Quick Ride

Quick Ride

PIAGGIO BV200 Fun and function

IN THE MOVIE THE TALENTED Mr. Ripley, Jude Law plays Dickie Greenleaf, a young, rich and handsome American who is living off his dad's money in Mongibello on the southern Italian coast enjoying la dolce vita. He has a beautiful girlfriend (Gwyneth Paltrow), plays sax in jazz clubs and-of course-rides helmetless down narrow and busy cobblestone streets on a Vespa. It's enough to make anyone lust after a scooter.

The scooter was an Italian invention, functional transportation for the post-war period when cars were still a dream for most of Italy. With stamped sheetmetal frames and cleverly packaged two-stroke engines, they provided practical, cheap mobility and yet-through some uniquely Italian magic-were joyous at the same time. In comparison, motorcycles in one way or another have always been about sport and performance, and have always asked that their riders sacrifice a little something for that sport. A scooter asks nothing more than that you sling a bag over your shoulder as you hop on to go to market, and that you enjoy the wind in your hair on the way there.

But two-cycle engines have been effectively outlawed by modern emissions regulations, and the Japanese have filled scooter markets with deadly reliable and polished machines with automatic transmissions. Piaggio’s BV200 is the Italian response to the times, a machine more appliance-like than its predecessors, but one that still offers fun, practical and relatively inexpensive transport.

No two-stroke for the BV (short for Beverly in the home market). Instead, it gets a thoroughly modern sohc, liquidcooled, four-valve four-stroke Single. With 198cc and a claimed 21 horsepower, the B V has enough oomph to cruise at an indicated 75 mph on freeways. Vespa’s left-handgrip shifter is long gone, its need exorcised by a Salisbury-style continuously variable transmission. Starting is at the touch of a button. Sixteen-inch wheels give the BV stability that classic 10inch-wheeled Italian scooters could only dream of, and disc brakes provide stopping power that rivals that of sportbikes.

Around town, the four-stroke and the automatic tranny steal some of the stoplight-to-stoplight zest that a traditional Italian scooter possessed, and the lack of a clutch lever means that even Italian teenagers couldn’t pull a wheelie on a BV Fortunately, the Piaggio gives away nothing in maneuverability to its ancestors. Like all scooters, it’s a genuine urban weapon that can filter through dense traffic like nothing else.

And scooter practicality remains. Forget the shoulder bag, there’s built-in storage aplenty.

A large glove box is tucked in front of your knees, and a compartment big enough for two open-face helmets hides under the seat. The bodywork gives effective weather protection, and the overall quality feel is more Japanese than classic Italian. Best of all, given the BV’s $4299 asking price, you don’t have to be Dickie Greenleaf to afford one. -Steve Anderson