Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

I couldn't resist this 2008 "Gothic" Metropolitan on craigslist last week, even though I have no more room in the shop... have 14 Honda 50 CC scooters now, all titled, registered and running. This is my first 4-stroke.. so the disease has now spread over to the dark side. Worked this weekend cleaning it up and getting it running as new.. 40 mph is effortless, and it's hard not to like it. I have a factory rear rack and front basket on order.. it will be pretty sweet, once it is properly basketized..

Greetings:

Nice find. 2005 and earlier are best avoided, as apparently they had engine breather problems causing a need for more-frequent oil changes or the risk of main bearing failure. That was all sorted out by 2008. Carbureted but liquid-cooled, it's a nice engine.

A 2004 I rode clearly had the power to go faster, but there was a SPEED (Not Engine RPM) limiter that pooped on the party at exactly 70KPH, or about 42 MPH. I never tried disconnecting the speedometer...

Bulletproof motor if you change the oil and keep it cool. Ive seen high miles out of stock mets. Once you start milking it for speed be prepaired to watch the miles drops

Greetings:

Just keep the valves in adjustment and it won't be a problem.

my friend just got rid of his 2002 Metro with over 75k miles . No valve adjustment. he always drove very slow.

I just tore one of these things down to its bones and theres quite a bit to them. It quickly reminded me just how simple the 2-stroke motors are to work on. Surprised it doesn't have OBDII...

Wheelman-111 wrote:That was all sorted out by 2008.

I never new the years of the issue for the METRO but I believe it is 06' and newer for the Ruckus GET motor that are good with the crank case vent.

But I had an 09' and man do I miss her
Such a smooth riding bike. DEFINITELY GET THE BASKETS!

Don't the Ruck guys swap in the Met gears for better performance?

Yup, and the met guys swap in the ruck cases for the longer wheelbase. The met has a taller rear end cuz of the smaller wheels I think. Fyi, you can swap out the rear frame for a ruckus set and make a met-ruck! Haha.

I'm gonna buy a met someday, I love the metruck look and the get reliability. The mets are so cheap too, like $500 all day.

I've been watching craigslist for all cities in Florida for a couple of years looking for Honda 50cc scooters that don't run, but have titles, and this was the first 2006-2009 Metro I have seen that was in non-running condition, with title. All it took to get it running right was a guitar string through the slow jet. In the metro carb, the slow jet is removable, so it is easy to clean. Mileage was 4455, and I did an oil change, cleaned the oil screen, and installed a new air filter. I also installed a new battery, but am not sure if that was really needed, as the old one, while dead when I got it, seemed to take a charge ok. To my surprise, nearly every part, including rare things on a 2-stroke, like the battery cover and all body plastics are still available new from Honda Powersports. The rear half of my front fender is missing, and the front half is pretty messed up, so I have both halves of the front fender on order from my local Honda dealer.

I do feel the rev-limiter at 42 mph that wheelman speaks about when I go down a slight hill. It is very subtle. and I am going to leave it alone.. 40 mph is a comfortable speed for me in my neighborhood. Now I have to avoid buying more metros all women have stopped talking to me as think think I am a nutjob.

I looked fairly hard for a free online workshop manual and actually found a good one, just before I was ready to give up.

The owners manual was easy to find at:https://www.manualslib.com/download/677 ... Chf50.html click on the "Get Manual" button, not the download button.

The workshop manual takes a bit more work. I found it on a New Zealand board at:
https://mega.nz/#!ot8ERBLJ!7mODDsURFeBm ... JWNstlBj0k

choose "download through your browser" and you will end up with a big .rar file. I had never heard of a .rar file, but gather that is is sort of like a .zip file. If you then search for free programs that unpack a .rar file, you will find several. I can't remember if this is the one I used: http://www.winzip.com/lanrar.htm

In any event, once you unpack the .rar file, you will end up with 20 or so .pdf files that represent the various sections of the manual. You should then taker time to rename all the .pdf files to match the section names in the index. Once you do, you will quickly realize that having 20 pdfs is better than having one monster pdf that you have to scroll through. The pdfs are crystal clear and don't appear to be scans, rather they look to be originals.

Meatball is correct.. the engine is complicated enough that you will want the service manual before you begin to work on it.

Florida weather has quickly rebounded from the cold front that came through on Sunday, and I plan to ride scooters most of the day.. sunny and in the 70s today!

I'm jealous

I own a 09 met for my fiancee. She graduated to the 01 elite a year or so ago. The met was a lot better than the ruck in terms of speed.

It's now a couple of weeks later, and I have finished basketizing and dressing out the Metropolitan. All of the accessories are still available new from Honda Powersports. I spent a few hours googling and binging looking for the installation instructions for the windshield with no success, so I uploaded all of the installation instructions for the basket, the windshield and the storage box here so others in can look at them before buying the accessories.

As a special note to those contemplating installing a windshield, I am not sure I will leave mine on the scooter. You would think it would reduce wind noise, but it is just the opposite. The wind noise is dramatically increased to the point of being uncomfortable with the windshield installed. I can eliminate some of the wind buffeting by raising my head uncomfortably high, so if you are a taller rider, this might not be a problem for you. I am 5'7" tall. Also, in spite of various comments on other sites on the interweb, the windshield has no effect on top speed. Max speed is unchanged at 42 mph on the level or on a steep downhill, so it may be that the scooter is rev limited at 42 mph as suspected. I haven't been able to find any Honda documentation to confirm this.

Basket (actually called the Inner Rack) - Part number 08L51-GET-100A
Page 1 of the Installation instructions: http://www.vintagegarage.com/BasketPage1.jpeg
Page 2 of the Installation instructions: http://www.vintagegarage.com/BasketPage2.jpeg

Windshield - Part number 08R80-GET-100A
Page 1 of the Installation instructions: http://www.vintagegarage.com/WindshieldPage1.jpeg
Page 2 of the Installation instructions: http://www.vintagegarage.com/WindshieldPage2.jpeg

Rear Trunk (actually called the Top Box) - Part number 08L52-GET-110
Rear Trunk mounting hardware kit - Part number 08Z51-GET-100
Chrome Rear rack (required to mount the Rear Trunk) - Part number 08L42-GET-100
Page 1 of the Installation instructions: http://www.vintagegarage.com/StorageBoxPage1.jpeg
Page 2 of the Installation instructions: http://www.vintagegarage.com/StorageBoxPage2.jpeg
Page 3 of the Installation instructions: http://www.vintagegarage.com/StorageBoxPage3.jpeg
Page 4 of the Installation instructions intentionally blank.
Drilling Template: http://www.vintagegarage.com/StorageBoxTemplate.jpeg

Here is the current photo after basketization: