Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

I'm really partial to Honda's, in terms of durability and cost/availability of parts. The GS450ES is a vertical twin, right? Let me ask around and get back to you. Any vertical twin would be a good first bike.

Milage? Compression? Tires? Brakes? Stable/wobbly? Shocks? Price?

?Repack the bearings? Those bearing run on oil, not grease. At least the ones in the trans housing. By trans housing I mean the oil-filled rear part of the engine containing 2 gears. The bearings are a press fit, in order to be replacable. They are removed using a wood or brass drift and a hammer. I...

Increasing compression works by itself to increase efficiency and power. No other mods are required, however it will make any other mods work better. I would use electrical solder to check piston to head clearance before doing any shaving. I tried to maintain a .020 head to piston static clearance. ...

80W? That's some pretty heavy oil to put back there, a lot thicker than the specified 10-30W oil. Auto Trans fluid is 7W to 8W, with antifoaming agents added. I'm not sure what the viscosity of 2-stroke oil is. Since the rearend only take a fraction of a quart, cost has never been a concern. Auto tr...

The bearing from the input shaft to the trans was loose on mine. I replaced it, which lessened the noise from the rearend.

Probably replace, but then you should probably hone and check bore dimensions before using the replacement.

Look at the pics from the service manual for the pulley mod. I will eventually post pics, but not anytime soon. You would be shaving the inner pulley face (closer to the piston.)

At 130 PSI, high octane is not required, but I run it anyway, even on an unmodded version.

drichardson@core.com.

You can weld cast iron. If your bore is good you might try this first. Call around.

Depending on how bad the rim lip is, you could repair it yourself. Local deformation of 1/4 over 1" should dress out with wood blocks and a mallet. If the rim is really bent, just replace it.

10mm, I believe. Almost any stock/aftermarket mirror will bolt up if so.

I second Jerry, take the broken stock one to a welder first for a price. If it's badly bent it may need to be welded in-place on the scooter. If so remove the tank. Otherwise check prices for a used one from Richardson. If you find an aftermarket exhaust that bolts up, I'd like to hear about it. We'...

My take on high-octane. Higher octane gas is just knock protection. Jim is right that the Spree does not make enough compression to require high octane fuel. That said, at nearly 100 MPG you could certainly run it anyway and not spend much more annually on fuel. I use high-octane in everything I own...

The reason I asked is that my Spree seems to run slower/less top speed in the recent colder weather than in warm (3-4 MPH slower.) Not sure if this is typical. Jerry?

Was it warmer weather than it is now when it was running better?

Thanks guys. I rarely mess with putting in new subjects after the original post, probably b/c I never read them and don't typically read the board in a "thread" format. The way this board nests, as long as the original subject is descriptive, the rest of the burden lies on the searcher to ...