Hello,

I'm Wim from Belgium. 30-something, father of three, English teacher and -since last year- the proud owner of a motorbike license.

I've always been fascinated by bikes (long time subscriber to a bike magazine), but for a number of reasons (money, building our house, raising the kids) I never got round to getting my license.

Last year, I finally bought my first bike: a Vespa GTS 125.
I picked a scooter because of the practical advantages, and because you can drive a 125cc bike in Belgium on just a car permit.  When our government announced tougher and longer (= more expensive) courses for a bike permit, I decided to get mine while the old rules were still in place.
I then traded in my first GTS for another one: a 250cc model.
I've had a blast on my little Vespas. Put about 10000 miles on them in 8 months, drove them everywhere, even took my wife on holiday on the back (1000 miles across Holland in four days, staying in b&b's)

At the end of last year I decided to start looking for another upgrade. Prices drop considerably every winter: perfect time to buy one cheap, but unfortunately not the best time to sell a Vespa.

Anyway: I already found my new ride: a 2006 gs500f with only 5000 kms on the clock.
Made a downpayment on the bike, the previous owner's not in a rush so I have plenty of time to sell mine first...  I lowered my price though because I can't wait to go pick up my new ride

The gsf is completely stock (just a pair of sliding blocks), but I plan on adding a few bits here and there once I get it.  To be continued...
I'm sure I will pick up some usefull tips around here.

For now I've only got the pictures from the online add.

Congratulations!  Chilly riding over there this time of year?

Yes, temperatures hovering around the 0°c mark.

Kept riding, except for when it was snowing and the days immediately after (they use horrible melting salt over here, bad news for bikes )

At the moment, I'm not riding because the 250 has just over 9000 km on the clocks.
I would love to ride it every day, but I think pushing it across the 10000 km mark will decrease it's value...  Stupid, I know, but some people think like that. 
I know some of the sites I use to sell categorize the bikes in categories, so I really want to keep it in the 5<10K range.

Welcome to the site

Yes... sold the Vespa today!

That means I can pick up my GS on Saturday. Can't wait! 

Welcome!  Good job on posting a pic!

Good choice on the bike - I have had mine for almost a year and 6000 miles.. absolutely no issues with regular maintenance.

Watch out for corrosion with salt on the roads - there are a few tender spots on the GS that benefit from anti-corrosion products.  If you hunt around the forum you will find suggested products and areas to watch out for.

Enjoy that first spin 

Hi Wim

I was in Brugge 14 months ago. Not on a bike mind you. I was traveling in a motorhome through Europe for 3 months with my wife and 3 kids. Brugge was one of my favourite places on our travels. Didn't see much more of Belgium other than driving through it to Germany.

Enjoy your first ride on the GS. I have had mine for 10 months and it is my first bike. I love everything about it.

Cheers

Welcome Wim!,

lets be having some ride videos of belgium? yes?! ... hear there are some awesome mountain roads 

Mountain roads in Belgium? Didn't know Belgium had any mountains.  Bavaria in Germany perhaps?

Depends on what you call mountains...

This summer I climbed the Col d'Aspin (tour de France stage). Not on my Vespa but by bicycle, bikes flying past me on the way up all the time - not that many on the way down though   

Of course there's nothing of the kind in Belgium. But, once you get close to the imaginary line that divides Flanders and Wallonia (Dutch- and French-speaking regions of Belgium) things start to get interesting enough.

There's a ton of beautiful 'mountain' roads out there, if you stay off the highways.
This one is a gps-track called Wellen/Wellen:
A round trip from/to Wellen, in the heart of the fruit-industry's apple and pear fields.
Driving round here is always nice, especially around the beginning of April: blossoms everywhere.
The trip swerves through the Ardennes, linking beautiful cities like Ciney, Dinant and Rochefort and takes you down to Durbuy, a very popular destination for bikers: a lovely medieval city (the smallest of its kind in Belgium) perched on top of a hill.

http://gpstracks.nl/motorroutes-belgie.php?id=2413
http://www.dinant-tourisme.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&langue=en
http://www.durbuyinfo.be/

One of my favourites, that I'll definitely do again in a few months...
Grts,  W.




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Fair enough then... Still some lovely looking twisty roads that run through some little bitty hills and rolling country ... 

Your path to a GS500 sounds just like mine.  I started off with a vespa 150, then moved on to a vespa 250, then on to an Aprilia scarabeo 500 - at which point I said 'I think i need a motorcycle' - and low and behold I now have a GS500f.

Welcome!

Whoohoo! It's finally here...

This morning it looked like the snow was going to thwart my plans to pick up my new bike today, but in the end the roads stayed snow-free long enough.

Still very cold though (freezing actually).  The fairing on my F has proven its use for the first time: made the ride home (100km) without getting too cold.

Didn't get the chance to take some decent pictures yet, I'll definitely roll it out tomorrow to admire it some more and take some shots 

 

So... the pictures:





Thoughts so far:

- I loved the ride home - obviously: new toy, happy boy. I don't have a lot of experience with shifting (coming from 2 vario-Vespas) but immediately the bike gave me a lot of confidence. Messed up once or twice (both on up-shifts) but that will get better with time.  Clutch feels very natural, didn't have any trouble finding neutral at the end of the ride.

- General state of the bike: not bad at all.  The previous owner was a woman, Alicja.  I could tell from the way she talked about her bike that she really loved the thing.  She was only selling it because she'd had an operation and couldn't ride pain-free any more...  Of course you notice every little scratch when looking over a new bike, but there's really not that much to say. 
Tiny dent in the gastank (on top, not something that could be caused by dropping the bike).  Oh, and my brakelight doesn't come on when I use the front brake, only when I use the foot brake.  I'll get that fixed next week, don't want people crashing into me :/

- The thing that bothered me most was the look of the seat.  The upholstry is a bit wrinkled, and you can tell on the inside that someone's opened it up and stapled it back on.  It's comfortable enough though, so I won't change it immediately, unless I find a cheap seat somewhere soon.

I added the RAM-mount for my GPS.  Didn't have time to hook up the power yet...
From this point of view it looks like the GPS is blocking my warning lights, but it's not. Moved it down just another inch or so.



Now let's hope the snow stops next week

UPDATE:
Just finished wiring the GPS.  It's a Garmin Zumo: it came with a power cable from Garmin, little fuse-box and everything.
I also fixed the brake light issue.  Just a bad contact in one of the two connectors behind the brake lever...

Bit of a handfull to put it on its center stand too...

Adidasguy's nice video tutorial was a big help 

Quote from: W79 on February 18, 2013, 10:44:20 AM
I'm Wim from Belgium. 30-something, father of three, English teacher and -since last year- the proud owner of a motorbike license.

I've had a blast on my little Vespas. Put about 10000 miles on them in 8 months, drove them everywhere, even took my wife on holiday on the back (1000 miles across Holland in four days, staying in b&b's)

not trying to be funny Wim, but... english teacher ... you teach students english language? .. or you teach the 'english' class at a high school as in .. maths, science, english .. ?? .. it just struck me that it could be either! ..  (but then 'we' call it english because language/subject/literature are synonymous , but to call subject english when its another language .. german, farsi, mandarin seems strange)

... and 1000 miles, 2 up, 4 days, on a vespa ..  ... was it dark and you were wearing sunglasses? - (Blues Brothers movie reference) ... but wow! epic trip 

and apart from the quote material.. ive never been to europe and i guess its a bit like people around the world Australia think its all kangaroos, koalas and Bondi Beach .. i always thought Belgium was mountainous .. because Switzerland, Bavaria? and 'The Alps' are near there.. somewhere  ... but its always good to look up things online and learn or re-adjust the thinking/concepts of 'far off lands' .. I should pay more attention to Discovery Channel again i think! 

No problem Janx...  I'm sure most people have these stereotypes.
Some of them will be true, others won't.
My idea of America is propably also inaccurate in lots of ways.  Like you said: it's always good to keep learning.
So, let me educate you... 

Although it's a small country (roughly the size of Maryland), Belgium has a relatively high population (10,5 million).
About 60% of all Belgians speak Dutch, they live in the north (Flanders), 35% speak French, and they share the south (Wallonia) with a small minority of people who speak German.

Brussels is somewhere in the middle, and it's a bit of melting pot.  It's on Flemish territory, but French is the dominant language.  Like any big city, Brussels also draws in a lot of other cultures and nationalities.

I live in Flanders, very close to the Dutch border.  So I - and the children at my school - normally speak Dutch.
I (try to) teach them the English language.

As for my trip around Holland: it's commonly called the Netherlands in English.  Or the 'low lands', so averaging 300 miles a day wasn't that difficult.  The Vespa was a 250i: it has enough puff to keep up with traffic on most roads.  We had covered similar distances before, just not for days on end.

cool! 

i've covered over half of Australia in a truck during 25 years .. and only been overseas once on a cruise (3 years ago?) to Noumea .. hopefully the kids will move out next couple years and the Wife/Me can go wider wround the world on holidays .. plus i want to do different bike tours here and there.

if we ever get a chance to go to Belgium , could drop in to your class and give them the "Aussie annexure" update to 'English' .. lol ... it would expand the errrr 'colour' of the learning quite a bit i think