Newbie : Question about Elite R

[Red Baron]

Hello all!

I'm new here, and also new at owning a scooter. My question is, can anyone help me find info regarding my 1989 Elite R? I know about the "S" and "P" but nothing about the "R".

I live in Canada by the way, both the "S" and the "P" were not available up here...

Thanks

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

Canada, eh? I'm an expat myself, living in Deepinnaharta, Texas.

This website evidently is written by another Canadian, or someone who is inordinately concerned with Scooter Developments in your country:

http://www.motorscooterguide.net/page1/ ... age10.html

The same bikes were branded with different trade names depending upon the market. The Pastor in Nova Scotia had an Elite "R" model that appeared identical to the US-market SE50 in every way but paint. There are some truly bizarre names. "Lead?" "Eve Smile??"
Yours looks just like that one - no underseat helmet bin or glove box?

Marketing people hold focus groups to see what people like in each country. Looks to me like the "S" was unpopular in the Great White North. Dropped in favor of straight-up "R".

[noiseguy]

I thought the "R" got you at least 20 HP on your typical ricer Honda Civic. Isn't that why the kids paint them on?

[Red Baron]

Wheelman : yup, the link shows an identical as mine, except the color.

Noiseguy : "R" added by ricers usually makes their helmet size go up a few notches, shrinks their brains, makes their right foot heavier. The added 20hp is also proportional to the imaginary size of their d...k

So, the "S" from the US is the same as my "R"?

[bakaracer]

If its the bike in your avatar ita a dj1r which is the japan model of the U.S 87 elite 50 or se50 as some refer to.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

RedBaron axt:

So, the "S" from the US is the same as my "R"?

No, it's not quite that simple. I understand that the US "S" models were speed-restricted in comparison to the "SR" models. Read MotorScooter Guide again. US generic model codes included the letter "P" to indicate it was so. You then have the curious combination of Model NAMES adding to the confusion. The 1988 SA50P becomes the Elite "S". The SA50 becomes the Elite "SR". Get it? Me neither, but that's how it was. Don't even get us started on engine codes...

The bodywork of the bike in your avatar is plainly the same as the US model SE50 Elite, which was sold stateside only in 1987. The 1988 SA50 that replaced the SE had a similar look, but added a front glove box and that capacious underseat helmet bin. Purely from the looks standpoint, the SE is more flowing and sleek, but evidently American buyers need more room for hauling their stuff.

Having all that handsome plastic on hand, Honda continued to sell the "SE50" bodystyle to unwitting style-conscious Canadians. Mechanically the bikes are identical until the AF16 engine was introduced. That happened in 1992 in Canada, but not until 1994 here.

Without a complete Honda-san Marketing Program Book, it's impossible to tell what "S", "SR" and "R" really signify. We observe trends and try to establish rules, only to find numerous exceptions thereto. Even the paint colors vary by country. Then there's the mysterious AF05E engine enigma...

[Red Baron]

Thanks guys.

Wheelman : I forgot to answer your question, indeed NO glove box and NO room for the helmet under the seat.

This may help, owner's manual says my scooter is model SE50K, does it make sense?

I will post a better photo later, once the machine is cleaned and polished. It has over 8000miles on the odometer, and it shows its age... I got this toy so I could escape the crazyness of my house once in a while , but it needs work and I have to fix a few things.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

Model CODE, letters designate the year of production in Honda World. I'm guessing they decided on "K" in 1989 in Canada. I had a JDM SE50M which was an '87 - I believe; couldn't read all-Japanese script - but Honda's nothing if not enigmatic in their coding.

[DandyDan]

This website evidently is written by another Canadian, or someone who is inordinately concerned with Scooter Developments in your country:

http://www.motorscooterguide.net/page1/ ... age10.html

I'm actually the guy behind this website Putting together this info is confusing stuff. I'd never heard of the Canadian market SE50, aka Elite R, before this thread.

That's interesting that yours is an '89 (as confirmed by the 'K' after the SE50). Honda brought in the SE50 to the USA market for '87, but then immediately replaced it for '88 with a new generation (code SA50) which was really just new bodywork draped over the same motor. I'm surprised that the SE50 was sold in Canada, and also that it was sold still in '89.

I like this theory on why the SE50 was still being sold in '89:

Having all that handsome plastic on hand, Honda continued to sell the "SE50" bodystyle to unwitting style-conscious Canadians.

I understand that the US "S" models were speed-restricted in comparison to the "SR" models. Read MotorScooter Guide again. US generic model codes included the letter "P" to indicate it was so. You then have the curious combination of Model NAMES adding to the confusion. The 1988 SA50P becomes the Elite "S". The SA50 becomes the Elite "SR". Get it? Me neither, but that's how it was. Don't even get us started on engine codes...

My understanding is that stateside, Honda sold the SE50 as the 'Elite S' (regular version) and then they also sold the restricted speed version (code SE50P) as just the 'Elite', (good for 25mph). The SR and LX names didn't come into play until the SA50 generation. During the SA50 years, Honda also sold a restricted version and identified this by adding a P to the model code (SA50P) to denote this, but this time they called it the Elite S. This is kinda confusing, because the SE50 Elite S is the good version, but the SA50 Elite S is the slow version. In summary, it's:

SE50 = Elite S (and Canadian Elite R?)
SE50P = Elite (restricted)
SA50 = Elite LX ('88-90) and Elite SR ('91 - 2000)
SA50P = Elite S ('94 - 2000) (restricted)

In addition, all model codes were followed by another letter which identified the year. This letters were used in pretty much the whole world. These are:

1980 = A
1981 = B
1982 = C
1983 = D
1984 = E
1985 = F
1986 = G
1987 = H
1988 = J
1989 = K
1990 = L
1991 = M
etc.

I wonder how long Honda sold the SE50 in Canada....perhaps until '91 because they introduced the Dio here in '92? You'd think I would have heard more about this though if they sold it here for several years. My guess is that they brought over a batch in '89 after it was dropped the USA and slowly sold this batch of '89's for a couple years and then when they didn't have any more they brought Canadians the Dio.

[Red Baron]

I just had a few fixes done and tested the top speed on my "R" : 69km/h! That's almost 43mph! For sure, the canadian "R" isn't a US "P".

On my owner's manual, the scooter is also called "Aero Sport RR". Again, any ideas?

Thanks for the infos to all.

[DandyDan]

Aero Sport RR??? That's wild....can you post pics?

Until the SE50 (this scooter) the 'Aero' name was used by Honda for all their 2-stroke scooters and the 'Elite' name was for their 4-stroke strokes. This all changed with the SE50 because for whatever reason Honda called it an Elite. My personal theory on this is that Honda did it because they wanted to keep selling the NB50 (aka Aero 50) for one more year (1987) and obviously they couldn't sell two scooters called the Aero 50, so they called the SE50 the Elite or Elite S (or Elite R apparently).

So anyways, my point is that Aero is a fitting name for this scoot so it's not surprising that part of the 'Aero Sport RR' name crept up somewhere.

Regarding the 'Sport RR' part of the name....it's probably just to make the scooter sound cool, but it's possible this scooter is a higher end version. I don't know that a higher spec version of the SE50 existed, but Honda did have an 'SS' version of their NB50 (aka Aero 50), called the Lead SS which was sold in Japan. Since the NB50 and SE50 share the same motor it is possible this scoot has the same motor as the 'Lead SS'. I don't know much else about the Lead SS though so i can't tell you what to look for.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

I'll bet you'll find 3 reed petals and the weird "transitional" reed block from the US-market '88 SA50 for starters, perhaps with a less-restricted pipe.

[Red Baron]

Haha! This is getting interesting

I will post a photo of the manual a bit later, but using "Photos" search in Google with keyphrase "aero sport rr" I found two pictures of the same manual as mine.

I had a chat with my younger neighbor and he had a '90 Elite LX, and his friend an '89 Elite R exactly like mine and he told me the "R" was much faster. So, the "R" was most probably an higher end model, sport-wise that is.

The original bill of sale came with the scooter, it was paid $1500 CDN back in June of '89, maybe one of you could compare

[DandyDan]

I'm stoked to see photos....I couldn't find any on google. One of the manual would be cool and others of the scoot itself would be great too.

[Red Baron]

I'm stoked to see photos....I couldn't find any on google. One of the manual would be cool and others of the scoot itself would be great too.

I will. Sorry if I haven't already, I'm at work and I don't have the photos here. Plus, I'd like to clean the scoot a bit first