The Vespa GTS 310 Finished 700 Miles With No Margin

A loaned 2026 Vespa GTS Super 310 covered more than 700 miles of California coast on 25 horsepower and a 2.2-gallon tank. Automotive writer Travis Langness, who weighs 225 pounds, joined two friends on new 310s after one of them, Matt, set out to prove a Vespa could do a real road trip.

They left Malibu for Monterey on winding roads and the Pacific Coast Highway, then Langness rode more than 300 miles home alone. Vespa supplied his bike and cheered the group on. The GTS Super 310 made the distance. It also ran the fuel light in 104-degree canyons, cooked a phone in its USB cubby, and sent him down PCH at about 50 degrees with no screen and summer gloves.

Three Riders Took the Long Way Up the Coast

Matt had just bought a Vespa and wanted it treated as a motorcycle, not a toy. His friend Ali was already in on a brand-new 310 of his own, and Langness signed on as the third bike. With little time to learn the machine, he took the loaner onto a quiet Los Angeles highway the night before departure to see whether 25 horsepower and a CVT would even merge.

The 310 cc single, making 25 horsepower and 21.3 pound-feet (28.9 Nm) of torque, pulled hard enough off the line that he could get on the freeway, wrist pinned, without blocking traffic. Steep ramps asked more of it than flat pavement, which worried him about the climbs ahead, but the maiden run was enough to keep him in the group.

Under the seat he packed four days of clothes, a spare pair of shoes, and toiletries. A soft bag on the pillion held a small tool kit, tire-repair gear, a first-aid kit, and visor cleaner. Matt and Ali had hard top cases. Langness did not.

THE COAST ROUTE

• Day one: Meet in Malibu, ride north away from the big highways, through the canyons above Ojai, and overnight in Cayucos after a 104-degree inland slog.
• Day two: Cayucos to Monterey on scenic two-lanes, then a quiet pass along 17 Mile Drive ahead of Car Week, including breakfast at Inn at The Spanish Bay, where motorcycles are normally barred.
• Day three: The group splits after breakfast; Langness rides more than 300 miles home on PCH and Highway 101 in gear chosen for the hot days, not the 50-degree coast.

On tight canyon pavement the skinny 12-inch tires did not like potholes, and they turned in so fast that the speed limit still felt like a race. He could smell the bike pumping fuel to keep itself cool. That was the fun part of the first day. The rest of the day was heat and range.

The Fuel Light Came On Before the Next Town

Langness had driven the same inland stretch months earlier in a pickup and remembered closed gas stations. The GTS Super 310 carries an 8.5-litre fuel tank and 25 horsepower, about 2.2 gallons when you fill it in California. That is a short leash once you leave town.

THE OJAI FUEL SCARE

• The light: About 100 miles after a fill-up, the dash lights on the group bikes went red.
• The fork: Ali was already at a station on a different road; Matt and Langness were committed to the wrong one.
• The dry pumps: The next stop on the GPS had decrepit pumps and no fuel, with the air around 104 degrees and sweat in their eyes.
• The fill: Eight miles later they each put in about 1.8 to 1.9 gallons, which meant the tank was not as empty as the lights had claimed, only too close.

They got there by going easy on the throttle and coasting downhill. The 40 to 70 mpg Langness recorded across the whole trip is the reason a 2.2-gallon tank can look almost reasonable on paper and still feel like a stunt when the next town is a dry pump plus eight miles. On the low end of that spread, 40 mpg from 2.2 gallons is about 88 miles. On the high end, 70 mpg is about 154 miles. The light at 100 miles sat right in the gap where a closed station becomes the whole story.

Vespa Already Sells the GTS as a Touring Bike

The GTS name is Gran Turismo Sportivo, and the US store copy does not treat the Super 310 as a cafe runabout. Vespa tells buyers that passionate travellers need reliability and that the big steel frame, plus the tech on board, makes this the perfect scooter for long-distance travel.

Passionate, intrepid travellers need solid reliability to get them places, which is why the Vespa GTS is the perfect travel companion. Its urban spirit, seen in its large frame that offers reassurance, protection, and a number of tech features makes it the perfect scooter for long-distance travel.

Vespa, GTS Super 310 Hpe US store copy

The US model page pushes the same line, calling the Super a travel companion in Vespa Grand Touring style and pointing to a 310 cc hpe Euro 5+ engine tuned to cut consumption, vibration, and noise. That is a touring pitch. The California bike still had no windscreen, no hard case, and a USB cubby that trapped so much heat a phone had to come out of it and go into a jacket pocket before it would keep playing music.

Owners who actually live with a 310 still talk about cheap running costs and the fun of the thing, which matches the canyon miles on this trip. The touring claim is doing other work. It has to justify a city scooter, sold with optional weather kit, as a machine you take to Monterey.

Heat Took Power on the Steepest Grades

The 310 HPE is the largest engine Vespa has put in a production scooter. It replaces the old 278 cc 300 HPE by stretching the stroke from 63 mm to 70.1 mm, keeping a 75 mm bore, and reworking about 70 percent of the parts. Peak power is 18.4 kW, 25 horsepower, at 6,500 rpm, about 5 percent more than the 300 HPE and at lower revs. Torque is up about 11.5 percent. The point of the long-stroke motor is midrange, not a new top-end personality.

On the hottest climbs that extra midrange still faded. Langness felt the bike go flat on the steepest grades in the worst heat, and Matt and Ali said the same about theirs. He blamed a seat stuffed so full of clothes that ambient air could not do its job around a liquid-cooled single that was already working in 104-degree air. The storage was still the reason he could pack for three days, so he lived with it.

Once the group reached the coast, the mechanical picture changed. The ride is stiff on 55 mph pavement and bouncy on broken tarmac, but the seat is soft and the seating position is upright, so his arms were not cooked after hours on the bars. The single stayed smooth past 70 mph. Switchgear and the analog-digital cluster felt expensive enough that he stopped thinking of the GTS as a cheap twist-and-go, which is the other half of the price problem.

Calling this thing just a scooter is really doing it a disservice.

Travis Langness, after the California coast ride

$8,199 Is More Than a Honda Rebel 500

The GTS Super 310 Langness rode starts at $8,199 before destination fees. That is a lot of money in a class full of beginner motorcycles that make more power, carry more fuel, and still leave change. Honda’s 2026 Rebel 500 lists at $6,799, $1,400 less at the base sticker, with a $600 destination charge that takes the Honda total to $7,399. The Rebel 300 E-Clutch is $5,349.

WHAT $8,199 BUYS IN 2026

The Rebel 500 also posts a 414-pound curb weight and a 3.0-gallon tank and 27.2-inch seat on Honda’s own spec sheet. Three gallons is 36 percent more fuel than 2.2. That extra half-gallon-plus is the difference between a red fuel light in the Ojai hills and a boringly normal stop. The Vespa answers with steel bodywork, a remote seat opener, keyless start, and a look that got thumbs-up from tourists instead of the stare a small motorcycle draws when it filters past a line of cars.

Langness put that trade in plain terms. Plenty of inexpensive starter bikes are stronger. The GTS is the odd one: no cruise control, no fancy rider aids, no electronic suspension, and a CVT that asks you only to twist the grip. He called it pure motoring, and also the most efficient way he has ever done a road he has run in hatchbacks and supercars, averaging 40 to 70 mpg depending on the day.

A Windscreen Would Have Saved the Ride Home

Day two was the trip the brochure describes. No fuel drama, no desert shade stops, just California scenery at an eager pace on machines other drivers barely noticed. The inoffensive shape is a free pass in traffic and a parking cheat in town. People could not believe the three of them had ridden that far on scooters, which was the whole point of Matt’s bet.

Day three billed the optional equipment. Forecast temperatures swung from about 105 degrees on day one to around 50 on the ride home. Langness had packed for heat, so ocean air went straight through summer gloves and a layered jacket. With no wind protection, his hands froze and he made stops he would have skipped on a screened bike. A top case like the ones on Matt and Ali’s scooters would have held proper gloves. Vespa already sells that kit.

WHAT THE LOANER LEFT AT HOME

• Hard top box: The US store lists a GTS/GTV top box at $388.95, the piece that turned Matt and Ali’s luggage problem into a non-event.
• Folding rear rack: $346.50 on Vespa’s US accessories list, required before that box bolts on.
• Medium windscreen kit: $262.50, the part that would have stood between a 50-degree PCH and a pair of summer gloves.
• Handgrip muffs: $75.60, a cheaper fix for the same frozen-hands miles.

Add those pieces and the Super 310 starts to look like the travel companion in the brochure. Leave them off, as a press loaner often does, and a 700-mile coast ride becomes a test of packing, fuel math, and whatever gloves you wore on the hot day. Langness still finished grinning. He stopped on his local stretch of PCH, looked at the Pacific, and added the GTS Super 310 to the long list of cars that have done that road. It was the least power he has ever taken on the trip, and the 40 to 70 mpg was the best fuel use he has recorded on it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Seat Height on the Vespa GTS Super 310?

Vespa lists the GTS Super 310 seat at 790 mm, which is 31.1 inches, a full step taller than the 27.2-inch saddle on Honda’s Rebel 500 and Rebel 300. Shorter riders who can flat-foot a cruiser at a light may find the Vespa a stretch at stops, even though the floorboard layout still lets you plant your feet more easily than a sportbike.

Does the 2026 Vespa GTS 310 Come With ABS?

Yes. Dual 220 mm stainless discs with hydraulic control are paired with ABS and ASR traction control as factory equipment on the GTS 310 family. That package is part of what Vespa is selling when it talks about the model as a long-distance machine rather than a bare city runabout.

What Fuel Mileage Does Vespa Claim for the GTS 310?

The official combined figure in Vespa’s range brochure is 31.2 km/l, about 73 mpg, with CO2 at 74 g/km under Euro 5+. At that lab rate the 8.5-litre tank would be good for about 165 miles. Real coast riding in this test landed between 40 and 70 mpg, so plan stops closer to 100 miles if you are loaded, climbing, or sitting in 104-degree air.

Does the GTS Super 310 Have Keyless Start?

Keyless ignition is standard, so the fob can stay in a pocket for unlock, lock, and start, and a welcome graphic on the dash confirms the ECU has seen the key. Dedicated buttons on the fob also pop the seat and fire Bike Finder, which flashes the turn signals so you can spot the scooter in a packed lot.