Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

and I'm so excited to fix her up and get on the road. got it for $100 and the engine actually works. My boyfriend showed me how to empty the gas tank and clean it, I charged the battery and it runs. Dunno how fast as the spedo/tachometer, gas gauge etc dont work. So today I was working on getting old bondo and paint off the fenders, still have alot of scraping and sanding to do... and I dont even have all the plastics to make her complete

I'm sure I'll be on here alot asking questions on how to's and buying parts. Until I'm able to legally drive on the roads i'm off roading it back and forth to my neighbors house or doing circles in the yard! talk to some of you later I'm sure -LIZ-

Greetings:

Welcome to the Forum, Liz. What are your goals for this running but rough-looking scooter?

I suggest you take on one project at a time and do it well.

A girl on the forumz?!!

someone quick, donate her a head set and side panel!

welcome liz, enjoy your spree they're great lil bikes

Wheelman-111 wrote:Greetings:

Welcome to the Forum, Liz. What are your goals for this running but rough-looking scooter?

I suggest you take on one project at a time and do it well.

well, I already have a motorcycle, so theres my big toy, so this is just to putt around town and my pure enjoyment. Even though it looks rough I cant stop grinning when I do get to ride. I'm hoping to either get "better" plastics or fix the ones I have up then paint those black with neon green accents. Then I want to go through the motor clean everything up and take care of any issues there. yea I've got it backwads, engine should go first but I'll need help with that and cosmetics I can do on my own.

Greetings:

Yes, a lot of us have bigger bikes too. Too much trouble to ride. Gotta put on all that hot leather, fingerless gloves, get a new tattoo...

Toasty submits:

A girl on the Forumz?! someone quick, donate her a head set and side panel!

I'm on it, BT!

Actually I would be intrigued to know if some plastic I have might fit the Spree frame. This bike is similarly-sized but an exotic Japanese-market model. Go here:

http://www.hondaspree.net/phpBB2/viewto ... c&start=15

and scroll down to the middle of page 2. I'm pretty sure the headset will fit, but as for the rest of the plastic, not so sure. Still, it'd be a unique bike if it could be made to work... and a hoot to see all that exotic plastic go to good use!

liz wrote:

Wheelman-111 wrote:Greetings:

I'm hoping to either get "better" plastics or fix the ones I have

Welcome Liz.

Getting replacement plastics, and at cheap prices, shouldn't be too hard.
Right now on eBay there are side panels (some NOS), headsets, gauges, etc etc. Oddly, the ONE plastic part missing in 94.5% of all Sprees is the one that's hardest to find: the petcock cover.

In any event enjoy your toy. As an old sailing teacher once proclaimed:

"You can move up in money - but you don't always move up in fun!"

Yeah - he was talking about boats, but it applies to Spree-age too.

CaptDan>

well after I got the front free of old paint I finally got a reply from someone selling a 87 spree with a bad motor. SO instead of all this hard labor I went and bought the '87; the plastics are great. I hope most every thing is compatible, otherwise..... I'll MAKE it work lol. So, 2 honda sprees for a little over $200 I think thats a steal but I'm obviously no expert. I also got paperwork from the seller of the '86 so on Monday I'll be registering it and totally on my way to legaly riding.


But first i'll be taking some stickers off the '87 plastics..... much easier than sanding

Mine looked about that bad, except all the plastics were there and the front fork was bent. I think prev. owner used it in a demolition derby, or maybe just threw it down the stairs several times.

A parts bike was definately the way to go given the condition of your runner. You can also sell parts off the non-running '87 (intake, reeds are upgrades to '84-85 Spree for example.)

In fact, it may be simpler to swap engines rather than plastics. Your call.

Wheelman-111 wrote: Actually I would be intrigued to know if some plastic I have might fit the Spree frame. This bike is similarly-sized but an exotic Japanese-market model. Go here:

http://www.hondaspree.net/phpBB2/viewto ... c&start=15

and scroll down to the middle of page 2. I'm pretty sure the headset will fit, but as for the rest of the plastic, not so sure. Still, it'd be a unique bike if it could be made to work... and a hoot to see all that exotic plastic go to good use!

Are you parting out that bike?

SO im workin like a snail right now. I took apart the front ends of the scooters to get the plastics off.... ugh. And right now I am waiting to buy paint for plastic before I go any further, no point putting them back together if I'll just have to break um down again to paint. Also waiting for mirrors to arrive in the mail, I LOVE EBAY! just an update.

Greetings:

Liz submits:

no point putting them back together if I'll just have to break um down again to paint.

Evidently you're not an Orange County Choppers fan. There may indeed be a point. Actually three things:

1. Practice at putting the skins on and off minimizes the risk of scratching that beautiful shiny but soft paint when you reassemble the finished product.

2. If there are any snags to be encountered - perhaps mounting points are different from year to year, or some modification prevents an easy fit - you want to mess with your plastics before the pretty fresh stuff goes on.

3. If you break any mounting tabs in your ham-fisted early noob attempts at assembling, (it's been known to happen, even in experienced Wheelman hands... ) repairs will be a lot easier with the unpainted panels. You might even envision and implement a faster/easier way to assemble and attach. (Why, oh WHY dont' these things come with Dzus fasteners? ANSWER: $$$ )

Experimentation with expensively fresh-painted panels is not a good idea. Plus you get to enjoy another session of the Karmic Bliss that working on scooters confers. Ommmm.

Basically everything off of the 87 should work on your 86. Maybe except for the headlight plastics which can be mounted to your 86 by swapping out the whole handlebar which is pretty easy to do. If everything is there I highly recommend swapping out the handlebars/headset, front glovebox w/ turn signals, rear rack, side covers with integrated petcock cover, and rear tail light. Those are highly sought after parts and would make your Spree look 10x better IMO. Then I would save the other motor w/ kickstand if you have the room. That way if any of your parts brake you have spares.

Also print out a manual from the tech docs so you have a better idea on how to remove these parts off of the bike without damaging them