My "new" 1984 Honda Spree

Cubey · Post by **Cubey** » Fri May 30, 2008 11:36 pm

Only a few pics that the seller took as I ended up getting home late and exhausted which I will explain below:
http://cubey.illiop.com/pics/thumbnails.php?album=30

I found it on craigslist for $500 and quickly called after it was posted (I was constantly watching CL) and the guy agreed to take it off CL and hold it for me until Friday (today). Turns out he had sold it on ebay for $645 but the buyer stiffed him so he posted it on CL to get it out of his hair as he didn't want to mess with it anymore after the headache of the non-paying ebay buyer.

Starts perfectly, everything works. Only 811 miles! Although it is missing the mirrors and of course the lil cover up where the horn is. The one front piece of trim is missing two screws that hold it on but it has one center one so it holds on ok as-is for now.

I had to go through a lot to get this thing though! Not only the nearly 3 hour drive each way (at least my car gets ok mileage even towing) but a weld broke on the trailer due to the last owner tightening a bolt that prevents the tilting and it put too much pressure on that weld spot. Luckily it held on by a thread until I stopped and had a look at it as i saw the trailer was acting odd. Also lucky was the muffler shop one block away who was able to reweld it in 10 minutes for $25 and got me back on my way to get the scooter. I replaced that pesky bolt with a new one and put a lock nut at a nearby auto parts store ($2.15) so it can stay loose but the bolt won't fall out due to the nut coming loose in transit. Made it back with the scooter without any other trailer problems

But on the way back, I ended up stopped dead on the interstate for 2 hours due to an accident that must have just occurred involving a semi that lost it's load of long metal pipes at at least one or two other vehicles that I guess got hit by the pipes from what I could tell since the semi was still upright and I cant recall if it was damaged.

But aside from all the bad and unexpected extra cost, I still think its a good deal. He even filled the gas up for me and helped me secure it down. *lol* Though he didn't do a good job. I saw it quickly coming loose so I stopped and added more retrains in the same place and mine held much better. The two I had put on were also a bit loose so I pulled them tighter and then it made it all the rest of the way just fine. I could see out the rear window if the straps were blowing too much and they weren't.

CharlotteSpreeRider · Sat May 31, 2008 12:00 am

Welcome! We'll help you get it running in tip top shape. Stick around, it's a fun bunch.

Where are you at? Almost everybody on here is in MI, but if you had to pay $500 for an 84 Spree, I really doubt you're there. I think there is a law that says every MI resident must own at least 2 Spree's per household or something.

-aseigler

Cubey · Post by **Cubey** » Sat May 31, 2008 12:05 am

CharlotteSpreeRider wrote:Welcome! We'll help you get it running in tip top shape. Stick around, it's a fun bunch.

Where are you at? Almost everybody on here is in MI, but if you had to pay $500 for an 84 Spree, I really doubt you're there. I think there is a law that says every MI resident must own at least 2 Spree's per household or something.

-aseigler

I'm in Texarkana, AR. I had to go to just outside Dallas to get this. Luckily the guy offered to bring it to his workplace and let me pick it up there or I wold have had to drive another 15-20 miles to his house between Dallas and Ft Worth and wait until after he got off work. It's hard as heck to find decent scooters around here unless you go to Dallas. And since it's a 3 hr drive to get there, stuff is often sold before you can get there. So I was lucky he was nice and held it for me.

Kenny_McCormic · Post by **Kenny_McCormic** » Sat May 31, 2008 12:09 am

VERY nice find, your missing the petcock cover and thats probably the rarest part (honda doesnt sell much of the plastics anymore although almost everything else is still readily available).

Cubey · Post by **Cubey** » Sat May 31, 2008 12:09 am

Oh one thing I didn't mention. I didn't get a title for it, but Arkansas doesn't require "Motorized bicycles" (under 50cc) to be registered so it doesn't much matter for me. I may try to get one anyway though just in case I ever need it.

CharlotteSpreeRider · Sat May 31, 2008 12:14 am

Yeah, that thing missing under the seat is the petcock cover. The horn is behind the rectangular part on the front right below the headlight. Petcock covers are rare as * due to poor retention design (most of them have fallen off and got run over by cars). They can be occassionally found on eBay for like $40, which is insane. The bike runs perfectly fine without it, it's purely a cosmetic thing.

It totally makes sense that you had to drive out for miles to get a bike in Texas. There is another guy who is on here alot from Texas. That's a really good long haul away from where the cache is, in Michigan. Myself, I'm sitting here in Charlotte, NC, in case anyone couldn't guess for some reason.

-aseigler

Cubey · Post by **Cubey** » Sat May 31, 2008 12:16 am

Kenny_McCormic wrote:VERY nice find, your missing the petcock cover and thats probably the rarest part (honda doesnt sell much of the plastics anymore although almost everything else is still readily available).

I actually saw plastics for sale on this Honda dealer site:
http://www.sunrisehonda.com/fiche_secti ... &fveh=3553

Select "BODY COVER 84-86" from the list then scroll down and you'll see a blown-apart diagram of the main body plastics. That cover is number 07 in the list below the diagram, listed for $14.05. It allows me to add to cart and proceed to checkout. Weither or not you can actually GET it, I don't know.

CharlotteSpreeRider · Sat May 31, 2008 12:57 am

All that sort of thing has been out of production for at least a decade. Every once in a while, an NOS (new, old stock) part will magically appear, but they are few and far between. You're best off picking up used parts for stuff that is not intended to wear out, like body parts, etc, off eBay, or by getting a parts bike off Craiglist. Honda still makes and you can still get stuff like filters, gaskets, bearings, and stuff like that. The body parts, they will let you order, but the part will come back discontinued and they'll void the sale on you.

-aseigler

GIJoeBob · Post by **GIJoeBob** » Sat May 31, 2008 7:54 am

Welcome aboard!

Gamemedic · Post by **Gamemedic** » Sat May 31, 2008 9:59 am

Hey CharlotteSpreeRider, everyone in Michigan has a spree because in the mid to late 80's times were good. The big three were paying well and because it was such a blue-collar area there was allot of unskilled labor getting paid well. Those workers spend their paycheck the second they get it, usually on toys, and sprees were cheap. ($399 New)
In the Detroit suburbs there is no mass transit and very few busses. (which you don├óÔé¼Ôäót want to ride anyway) So to get around, even to friends houses it was a long walk or bike ride. I know as a 15 year old kid in 85├óÔé¼Ôäó my mom got sick of driving me everywhere so they bought me a spree to get around on. My dad was a white collar worker and we were well off and living in a very nice neighborhood so all my friends had sprees or aeros and elites. The school parking lot was full of them all year even winter which is brutal up here. Most of my buddies after they got cars just put the scoots aside and forgot about them. Well here we are now and Michigan is in BIG trouble. We have no jobs, the city is in ruins and we have lost ├é┬¢ of our population from people moving out for jobs. We have been in a major recession up here since 2001, what you guys are feeling now because of the housing market is nothing compared to us.( I know because I├óÔé¼Ôäóm a real estate appraiser. ) Well for the last 7 years people have been dusting their sprees off and selling them for extra cash. (Did I mention its really bad here)
I think that├óÔé¼Ôäós why there seems to be so many up here IMO.

mopedman · Post by **mopedman** » Sat May 31, 2008 10:53 am

Welcome aboard

CharlotteSpreeRider · Post by **CharlotteSpreeRider** » Sat May 31, 2008 6:57 pm

Gamemedic wrote:Hey CharlotteSpreeRider, everyone in Michigan has a spree because in the mid to late 80's times were good. The big three were paying well and because it was such a blue-collar area there was allot of unskilled labor getting paid well. Those workers spend their paycheck the second they get it, usually on toys, and sprees were cheap. ($399 New)
In the Detroit suburbs there is no mass transit and very few busses. (which you don├óÔé¼Ôäót want to ride anyway) So to get around, even to friends houses it was a long walk or bike ride. I know as a 15 year old kid in 85├óÔé¼Ôäó my mom got sick of driving me everywhere so they bought me a spree to get around on. My dad was a white collar worker and we were well off and living in a very nice neighborhood so all my friends had sprees or aeros and elites. The school parking lot was full of them all year even winter which is brutal up here. Most of my buddies after they got cars just put the scoots aside and forgot about them. Well here we are now and Michigan is in BIG trouble. We have no jobs, the city is in ruins and we have lost ├é┬¢ of our population from people moving out for jobs. We have been in a major recession up here since 2001, what you guys are feeling now because of the housing market is nothing compared to us.( I know because I├óÔé¼Ôäóm a real estate appraiser. ) Well for the last 7 years people have been dusting their sprees off and selling them for extra cash. (Did I mention its really bad here)
I think that├óÔé¼Ôäós why there seems to be so many up here IMO.

That actually makes alot of sense, and the best explanation I've heard. I was thinking that there might be some law from the 80's that states that every household in MI must have at least 1 Spree. Amazingly, the recession hasn't really hit Charlotte that badly (yet), or at least I haven't noticed. Housing prices never got really ridiculous here for some reason like they did everywhere else. The only real big industry here is Bank of America and Wachovia, but there are tons and tons of small branch offices for other companies.

-aseigler

Cubey · Post by **Cubey** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:00 pm

I went by a local motorcycle shop and bought a helmet for $80. It's a 3/4 face helmet with a face guard that tilts up and down. Due to my sensitive eyes which I had surgery on twice as a young child and must always wear prescription glasses, I needed one with a face guard. That or I would have had to gone the goggle route which looks stupid especially if you have glasses or sunglasses on under them. I have a very nice pair of prescription sunglasses so I will wear them with the helmet since the helmet's face guard isn't tinted.

I wanted a red one but the company doesn't make red. They had black in stock in the store so I got that since it matches the Spree well enough. The 3/4 face guard helmet fits much better than the modular full face helmet they had on stock (in blue) that i tried on. Plus the fill face one was $150. Next I just need to get some mirrors and then get over this d*** cold then I'll be ready to ride.

Cubey · Post by **Cubey** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 2:02 pm

I brought the Spree over to my place today. Went by the Honda place first and picked up a bottle of GN2. It's freaken expensive though!! Nearly $7 for a quart!

Has anyone used Castrol 2T? The bottle says right on the front for premix or injection. Wal-Mart carries it here for under $3/quart. If it's any good I may consider that instead in the future depending on what ya'll say about 2T.

Dac · Post by **Dac** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 2:57 pm

i say GN2 all the way.

Yeah, its allot, but it will last you a long long time. When you are only going to use something a few times a year, whats wrong with paying $4 more.