I've had my eye on a 1985 Honda spree with 758 miles on it. The owner says everything is fine besides the fact that it will only idle, and when you give it gas it dies out. Was wondering if I should get it and fix the problem (I'm guessing it's a fuel pump or something to do with the carb.). I just wanna use it to go around town on a daily basis and maybe have a little fun with it and modify it. I was wondering if I should get it, everyone says they're fun to ride and the guy is only asking 800$.
$800 for a 35 year old scooter?? That's nuts. You are going to have to sink a bunch of additional money into this thing to get it road worthy.
You'll want to brush up on your carburettor and small engine service skills if you expect to ride this daily. If your "town" gets busy traffic, I wouldn't not ride this death trap. People don't pay attention to the road these days.
I'm shaking my head at this idea right now.
I planned on taking it to a mechanic that works on similar things to get it checked out to see if theres anything major, and I live in a small town so theres never really traffic. A couple more things, I have a safety jacket so i'm more visible during all hours and I only plan on riding it during the day. I have all the safety gear that is needed, and the speed limit only goes to 25 so people aren't going that fast and have a pretty good amount of time to react.
I drive a huge, white van. It's really hard to miss. And yet people still manage to drive into me. Every accident I had was because people didn't look at all, so jacket isn't going to help there. I have close calls on a regular basis. There are terrible drivers out there, and you are much smaller than a full size van.
A collision at 25mph can still kill you on that thing. I also cycle a lot, so same small profile, low speed travel. People try to kill me almost every time I go out. They have no idea what is happening outside of their vehicle. It's like they're in a bubble.
Most of them are probably texting or jabbering away on their cell phones. I don't care if they're using those blue teeth, it's still distracting as hell. (I turn the damned phone off and take the battery out while driving.)
My only and worst time riding on my bike was some dude was running from the cops and took a hard turn on a red light while I was crossing and swooped me off my bike. Other then that I haven't had any bad times with other drivers or heard of anyone else having a bad expirience on the road. But yeah it is way harder to see then a full size van.
@chucktobias some are probably on their phones, but most are simply bad drivers. Their excuse after they hit you usually "oh I didn't see you". Well no shirt Sherlock... you can't see someone if you don't look! The other excuse I get is, "I thought I would make it", so in other words they're playing chicken with you. They force themselves in even though you have right-of-way, and hoping you will yield to them. 😡 AHHH! don't get me started ...
Speaking as somebody whose ridden bikes from 50 to 1000cc. I'd vote this way - kinda low-mileage collectible/restorable (hence the price), sure, daily transport, probably not, fun to ride, sure.
A moped that's 35 years old, that has that few miles has sat unused for decades, not years. The fuel system is full of evaporated gas varnish, so that's what you need to clean end-to-end to get it to run right, plus an oil change and basic ignition check. It only has the most rudimentary electrical system, so that's probably not a big deal. But those original tires are as hard and cracked, they'll slide when you corner or brake.
