2025 · Scooter · Buyer's Guide
Italian Soul, Surprising Grip
The GTS 310 Super carries the most powerful engine Vespa has ever put in that steel body: a liquid-cooled 310cc single making 25 hp and 21 lb-ft, with the torque peak arriving low at 5,250 rpm for easy, immediate pull away from a light. The full-steel monocoque, 12-inch wheels, and disc brakes at both ends give it a solidity most small scooters never come close to. ABS and traction control are standard, with keyless ignition and full LED lighting rounding out the package. This one sits at the premium, characterful end of the class, not the cheap-transport end.
It reads less like a sensible commuter and more like a cultivated piece of city dynamics with Italian soul. It suits the urban rider who wants character and a steel body under them and is willing to pay Vespa's emotional premium to get it. The full-steel construction and refined drivetrain should age well and keep running costs low. The honest caveat is twofold. Cornering clearance is the real ceiling on how hard you can lean it, and the touch points feel below the price. Go in for the character and the substance behind the style, and it delivers on both.
Spec sheets don't ride bikes, but they set the baseline.
| Power | 25 hp (18 kW) @ 6,500 rpm |
|---|---|
| Torque | 21 lb-ft (29 Nm) @ 5,250 rpm |
| Displacement | 310 cc |
| Engine | Single-cylinder |
| Cooling | Liquid-cooled |
| Final drive | Belt |
| Fork | Leading-link |
| Front tire | 120/70-12 |
| Rear tire | 130/70-12 |
| Wheelbase | 54.1 in (1375 mm) |
| Seat height | 31.1 in (790 mm) |
| Wet weight | 359 lb (163 kg) |
| Fuel capacity | 2.2 gal (8.5 L) |
| Top speed | 80 mph (129 km/h) |
| Fuel economy | 73 mpg (US) |
Equipment check
Chassis
Connectivity
Lighting
Safety
Swing a leg over and the 31.1-inch seat with 359 pounds wet settles into something you manage rather than wrestle, low and balanced under you at a standstill. Pull away and the motor stays smooth, no buzz coming up through the floorboards or the bars to blur the picture. It sounds unhurried and feels far more substantial underneath you than 12-inch wheels have any right to. Where the shine comes off is what your hands land on. The switchgear feels cheap to the thumb and the screen looks plain, both of which register before you've even pulled away. And the floorboard can pick up an annoying rattle from a loose bolt, a one-minute fix with a wrench. Small things, but on a Vespa at this price you notice every one of them.
My own 0–100 score for this bike against the class, area by area — the marker on each bar is the class average.
Everything about the 12-inch wheels tells you to expect something nervous and skittish, and the reality kept contradicting that. I leaned on the chassis well past what I'd normally trust from a machine of this type, and it stayed composed, holding a clean line without any twitch or protest as I raised the pace. It turns in accurately and settles right away. What lifted my opinion further was running it under real track loads rather than gentle city speeds: the ABS and traction control read the situation and came in by degrees, staying in step with the motor and chassis instead of stamping on the fun. My one real frustration lives underneath the bike. Lean it hard and the centerstand touches down early, the exhaust close behind, and both cry uncle long before the chassis is anywhere near done.
Hard stops are the classic failing on small-wheeled scooters, and this one simply doesn't share it. The discs at both ends, backed by ABS, give me enough to lean on that I trust them completely, from a panic grab at a jammed intersection to a committed brake marker setting up a corner at pace. The bite shows up in proportion to how hard I pull, and it's genuinely there when I call on it. That's not a sentence I expected to write about a scooter.
The engine's best quality is honesty. Ask for drive at any point in the range and it answers precisely to the request, nothing lagging behind your wrist or rushing ahead of it, and no vibration creeping into the read. Just as telling is how completely the automatic drivetrain vanishes underneath you. The centrifugal clutch and transmission mesh with the motor so cleanly that you stop clocking them as separate parts, which is the reward of a formula refined patiently over a very long run.
For a topic that ought to be all upside on a machine pitched this high, my note is a complaint. What your hands and eyes land on lets the package down. The switchgear feels low-rent under the thumb and the instrument screen looks plain, and you take both in before the key's even turned. On cheaper scooters you'd wave it off without a thought. Here, with the badge asking a premium, every shortcut stays in view and keeps nagging.
There's a specific moment this bike earns its keep, and for me it arrived the first time I strung together a proper hard braking zone. Turn in, haul it down, feed the throttle back in, and the honest reaction in my head was that it's flat-out good, with no 'for a scooter' qualifier attached. The riding substance underneath does that convincing, not the name on the front. That surprised me, and it's the part that stuck.
I've spent years paying attention to what owners pass along after real time in the saddle: the talk at events, the exchanges inside rider communities, and the emails and direct messages that come my way. For the GTS 310 Super, that input points one clear way. Owners come away pleased with the riding experience and everyday feel, while their objections gather on practical shortcomings.
Comfort tops the good reports. Owners consistently praise the well-padded seat for staying easy over long stretches and the upright, relaxed posture that holds up for all-day use, with a seat height most riders find approachable. The ride wins them over too: a smooth, quiet motor with almost no vibration, and suspension that settles nicely over rough pavement. Riders enjoy the punchy low-end pull in traffic and the steel-bodied, chrome-trimmed styling that reads a cut above plastic rivals.
The gripes are consistent. Without the accessory windscreen, riders say long stretches at highway speed grow tiring, the wind pushing at chest and helmet. The underseat compartment is the second common complaint, too shallow for a full-face helmet next to roomier competitors. A smaller group notes the price runs well past similarly powered rivals.
Floorboard bolt rattle
Some owners report an annoying rattle from the floorboard area caused by a loose bolt; easily fixed by tightening.
Where this Vespa GTS 310 Super pulls ahead of — or falls behind — its rivals on the numbers, and the typical bike in its class on character.
Power
Torque
Displacement
Wet weight
Seat height
Forget spec-sheet bragging. Here's who the GTS 310 Super is actually built for.
You ride the tech-crowd ridge roads and want something photogenic that still performs. The GTS looks the part and holds its own on Skyline, though limited clearance caps how hard you can carve it.
Made for Bay Area Ridge Roads · San Francisco / Bay Area · Skyline Boulevard / Alice's Restaurant
For daily miles in NYC, Miami Beach, or SF, this is the fun, premium end of scooter commuting: easy to place, cheap to run, genuinely enjoyable. Just know you pay extra for the badge and the character.
Made for Austin · Los Angeles · Miami Beach / Miami