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3 Vespas around the world
If everything goes well (unemployment continues to grow at this rate, new economic measures come etc.)
we estimate that in April we will start our new adventure. Around the world on Vespa! 3 people... 3 Vespa... Νo specific destination...Just everywhere! We are still at the beginning and we have undefined budget etc. Although we have taken the decision to leave without money! The projects include Africa, Asia and America! That’s all for now. For more stay tuned! https://worldvespa.wordpress.com P.S. suggestions, comments, ideas, etc … all welcome! http://i1019.photobucket.com/albums/...3/facebook.jpg |
Funny..
Hey,
It´s so funny that I found this! I´ve been looking into going for a longer trip with my scooter....and then I saw this. It´s hard to get Swedish scooteristas to venture out like that....apperently they just want to ride around and look fancy on their scooters. Me and a friend had far gone, or already set, plans to ride from Sweden to SA...but then it was cancelled due to him moving there instead. Let me tell ya..that sucked..big time! Sold my bike and bought a Vespa instead..and let me tell you...I loved it from the get go. Sure it´s a change down from 1000 cc down to 125 cc but the joy oh the joy. If you potentially need a fouth rider..don´t hesitate to throw me a mail.. Kind regards Dennis |
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But we don't care... We are just doing what our heart says!!! PS - The plans are still in progress, so in the next days we'll have more to say! |
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Last Sunday September 30, took place the 1st race of the Vespa Greek Cup (scooter & moped too), in N.Rusio – Thessaloniki (Drive Park Kart Track). The results of this first race were more than good and very promising for our team! In the link below you can read a small report of the race, some pics and a video... click here Vespa Greek Cup 2012 - 1st Race - YouTube bier |
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Good luck guy's. Intrigued how you will fill your gas tanks on the kindness of strangers alone with no hard cash. Then again Emillio Scotto allegedly rode the world for more than 10 years without $ also. Will look forward to following your trip. |
which way are you going?
hi
any idea of which route you'll be taking? very interested to see how you go Good Luck! tom |
Good luck. I've done a bit of Vespa overlanding. Feel free to drop me a message if I can be of any assistance
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I imagine you plan to work on the road... I wish you the best and hope you'll make it and will share the knowledge about how it all went after setting off with no money. Happy travels, Esteban |
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I suggest you guys to start into South-East direction. Everything becomes way cheaper and you don't have to buy ferry boat-tickets for a very looong time... ;-) Except fuel in Turkey is a "problem" 4,85 TL/litre right now. And try to make as much visa-deals as possible at home, before you start! I wish you all the best and good luck! Maybe we meet again on the road! I was at HU-Greece this year, maybe you remmber... :thumbup1: Ciao Alex |
As a scooter and Vespa aficionado, and scooter overlander, I must mention the writer and scooterist Giorgio Bettinelli. Until his death in China in 2008 (age 53), he had ridden hundreds of thousands of kilometers all over the globe with his beloved Vespa px150e and his guitar. He had no money, no tools, no spares, and no mechanical skills. One thing that makes him very special was his approach – having virtually no funds, no prior experience with neither overlanding or mechanics- he just set off with just his backpack and guitar - “ You wait. Someone comes, someone helps. A car, a truck, a camel. An hour, a day. Someone comes, someone helps.”
If you know how to read Italian, try to get your hands on his books Unfortunately, I don't - but I'm sure there must be a few secrets in there). |
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I have to agree, most here do not travel on Wagon Lits Cook or the Eastern Oriental Express with all luxuries, but in a pretty simple way. But there is a slight difference between "no money" and "little money". That is why I asked about their plans to make money or if they had planned to work on the road. There are many interesting threads about that in HUBB, a recent one started by Touring Ted. Last year in 10 months travelling we made quite a complete Excel table. We had a Renault 5 which consumes less than my Yamaha XT and still we were 2 to share that cost and had camping gear. No couch surfing, though. We were sometimes invited, but never looked for that on purpose, only when it just had to happen (and we spent at least the same on presents to our hosts). Accomodation was one of the concepts in the table, money flowed in many other directions (transport, food, activities, visas, etc). As you say, petrol in Turkey will make you spend several hundreds euros. If you started with 1000 € seven months ago and still have some money left (maths say max. budget 4,75 €/day), then I definitely congratulate you, since that is really a tight budget, closer to a cyclist than to a rider. I imagine you average few kilometers and avoid any entry fee to a monument. Iran was the cheapest for us and could not beat 14€/day including absolutely everything. Sure, we could have gone cheaper, but we did not start with 1000€ either. Chapeau for you. Quote:
I remember that he had a guitar and no mechanical skills at all, and remember how he decides not to bring camping gear. However, I cannot recall him saying that he didn't have any money or him making money of playing the guitar or staying every night invited. I don't know to what extent he was sponsored by Piaggio, but had mechanical works done on the way paid by Piaggio and was invited by them at least in India. He probably paid his trips as we all do, he just got the financial support he could, wrote great books and did merit to become an icon for "vespistas" and any traveler. A great traveler and writer -it's great fun how he talks about women and how he flirts- but... he lived on money. In HU Germany Summer Meeting one guy explained how he and friend left with almost no money and worked on the way, particularly in London. That was my question, if that was the approach of the OP. I'm happy if anyone manages to pursue his dream, even more if he can overcome economic obstacles. But if you don't have money at the beginning, then at some point you have to make it and definitely sooner than later. Otherwise, you don't have money, but you have cards or traveller checks... (or you cycle and live on robbed watermelons from the side of the road). |
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Most of the people is asking how much money is "without money"... We plan to sell everything we have, one Vespa GTS 250 (and buy a PX), one Aprilia RS250 (and keep that money) and one Kymco People 200 (and get one more PX), so if everything goes as we plan we'll start with 3 PX! All winter we'll try to save as more money as we can, recently we made some t-shirts that we sell to all our friends and people who is interested or want just to help us, next week our last adventure in Nordkapp will be published in MOTO biggest magazine in Greece (so we hope we'll find some sponsors as well) ...And that's all the plan! When we say "no money" we are talking for the worst scenario, if nothing is sold, if no one buys our t-shirt, if no one sponsors us... Now, after a month we took the decision to go, we see that people is interested for our adventure, we have that lucky thing with the magazine and we hope that everything will go well, and we won't go with "no money" at all! |
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That will be our homework for the winter! That's what we generally want to do...! :cool4: http://i1019.photobucket.com/albums/...bannersbia.jpg |
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:eek3: |
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Thanks for the wish! Yes we plan to work on the road. To do everything we can to make our adventure last for more! |
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You were on the black KTM right? We plan to begin with Africa. We heard it's the most difficult part of the RTW ($$$) so we think it will be the most wise to start from there. Again we heard that visas are cheaper on the go. It isn't true or you mean something else? Thanks for the wishes and hope to see you soon! |
Good luck with your trip, I look forward to reading about it; one thing is, I would been inclined to have called the trip 'Vespas around the world' and not used '3' as what happens if someone 'pulls out'doh or you added another rider?
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Yes, I am one of the Bamako By Vespa guys :)... after I did the Cape Town to Nairoby with my wife, I was able to convince two friends that it would be a good idea to participate in the biggest African Enduro Rally... we are still friends :D
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We'll take a BLANCO and just correct the number! At this moment we are trying to find support from some companies and we must be specific with numbers and all the facts - infos about our adventure. |
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Guys the project for the round of the world on Vespas is going well!
I attach a small conversation/interview we had with Nicolo from Vespbook, a blog for trips on Vespas, just to know us better... Recently I had the chance to talk with Stergios and Thanos two crazy guys from Greece that came up with a really strange and nice idea..what about touring the world on our Vespa? Here is the account of our conversation! http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...71486342_n.jpg So guys, tell me more about this world tour? It sounds like every Vespa traveller dream! And ours dream, too! From the first ride on our Vespas we were dreaming of a round the world adventure. And as it seems the time has come! How long do you think are you going to stay on the road? There is no time pressure. We are both unemployed so we will stay on the road for as long our pocket lasts! With at least 3 years (1 in Africa, 1 in Asia, 1 in America) we'll be pleased!!! What kind of Vespa will you ride? Our everyday Vespas after a good service! They are a '03 PX200 and a '04 GTS250. Did you make a rough estimate of the kms in a world tour? After 5 minutes of Google Maps we saw that very roughly the kms of the trip we're planning to do will be at least 150.000! Do you have a website and a Facebook page where we can follow you along the road? Yes we have both. You can visit our website/blog here : www.worldvespa.wordpress.com and our facebook page here : www.facebook.com/worldvespa. We'll try to update them as often as possible with photos and mainly with many videos! http://sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...00606465_n.jpg Did you already travel somewhere with your Vespa? Our Vespa have travelled in almost all European countries. The longest trip we made is from Greece to Nordkapp, going up from Russia and coming back from Denmark (a circle round Europe) crossing 16 countries in 25 days, covering more than 11.000km! You can see all our past trips here : www.worldvespa.wordpress.com/past-trips Now that we got all the technical details for understanding your project, let's skip to the philosophical part. Why a world tour and above all why on a Vespa? As we told before we were always thinking and dreaming of it! And with this economic situation here in Greece and almost in all Europe, the timing is perfect! Why on a Vespa? Because we have Vespa for many years, we love it's simplicity, because it's practical, comfortable and economic! On Vespbook we have been talking about travelling Vespa for six months already and what I think it's great is the enthusiasm in the community about travelling with your Vespa, no matter if you are starting a world tour or riding in your backyard. What's in your opinion make different the Vespa traveller from the average motorcycle rider? We don't think that the Vespa travellers are different from all the other motorcyclists. We (Vespa riders) don't have something less or something more. Maybe some cc's less, maybe a little more passion, but all people out there has one common feature...The love for meeting other people, for understanding the different cultures. The love for travelling! I want to thank Stergios and Thanos for this interesting and inspiring report, and also for theirs enthusiasm. I would like to invite everyone to check their Facebook Page and Website! Hopefully we are going to meet them again...this time, on the road again! http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...61542975_n.jpg http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...25093066_n.jpg http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...73575648_n.jpg http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...94890799_n.jpg http://sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...75740270_n.jpg http://sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...74516095_n.jpg http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...95264663_n.jpg That's the conversation... |
Another thing is that we're going to upload some videos from our adventure as often as possible!
One example is this one in which I test a chinese multifuel stove we're going to use for cooking meals and making greek coffee! http://youtu.be/8DSjf6JlMkI (english subtitles available) :mchappy: |
Check us out
The Nomadic 90s -
we will leave Ireland on 3 honda 90s heading for mongolia on the southern route through iran and the stans and russia....be so cool to hook up for a few days or even weeks.....also check us on facebook damien |
So everything went OK compared to what is happening now in Greece and we finally begin our adventure around the world on 2 Vespas!
1st day - Around the world on a Vespa - YouTube We are 2 and not 3 as we were planning, but thats life. The third guy had some problems with his family and his decision to come with us, so stayed back. We're in Italy (Senigallia) at the moment hosted by a guy called Nico, found him in the couchsurfing.org and we feel very lucky to meet him! He opened his home to us, made us something to eat, made us feel comfortable and told us to spend more nights at his place if we want (we've told him 2) so we 're thinking spending 2 more nights here! Senigallia is a beautiful small city by the sea, so we cannot resist! And some stats for our trip till now. Each of us started the trip from his hometown, Thessaloniki me, Larisa Thanos and we meat each other in Egnatia highway, some kilometers after Ioannina city. Some friends came to wish us good trip and say goodbye and 12 o'clock at midnight of last Sunday 27th October we took the ferry from Igoumenitsa to Ancona. We didn't book any cabin so we opened our sleeping bags in the ferry's cafe-restaurant like everybody else was doing, till the waiter came and toled us to go somewhere else and sleep. So we closed the sleeping bags and slept upright on the sofa! http://worldvespa.files.wordpress.co...pg?w=577&h=433 http://worldvespa.files.wordpress.co...pg?w=577&h=433 http://worldvespa.files.wordpress.co...pg?w=577&h=433 http://worldvespa.files.wordpress.co...pg?w=577&h=433 http://worldvespa.files.wordpress.co...pg?w=400&h=577 http://worldvespa.files.wordpress.co...pg?w=577&h=433
For more information on our adventure you can visit our blog (we'll try to upload more staff in English): worldvespa | few cc's, pure essence! or our facebook page: www.facebook.com/worldvespa Sorry for my very bad English! I'll try my best to improve! P.S. If this message is in the wrong place in the forum please move it. |
Hello folks!
We are 21 days on the road and everything is perfect! We have the visas for Mauritania and tomorrow we'll take the road to Merzouga. Today and the last night we slept in a small hotel in the city of Midelt. It is our first time in hotel in since we started our trip. And that's because of the very cold weather (4 degrees Celsius). Here are some videos that we've made till now: |
Happy new year folks!!!
Here is the last video of our adventures in Senegal. Enjoy! Senegal - Around the world on a Vespa - YouTube |
Hello folks!
We're in Ghana the last 2 weeks. The border crossing was the easiest till now! We got in from Burkina Faso, from the small city Hamale (not Leo). Liam didn't have a Carnet de Passage but this was not a problem. They let us go through without paying nothing, even Liam (I have a carnet)! They stamped our passports, stamped my carnet, checked the yellow fever documents and within less than 40 minutes we were done! Also the visas for Ghana was not an issue. We payed 30.000 CFA in Bamako and took 3 months visas. The ambassador just asked us to write him a letter explaining why we want to visit the country. Ghana and people here are wonderful (they are not that friendly like in Mali or Burkina Fao but they are very friendly) and the country is the greenest country we've ever seen till now (that's an issue when you do a lots of bush camping)! On Tuesday morning we begin out trip again, heading to Togo. Stergios |
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Awesome vids!!!:thumbup1::thumbup1:
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Great meeting u guys in Lome, if I don't see u along the way again then we will catch up when u guys get to South Africa.
Safe travels. ps, we got turned away from the Nigerian border today for no visa, lol, embassy 2moro Cheers jc |
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Cool, good luck and hope to meet you somewhere in the world. :)
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Hello from Yaounde!
"My Vespa is finally ready for the Congos! The problem was in the stator plate and thanks to scootershop.gr that made the diagnosis via...telephone (!), I had the new spare parts shipped here in Yaounde, I changed them and I'm ready to go! Kostas and Themis, you are my Vespa Gods ! ! !" https://scontent-a-vie.xx.fbcdn.net/...15360835_n.jpg |
Glad you back on track
Hey guys glad you have got your mechanical issue sorted , wishing both of you miles of hassle free riding from this day on. Well it is 2 weeks before I depart from Johannesburg heading north . You guys'll have been on the road for a while now are there any spares you think I should not leave home without for my spirited Gts 300? I really hope our paths cross somewhere on this magical continent so that , at least you will be 3 vespsa's in Africa if not around the world. Chat soon ride safe. Warm regards
Michael :scooter: |
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We've checked your blog! The bad thing is that I don't know a thing about the new Vespas. So maybe it's better to ask people traveling on new/4T Vespas. I hope to meat you too! Stergios |
Great idea guys
A friend and I rode 2 Bajaj Chetaks (if you ride Vespas you'll know what these are) about 20,000km from Alaska to Honduras last year. We were hoping to make it to Tierra del Fuego but I injured my back and had to return home.
We had an absolute blast. Camped all the way through North America, made it as north as the Arctic Circle, blew up a couple of bikes and broke a couple of bones. We learned a lot so let me know if you need any advice. Don't forget the tow-rope ;) |
Thanks for the feedback , I am going on my second training session tomorrow , did a major service last week , tomorrow doing the electrical stuff , so I will get some info on spares , 14 days to GO. Enjoy Africa.
Warm regards Michael:scooter: |
Hello from Lubumbashi!
Here is a small video with some highlights during the trip from Souanke (Congo Brazzaville) to Idiofa (Congo Kinshasa). Both Congos are great countries!!! Beautifull with really awesome - friendly people!!! Maybe I miss the Greek islands but I don't miss the sand! And that's for sure! |
I just put English subtitles in the last video.
bier |
Great Video - it a Lot of fun to watch you - and your friends!
Thank you for sharing your Story, it must be very hard to upload this Videos Out if africa! My Blog was pretty Text based, till i was able to find some rare spots who allows to upload... Surfy |
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Have you been in Durban yet ? Cheers, JC |
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If you going via Durban to Mozambique give me a call, got loads of room for you guys :-) Cheers JC |
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Probably I'm gonna take a ro-ro from Durban to Montevideo. Late September to early October I guess. So it would be nice to meet you! Do you live in Durban? |
I don't know what's going wrong with me. The last month I'm trying to write about the amazing experience I had traveling through both Congos and I cannot write a word! So until I manage to express myself, have a look to the second part of the video I made. *** watch the video with English subtitles *** |
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It will be great to see you. +27 796621619 bier |
Welcome to China!:)
Although China may be the most expensive part on your journey, I am able to provide some information may cut down the costs if you are going to travel through China in the future, I am very interested in your 3 Vespas trip!! I will keep following if you don't mind. Cheers, Bing |
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bier |
:scooter:
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Love the video!! Good Luck to you all !!
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Hello people!
I made a slideshow with my 100 favourite photos after a year in Africa. Enjoy! |
Great story video and pics.
Have fun out there. |
Hello people!
After 14+ months on the road through Africa on my little Vespa I managed to collect and compare all my expenses and I'd like to share the results with you. https://worldvespa.wordpress.com/201...ter-14-months/ bier |
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Zandesiro follows you on web.bier |
Hi Stergios,
Great to see you made it all the way, and it was fun to travel with you, Katharina, Steven, and Francis in Congo! Happy travels, Gee |
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Happy travels too Gee! How are you? Are you safe, back home? |
New post in English and video with English subtitles for South Africa folks!
Here: http://wp.me/p1x3fp-1DF |
Lesotho: Africa's most beautiful country!!!
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South Africa (part02). The end of the journey, moments and thoughts...http://wp.me/p1x3fp-1Nc
And a brand new video as well ps I guess that the moderators can now change the title to something like "Around the world on a Vespa" :scooter: |
Piaggio has just published an article on «worldvespa» at its web magazine!
Guys it’s an honor and thank you very much, however wouldn’t be a good idea to inform me, also?! Come on Piaggio, you used all these photos and videos for free, maybe it’s about time to give me a bit of help so that I can go on with my trip! P.S. Oh, and I’d rather you had replied at least to one of my e-mails... click here to read the article… https://worldvespa.files.wordpress.c...zine.jpg?w=474 |
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WOW
Wow I cant believe this - zero requests or support and publishing your blog without consent.... that's sad...
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39+1 photos from Africa & S. America
Hello folks!
We just published a small photo album at boredpanda.com and we'd like to share it with you. They are only few of the best moments of our trip until now, shot in Africa and South America. We are waiting for your comments, as always! If you like them and you think that our story has something worth-spreading, feel free to share it with your friends! See you soon with new, unpublished material! HERE YOU CAN SEE THE PHOTOS… PS Maybe it's about time to change the topic's title to something like "Around the world on a Vespa" or even better move the whole topic to the appropriate area (eg travellers stories) !?! :biggrin: |
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