Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

Last year I purchased my first scooter - an 1986 Spree. It has less than 400 miles on it total and is in amazing condition. I love using it to zip around the city, but IÔÇÖve been noticing more and more its lack of power. IÔÇÖve been considering swapping the engine, but IÔÇÖm not sure if thatÔÇÖs smart to do as SpreeÔÇÖs in such good condition donÔÇÖt seem to come around too often.

Am i ruining the value of this scooter by swapping engine?

I apologise if this has been covered... new to the forum. Cheers!

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Personal choice really....Sprees are small, nostalgic, vintage, retro, nimble, unique, etc...I absolutely love the look, style and feel of them. However, what they are NOT is high-value coveted rare items except in the eyes of their beloved owners. It certainly would be a shame (to some) to cut up a museum quality piece for a motor swap but on the other hand...why would you want to put the time, effort and money into modifying a rusty heap of junk?

My personal opinion is this: if I was going to build a kickass street ripping Spree, I would want to start with the best condition example I could find. Sure, I could restore an absolute wreck and start ÔÇ£frame-upÔÇØ from scratch with wiring, paint, powder coating, etc...but Id rather save myself the time/headache of restoration and spend my precious time on performance modifications. However, a dirty, rusty rat-rod Spree does have its own bad-assedness.

My opinion on modding a Spree, is go for it, unless... You have an 86' Special Edition, or an 87' Iowa Edition. Actually any 87'. Those are the rare models. All the other ones, you can find for a dime a dozen. I wouldn't worry so much about what you do to the frame to hold a new engine as much as I'd worry about what you might have to do with coveted plastics that are in good shape. If you know you'll end up having to trim the plastics to fit the new engine, then I'd just look around for some less than perfect side plastics to hack away at.

ConnorGoulding wrote:I love using it to zip around the city

'Nuff said for keeping it stock.

Buy another scooter is the logical choice. There's all sort of issues that swapping a larger motor into a Spree doesn't address (brakes and suspension being the main ones.) If you're a hot-rod guy and like doing this stuff, by all means, but if you just want something faster buy something faster.

ConnorGoulding wrote:Last year I purchased my first scooter - an 1986 Spree. It has less than 400 miles on it total and is in amazing condition. I love using it to zip around the city, but IÔÇÖve been noticing more and more its lack of power. IÔÇÖve been considering swapping the engine, but IÔÇÖm not sure if thatÔÇÖs smart to do as SpreeÔÇÖs in such good condition donÔÇÖt seem to come around too often.

Am i ruining the value of this scooter by swapping engine?

I apologise if this has been covered... new to the forum. Cheers!

[*]

So the fact you have one with only 400 miles, I'm just gonna assume that the body and other parts are minty as well. That's something that THAT'S SOMETHING YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION . IMO because in stock form Spree's maybe hit 35 max downhill most people trash them out and treat them like garbage instead of recognizing them as the cool little machine they are. As far as raising or lowering the value it depends on your buyer. From a collector's standpoint, the best thing to do is leave it as original as possible and/or try to purchase all the OEM Honda accessories that are available. People like rare options and helps stand out from the other Spree's with a restoration.



But if you're just in it for fun then swap in the af18 with all the goodies. Do it right the Spree was never designed to see speeds above 40 mph, But from my research on the swap (I could be wrong has happened many times b4) it requires cutting the plastics. Please don't do that. Also buying a PARTS BIKE SPREE IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED it will make your life and Spree goal much more fun and obtainable.

A nice solution would be to swap in the engine from the 87 honda elite 50s's, SE50 engine, it does 40 MPH in stock form (I'm 6ft 215lb ) & fits under the spree plastics without cutting them. Another plus with SE50 swap is that it has a lot more aftermarket support BBK, Exhaust, its variated.

Some Spree * would be great here is a link to a image hosting site thats easy to use. https://postimages.org/

SpreeorDie85 wrote:the engine from the 87 honda elite 50s's, SE50...... fits under the spree plastics without cutting them.

Keep it stock or swap in a dio and butcher it. Skip the AF05 swap.

Here she is!

https://postimg.cc/image/i4wev9819/

ConnorGoulding wrote:Here she is!

OMG!! DON'T YOU DARE MOLEST THAT LITTLE SCOOTER !!!

You got a real gem there.

eclark5483 wrote:

ConnorGoulding wrote:Here she is!

OMG!! DON'T YOU DARE MOLEST THAT LITTLE SCOOTER !!!

You got a real gem there.

Agreed. Keep it stock and hang onto that time capsule.