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Vespas need not be expensive. Buy used. About a year ago I bought a like new 2006 GT200 for $2200, with 1800 miles on it. It was literally in new condition even under the bottom. It came with a new color matched Vespa top box, a new Vespa windshield (which was too tall for me) a battery tender, and a new Cycle Gear jacket in my size (XXXL). I've had a lot of Japanese and Taiwanese scooters, and still have a 2009 Stella 2 stroke I bought new, and there is no comparison between those and a Vespa. I got the '06 because it has a carburetor. I stay far away from EFI. I have some motorcycles too, but since nearly losing my right leg during Desert Storm 30 years ago, I find it difficult to get on and off motorcycles. I mostly ride an '06 (carbureted) Harley Sportster 1200 Low when not riding a scooter. It's still possible to get my leg over the seat of that without too much trouble.

I got my first scooter, a Honda Metropolitan, for running around town, because I have severe arthritis. Constantly shifting from one light to another was a real pain. I quickly found that the Met was not fast enough to ride in town on 45 mph. After almost getting killed a few times (plus getting yelled at, flipped off, lights flashed at me and a lot of blowing horns, and one idiot in a lifted truck passing me on the sidewalk) I sold it. But by then I was hooked on scooters. I got a Yamaha Vino 125, and it was fine for city traffic, though it required full throttle most of the time. I started riding it out of town on non freeway roads, and racked up 26,000 miles (mostly at full throttle) before it blew up. By then I was really hooked, and was riding the scooter more than my motorcycles. I am a serious vintage car enthusiast, and started wanting a vintage scooter. I could not find a vintage Vespa in my price range that didn't need a lot of work, so I got one of the last 2 stroke Stellas. Yes, it's a manual shift/clutch, but I didn't get it for city commuting. It's more of a hobby scoot. I replaced the Vino 125 with a Zuma 125, which shredded a belt at only 7,000 miles. The Vino 125 had also shredded a belt at 24,000 miles, the belt only had 4,000 miles on it. I replaced the belt and sold it. I was fed up with Yamaha, having broken 2 belts on 2 Yamaha scooters at low mileage (on the belts) I went looking for something else, and wound up with a new 2015 SYM HD200. At around 3,000 miles it is doing fine. I just checked the belt, and it looks good. This is actually a 170cc scooter, but it tops out at 75 mph GPS, and easily cruises at 65 mph. It is my first freeway legal scooter, and I have a few trips planned already.

To me a scooter must be reasonably small. I have no interest in maxi scooters. I tried a Burgman 650, and it handled worse than my former Goldwing 1500. I will probably wind up on a smaller maxi scooter at some point, when I can no longer ride motorcycles (I not only have trouble with the clutch, but have issues with getting my leg over the seat of a motorcycle. A step through scooter solves both problems. I plan to be riding scooters for a long time.

I have had 2 belts shred on Yamaha scooters. A Vino 125 and a Zuma 125. The one on the Vino was the third one. I replaced the original at 10,000 miles, and it looked good. I replaced the second one at 20,000 miles, and it also looked good. I also replaced the rollers. Everything stock Yamaha. Nothing aftermarket. at 24,000 miles, the third belt shredded with only 4,000 miles on it, leaving me stranded in the middle of the AZ desert. There was a lot of ground up rubber in the case, and melted rubber on the front pulley. Apparently it has seriously overheated. I had always kept the CVT filter clean, but the Vino 125 has a huge plastic cover over the actual aluminum case cover, which appears to be for cosmetic purposes only. It seems to block most of the airflow to the CVT. I replaced the belt, but never trusted it again. I sold it at just over 26,000 miles. Most of those miles were at full throttle on the open road, and I weigh 240, so some might call that abuse. But why did the first 2 belts do so well?

I replaced the Vino 125 with a new Zuma 125. The Zuma is much easier to replace the belt on, you don't have to drain the bike and remove a ton of parts. That turned out to be a good thing, because the belt broke at around 7,000 miles. That was the original belt. This time I had a spare belt and the tools to replace it. I rode it back home, put it on Craigslist, and sold it.

I now have a new SYM HD200, and a spare belt. I have a little over 3,000 miles on it, just checked the belt (super easy to get to it, Yamaha could learn a few things from SYM) and it looked good. I will replace it at the scheduled intervals. If this scooter shreds a belt, I will probably give up CVT scooters. My '09 2 stroke Genuine Stella may not be the most reliable thing on the road, but at least it does not have a belt to break.

Which brings me to my other issue with CVTs. They have a very narrow gear ratio range. They are geared for top speed, which is fine on level roads, but small displacement scooters like a 125 simply will not climb. They do not have a low enough gear ratio. You cannot keep the rpms in the powerband. Where you would normally downshift on a manual transmission bike, a small CVT scooter just bogs down a lugs the engine like crazy. Both my Yamaha 125s would slow down to about 15 mph, and make loud knocking rattling noises, just like you were trying to ride a couple of gears too high. I even put a clip on inductive tachometer (made for a Jr dragster) on the Vino 125. At top speed on a level road, it was spinning near 9000 rpm. But climbing a steep grade, the rpms dropped to about half that. My former 2 speed Tomos moped would easily climb hills that stopped the Yamahas dead in their tracks, and with about 1/4 the power. All because it had a super low first gear.

So I would not only like to see a more durable CVT, but one with a much wider gear ratio range. A high gear for cruising on level roads, and a really low gear, for climbing steep hills and riding in mountains.

What kinda puzzles me here is that whatever changed to cause the problem happened when the belt was replaced. Maybe something else happened that caused the belt to break, or maybe the broken belt damaged something else. But the fact that it won't move at all to begin with and then shudders sure sounds like the belt is slipping, which could be caused by it being too long, or too narrow. I have 26,000 miles on my Yamaha 125, and the original clutch shoes, bell, and pulley faces look new. I replaced the rollers at 20,000, but kept the old ones. I could not find anything wrong with them. They were completely round. Of course most of these miles were out on the open road, where these parts did not get used very much. I was surprised that there were no grooves worn in the pulleys, because the belt spent most of it's time in one spot, at WOT.

Most bikes, especially scooters, have pretty marginal charging systems. The battery will actually discharge while idling. A car on the other hand has a whopper of a charging system, which will quickly charge a battery, even at idle. With five bikes, I simply cannot ride all of them enough to keep the batteries properly charged. If you only have one, and ride it every day, then it will probably be ok. My personal experience is that batteries don't stay charged as long as they used to (a long time ago) I have had several brand new quality motorcycle/scooter batteries go dead in one month, while they used to last 2-3 months.

Another unrelated but serious issue with letting a bike sit for a long time is fuel system damage due to ethanol gas. I have seen carburetors destroyed by this stuff. If I am not going to ride a bike for a week or more, I drain the float bowl and spray some WD-40 into the carb vent hose to prevent corrosion.

Not familiar with the GY6, but on my Yamahas, the rollers cannot get out of place. They spend most of their time at the outside edge, because I ride them at WOT. The ramp plate will not let them go any farther than they are designed too. I also had a belt break (totally shredded actually) but found nothing else wrong. The rollers, as well as the belt, had been replaced only 4000 miles earlier. I took everything apart and inspected it, and never did find the cause of the premature belt failure. I replaced the belt with another oem Yamaha belt, which now has about 2000 miles on it. The scooter has 26,000 miles on it. The first 2 belts were replaced at 10,000 miles, without problems.

On your Rowdy, I would suspect a slipping belt. Sounds like it is grabbing then letting go, over and over again. That could cause the shuddering. I would look for an oem belt. If it broke sooner than the manual says to replace it, then I would also look for a cause. I would suspect that heat and being overloaded is what broke mine (I weigh 230 pounds, and rode at WOT most of the time), but that doesn't explain why the first 2 belts lasted 10,000 miles under the same conditions, and still looked good when replaced.

I'm wondering how a compression issue developed while it was just sitting there running. You said it was a GY6, but that you got an 80cc BBK. I thought a GY6 was 150cc.

I have been fooled by compression problems a couple of times, just going by feel. I wasted a lot of time fiddling with the carb/fuel system. If I have any reason to suspect a compression problem, I now check it with a gauge, to either confirm it or rule it out, before moving on. An engine with some compression may fire on starter fluid, but won't run. Many engines with borderline compression will run, but not develop much power. If there is damage to the piston/cylinder, there has to be a cause, and you need to find and correct it, or it will happen again.