I just picked up a little Honda spree, a 1985. I’m wondering about upgrades. I know getting more speed out of them is kind of a pain, and that’s not really my end goal anyway, I wanted something to carry behind the camper for running around the campground or to the party store and such. But, a little more damping in the rear would be nice! The stock rear shock feels like it’s shot, if it ever was gas charged in the first place. Are better tires worth it? Any “must do” mods or anything? The kid I bought it from replaced the cylinder and piston with stock sized stuff. Maybe a big bore kit is in my future, but more for acceleration than top end, 26mph on those little wheels is enough for me lol! Believe it or not it actually carries my wife and I fine! I don’t have much suspension travel after that though. Any advice is appreciated!
From what I remember the intake is the major restriction on a Spree. After that a pipe is always cool. You have to change the gearing to go any faster so you can give it a bit more power and still feel safe getting up to its top speed quicker than before.
The folks at Treatland are hilarious, knowledgeable and friendly. If they carry anything you want have no qualms about buying from them.
What I remember most from my years of spree ownership in the early 90's is that the kickstand would scrape when really leaning on hard left hand corners. So much so that it would sometimes catch and fold down, in the process lifting the rear tire off the ground mid corner. It was pretty controllable and it never threw me off. Had to look scary as a scary thing to bystanders. It would launch the rear and as soon as it was off the ground the stand would snap back up.
I remember parking it on the patio at a bar with all the Vespas and Lambrettas who would give me a litany of crap about my plastic scooter. I would just agree with them and then say "But will yours do this?" and ride the thing off of the 18" concrete drop off of the patio. It was covered with hundreds of stickers from touring bands. I sold in '95 and still miss that thing.
Let me know if you need any body panels. I think I may still have some in my locker that I’m about to throw away.
There is a website for them that I used to check out ages ago, but can’t remember what it was. To me, it mostly makes sense to just keep it in good running order. Since it’s a direct belt drive instead of variated, whatever you do to improve low end acceleration may hurt the top end performance.
For the shock, I’d recommend measuring the fully extended and fully compressed length, and see what you can find cheap on eBay that matches.
