Piaggio bills the BV 350 as having “the power of a 400cc and the compact dimensions and light weight of a 300cc.” Truly, the 330cc bike does pack a punch. Anyone who has experience with the Vespa GT knows that the bike has power, but a short lag when accelerating from a stop. You turn the throttle, there’s a slight wind-up and it goes. Very typical for automatic scooters. But, the BV has a surprising kick that gets it out of the gate like a racehorse. We actually took great pleasure from accelerating away from stoplights, leaving cars in the dust. In California, lane splitting is legal. While we don’t thread through cars on the freeway, one of the big benefits is moving to the lead spot at a light that has a few dozen cars in queue. The car driver may mutter under his breath as you take the BV to the line, but when you are nearly through the intersection before he gets through the crosswalk, he’ll understand why you can’t trifle with waiting in line. Piaggio says that the BV’s top speed is 86mph. We regularly cruised at 70-75mph on the freeway and still had enough power to accelerate to pass cars.

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