Is the Vespa PX a faithful reproduction of the 'classic' Vespa, and are they beginner-friendly?

Question

I love the look of the old Vespas and have heard that the PX is a faithful reproduction but with up-to-date engineering. This interests me a lot as I am not mechanically-minded so a modern machine with classic styling suits me down to the ground.

Would a Vespa PX 125 be a good scooter for a beginner? I'm in my early twenties now, I took my CBT for a 50cc moped when I was 16 and rode around for a year before getting a car.

I take it I would need to take a CBT again, are these harder for 125cc than they are for 50cc as I've never ridden a geared bike before?

Also, is a CBT a completely different thing to a bike test? I know the bike test changes in October, will the CBT carry on or does that change too?

Any help welcome. Cheers!

PS, UK-relevant answers only please.

Answer 1

The PX is a traditional scooter ie geared but you are quite right it does have all the useful modern add ons, indicators, auto-lube (mixes your two stroke oil automatically), electric start, disc break.

as far as user friendly then the add ons make that a yes.  if you drove round on a bike for a year then really it would just be the getting used to the gears that would be an issue and that's an hour or two in the car park.

CBT is the same no matter what cc the bike.  to the best of my knowledge the CBT was driving round a car park for the day just to make sure you were rider proficient(its been a long time since i saw one) my advice would be to contact an instructor and just ask but as far as the PX is concerned you shouldn't have any problems.