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Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2018 9:32 pm
by ASpreeOfJoy
Of all the ways I could have spilled, the one I didnt think of occurred just a few hours ago. I was doing 30 on a straight away and when I hit a slight bump in the road, my driveline cracked in half, crooked my rear wheel locking it aswell. The rear of the bike swung to the right then bottomed out on the foot rails sending me sliding sideways. The whole time I'm still sitting on it as if I'm riding but I was so tense I didnt loose from. While sliding and holding the handlebars, my elbow touched the pavement. I slid into another dip in the road and that tossed me off the scooter and into a roll. When I got up I truly didnt know what happened. I know the engine didnt seize because it still kicked freely right after, but I'm just glad I'm okay and didnt spill as hard as I could have. If I have time I'll upload pictures of the damage, I just couldn't bring my self to take them at the moment.

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 11:01 am
by motormike
Never do anything half-way.

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 2:32 pm
by ASpreeOfJoy
Nothing on the drive line was touched, literally everything was stock besides the exaust and intake. I figured stock was best when it came to that kind of stuff.

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 3:44 pm
by ASpreeOfJoy
Got a new motor coming, And a nitro filled shock aswell. Meant to say geared hub not heated hub below.

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 4:04 pm
by eclark5483
Yeesh.. Yeah, can't honestly recommend taking a Spree past it's normal speed. To me it gets a bit scary on those tiny 10" tires, even using 2.75x10's. Always afraid I'm gonna bite it. Luckily for me, my "sup'd up" Sprees rarely ever see even 20, except when exhibiting their performance to an audience. I don't recommend these tiny scooters for even the road! But they are fun to work on, eh?? Ride safe dude. And don't forget you don't have ABS or disc brakes either. Trust me on this, the faster you can make the little scoot go, the harder it is to slow it down in a hurry. Gimme a junk Chinese TaoTao over those conditions on a Spree any day.

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 5:51 pm
by ASpreeOfJoy
eclark5483 wrote: Sun Jul 29, 2018 4:04 pm Yeesh.. Yeah, can't honestly recommend taking a Spree past it's normal speed. To me it gets a bit scary on those tiny 10" tires, even using 2.75x10's. Always afraid I'm gonna bite it. Luckily for me, my "sup'd up" Sprees rarely ever see even 20, except when exhibiting their performance to an audience. I don't recommend these tiny scooters for even the road! But they are fun to work on, eh?? Ride safe dude. And don't forget you don't have ABS or disc brakes either. Trust me on this, the faster you can make the little scoot go, the harder it is to slow it down in a hurry. Gimme a junk Chinese TaoTao over those conditions on a Spree any day.
To be honest, it was cozy at 30. However I really overestimated the bump absorption of the shock. I believe I bottomed out right before I heard a crack. No more bumps for me..... I saw people using these as offroad/pitbikes, straight madmen I say.

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 10:23 pm
by Meatball
Motor is FUBAR, dude. I think the Spree is just fine for the roadway. I zipped around at 40mph all Summer on one with thousands of perma-grinning miles. They certainly are nimble on the twisties. I think 40 is about as fast as anyone should go on these how theyre equipped. The guys that run 70+ on them tiny spot-welded pop can frames are plumb loco.

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 10:41 pm
by eclark5483
So like, what are you using for a shock, the stock one? I use the Motoforce ST1 (245mm), cranked all the way up. Holds my 319lb frame across railroad tracks at 30. Made my mind up about that the day it was finished at the bike shop and I rode it home. I'm used to a comfy motorcycle or even my kid's TaoTao. The shocks were horrid and I thought... nope, ain't havin it. I also used a riser on it as well. Had to weld some risers on the kick stand to compensate, but bottoming out hard ain't much of a worry now.

To show this in action, it's the bike on the left that has the ST1 with Stage 6 Riser. You can see how it stands kind of jacked up looking in the back. Another advantage is it lowers the carb a bit with the riser. Making fuel and idle adjustments a breeze.

Image

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 10:56 pm
by eclark5483
And on the note of "AND SINCE YOU'LL HAVE IT ALL APART ANYWAY". Invest in some new EBC brake pads. Trust NOTHING on a 30+ year old antique that you can't replace with a newer part.

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 10:19 am
by noiseguy
... so the motor case broke between the rear axle and crankshaft? I've never seen that failure.

The guys that use these as offroad bikes 1) are on dirt 2) those bikes don't last long. They typically bend the frame after 1 off-road session. I've fixed folded frames before but haven't ever seen someone break the Honda case. You're on the right track; run down a complete motor and strip that one for parts.

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 2:13 am
by mousewheels
noiseguy wrote:... so the motor case broke between the rear axle and crankshaft? I've never seen that failure.
Me either, but recall Honda increased ribs in the SB50 case.


Edit: Update - upon member ntonar's feedback, the 86-87 cases were observed to have increased ribbing. The parts fiche diagram for 86-87 incorrectly shows same ribs as 1984-85 Spree. However, the case p/n show the same P/N is used on 86-87 Spree as the 88 SB50.

Case_Ribs.jpg
Case_Ribs.jpg (99.28 KiB) Viewed 8971 times

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 11:21 am
by noiseguy
...the SB50 is also a lot heavier than the Spree.

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 2:40 am
by eclark5483
Now with a broken engine with parts to scrap from it. You could take this opportunity to port the heII out of the old intake, or find something better like an SB50 or an adapter to put some dio parts on it.

EDIT: Or just swap in a Dio. :confused:

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 1:17 pm
by mousewheels
[quote="noiseguy"]...the SB50 is also a lot heavier than the Spree.[/quote]
For the curious - The delta at time of change was 14lbs. From the respective Service Manuals, the SB50 was 108 lbs (dry) and the '87 Spree it replaced was 94 lbs.

The original 84-85 Sprees were the lightest at 86 lbs dry, the '86 was 92 lbs.

-

Re: Cracked Driveline in Half, Wrecked Today.

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 1:41 pm
by mousewheels
[quote="ASpreeOfJoy"]...but I'm just glad I'm okay and didnt spill as hard as I could have. If I have time I'll upload pictures of the damage, I just couldn't bring my self to take them at the moment.[/quote]

Thanks for posting, and glad you are ok. I posted the SB50 case info to pass 'tribal knowlege' around. Since you are looking around for an engine, the SB50 gives one more option.I do not have an opinion that Honda had a breakage issue with the Spree case. I just note they beefed up the case.