Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

I found this site last night when I googled elite 50 looking for info. Anyways i'm 33, married with no kids and two motorcycles (97' Honda Valkyrie and 96' Harley Fatboy). I also have a 1987 Honda elite SE50P that I bought new in 87' with my hard earned money, IIRC it was $450 which was one * of alot of money for a 12 year old back then to earn. The moped has sat in my dad's warehouse on a pallet on a rack for the past 18 or 19 years untill recently when I found it (another project, lol).

I'm in the Landscape construction business and a former Auto tech w/ 12 years experience working on heavy duty trucks. My wife made a joke that she wants to ride the moped to work to save money on gas and that spiked my interest to get this moped back on the road. I've already started a restoration on the old elite and will have many questions in the near future. Joe

Welcome dude.
Its rare to have an 'original owner' on this site. I think you got to be one of the few it not the only at this time. The 87 was a cool year. I really like the body style on those.

Im sure you have probably read over what your looking at, But ill just go ahead and give you a list of things to do.
-Drain Gas
-Drain oil
-clean carb
-Clean carb again (its going to be really bad after sitting so long)
-Get a new spark plug
-get a new air filter
after all this your bike should be good to start. Assuming that it was running when it was parked. If the bike still dont start you need to check spark. If you have good spark you need to check compression. But thats all down the road. Just do everything on the list for now. Then we go from there.

Welcome to the site and ask every question you got. We will all do our best to help you get your bike going as good as it did in 87.

Thanks for the welcome. I did most of the things you mentioned, drained oil and lines and filled and bled the lines. I removed the gas tank and sloshed new gas in it to clean it and drained it. I removed the carb and tore it all down and it cleaned up nicely. The air filter crumbled in my hands and I will be placing an order on monday for some new parts at the local honda shop. The moped only has 1000 miles on it as it was only used for one season as it disappeared on me when I was 13 (dad took it away, lol and put it on a d*** pallet ).

I don't remember if a titled was issured, i'm thinking it was just a bill of sale. Back then you got a long sticker for a "license plate" here in MI. Is it still the same way or is there a tin plate?

As far as body work goes it was all scratched up so last week I blocked it all down and shot a coat of sealer on all the body work and started sanding the sealer, i'll be priming and painting and clear coating on our first nice hot and sunny day. Some of the plastic mounting tab's are gone, i'm thinking about farbicating new ones out of plastic and either plastic welding or fiberglassing them on, not sure yet.

I've been out of the loop on mopeds but I have plenty of experience on two wheels, i've owned around twenty motorcycles to date and have been to every state minus AK and HI on bike trips. I'm long winded today as this moped was my first and i'm happy as * to be bringing it back to life. Thanks for listening. Joe

all you need is your bill of sale. Take that into the SOS and they will charge you $15 for a 1in wide 6inch long sticker.
Nothing else is needed. That simple.

So, what color you going to paint this bike?

Dac wrote:what color you going to paint this bike?

Originally it was red, so if i can get a good ppg paint code for the original honda red then i'll paint it red. I'm sure the dealership sells a "honda" paint, we'll see how much it is on monday, if it's not too much i'll buy a quart from them.

Power to the 1987 Elites!

Coolio!

I'm working on an 87 Elite as well. I have it running like a top so the only thing left is body work and perhaps have a machine shop true up the wheels.