejay updated me and reported that he found the suspension and general handling the same as his 2021 HPE but the front fork anti dive worked really well and improved the whole package in his opinion.  So that’s a thumbs-up from Peejay!

GTS HPE2 Summary

Overall, we were very impressed with the Vespa GTS HPE2.  Would we buy one to replace a geared scooter?  No.  But would we buy one to use alongside the classic ones, for the further rallies or when we want to go 2-up in comfort?  Definitely, yes – but we need to make some space for it in the garage which means selling Meat Is Murder first!

If you want to talk to Nigel’s lovely team at Dearden then you’ll find their showroom here (opens in Google Maps) or can call them on 02390 891110.  Although their main catchment area is from Dorchester to Worthing and up to the M4, they deliver scooters far and wide so it’s always worth a chat if you want to buy a new one.  They can turn them around in 24 hours too, if you need one in a hurry!

And you can read about our Woolacombe adventure here, including the custom show and the fun fancy dress costume worn by Jonah on Saturday afternoon.