Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

My 1994 Elite SR 50 (500 miles) has a strange rattle that I'm trying to track down. It had it since I bought it, but I figured it was a something loose under all that plastic.

It happens on deceleration and sounds very tinny... like a beebees in a tin can. I was thinking maybe piston slap but not sure. It isn't very loud but is there.. even with slight throttle I can still hear it. Silent at idle, accelerating, WOT. It's easy to ignore with the wind noise.

Bike has lots of power so I am at a loss if anything serious. Is there anything prone to rattling with this description?
I just did a search and read something about a death rattle which is the lower-end bearings.. I hope to God it is not this.
Any ideas?

If it is a death rattle.. how big of a job is this to fix?

Greetings:

Stick a rolled up rag under your centerstand and see if it goes away. Also check the heat shield on the muffler. At 500 miles the bearings should be fine for a long time.

I did put my foot on the center stand while riding to see if that was it.. still made the noise.
The muffler shield I can grab onto and move around with no rattle at all.

Hopefully those 500 miles wern't beat to heck miles.

its called ring rattle.worn piston and rings. if it has low mileage then it got broken in wrong.

Wouldn't this kill performance? It is super fast and has loads of power.

What will happen if I keep ridding it the way it is? As long as I bore out the cylinder 1 step when rebuilding it should be fine I would think?

check your exhaust bolts, pull seat & bucket.

ktroy wrote:Wouldn't this kill performance? It is super fast and has loads of power.

What will happen if I keep ridding it the way it is? As long as I bore out the cylinder 1 step when rebuilding it should be fine I would think?

it kills it very little.if the cylinder wall is good with no scratches then you can just do a slight hone and get a new piston and ring set of the same size. you can run it like that also if you want. i ran one of my bikes that had ring rattle for over 2000miles.

Now that I know it's the top-end it doesn't bother me at all. Cheap easy fix for the most part. I will ride the season out and do a ring job this winter.

What a fun scooter.

It seems like a LOT of Spree's (with everything stock) have ring rattle when they get 1000+ miles on them. I would say at least 80% of the Spree's we get in for repairs all have had really bad ring rattle. -And Baka's right; it does not really effect performance, just sounds like a "problem"

later, jon

just don't add a aftermarket pipe that revs higher than the stock one. You will risk breaking the ring off in the ring land of the piston and cause major damage.

So what exactly is rattling? I know the ring, but wouldn't that cause low compression? Is it moving side to side, like sliding around the piston? Or is it shaking up and down .. too loose around the piston?

I do not plan on adding a pipe but thanks for that advice I try to keep the revs down cause coming off the throttle at high revs it rattles very high pitch.

So no problems with just riding it everyday nice and easy? I do plan on adding a variator to reduce revs though.

This is crazy, I was just searching about this because
I spent all day today trying to solve this high pitch rattle coming from my top end.
I used a new piston/newish rings, with the old bore which didn't look out of spec too bad.

It seems to happen mostly at deceleration, but is there at idle as well.
Definitely sounds like something is wrong.
I've never had a scooter with such a rattle. I tested that it was coming from the cylinder
using a 1/4 in air hose stuck into my ear.
As soon as I got the hose up against the cylinder...rattle rattle rattle....

Do other top ends like BBKs have this problem too?
Is ring rattle a common thing with Honda scoots?

The ring is shaking up and down in the ring land and vibrating on the piston wall too. Its common with 2 strokes when its not broken in good or a slight heat seize has happened.it also happens when it gets worn too.