So following on from this post, back in March, after getting my full motorbike licence, I headed over to Spain sold the Piaggio Liberty 125 and got a new Piaggio Beverly 400. I love it! It's a fantastic scooter, or "maxi-scooter" as they call them on mainland Europe. The "maxi" bit denotes an engine bigger than 125cc.

In the UK and Ireland, maxi-scooters aren't at all popular. I'm not sure how true it is, but I read somewhere that Honda, who make a super popular maxi-scooter called the SH300 (with a 300cc engine), aimed to sell only 200 of them in 2025. Two hundred? That's nothing! But in Spain, Italy, France, and so on, they're everywhere. In Northern Ireland, I'd say there's one maxi-scooter for every 100 motorbikes on the road. In those other countries, I'd say they outnumber them!

As always, the UK has a weird way of looking at some things, and I'm pretty sure it's all tied to masculinity. In many eyes, maxi-scooters aren't manly, whereas a big motorbike is. Anyway, that's a post for another day – back to the Beverly.

I was in Spain for the whole of April (and some of May too) and put over 2,000 km on my Beverly 400. So when I got back to Northern Ireland, I kinda knew I had to get one.

My first instinct was to rush out and buy a new one. But that was thwarted because there are no Piaggio dealers in the whole of Northern Ireland. Insane! This, of course, wasn't a bad thing, as it made me sit back and actually (for once) think about a two-wheeled purchase. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if I'd actually get the use out of it. Sure, now, in summer (or what passes for one in NI!), I'd use it. But what about in January, when it's minus degrees? Would I use it? I don't know. So I figured the sensible thing to do was to buy a cheap/rough second-hand one and see if I got the use out of it.

I went ahopping, and in the whole of Northern Ireland, there was exactly one for sale. Long story short, that's the one you see here in these pictures. It was cheap, but it's not at all rough. And best of all, it has had a full "racing" tuning kit from an Italian company called Malossi fitted. Now, "racing" and "maxi-scooter" are an oxymoron if ever there was one! But someone in its previous life loved this machine and poured a lot of money into it.

So far, I've kept all the upgrades except the exhaust. It might have been sporty, but bloody hell, it was loud. Far too loud! Thankfully, the guy I bought it from had all the original parts, so the first thing I did was switch it back to the stock exhaust.

The pic above was taken the day I picked her (yes, she's a she) up. That's the "racing" Malossi exhaust. These things are super popular but insanely expensive. That one was about £600!

Other than the exhaust, I've added a new Givi B45+ top box, as the old one was knackered, and fitted a lovely Givi full-height screen. These things are vital when the weather turns cold, as they keep the very cold air from hitting you full-on.

The only other thing I've to add on the outside, so to speak, is some new rear suspension units. The ones it came with are shot. Not decided what to get yet – budget might dictate!

One thing I did have to do when I got her was fix the rear puncture. "No problem," I thought, "just drop out the rear wheel and take it to a tyre repair garage." Oh, how naive! You don't just drop the rear wheel out on a scooter, of any type. Oh no, you have to strip out the whole rear end. Including removing the exhaust, brake, sensors, bodywork and even part of the sub-frame!

That was fun!

That's about it now for, no doubt I'll be posting more about this bike in the coming months. And time will tell if I get the use out of it. But if I do, if I'll be getting a 400 next year!

I've created a gallery for this bike; it's here.