Looked at a 1984 Honda Elite 125 yesterday. pretty cool. It had 2900 miles and was in very good shape. New carb, fresh oil, cleaned gas tank. All electrics worked, except clock. The scoot still had the original tires (scary). I'm actually looking at this for a friend who is new to scooters. The asking price is $850. Good, bad, or ugly, anything to look out for on this model? Worth getting? Thanks
Definitely a solid design, Vespa abandoned the North American market as a result of Honda introducing that Scooter and it's newer offspring. Pretty sure most body parts and the motor and linkage assembly that lifts the front headlight cover are unobtanium. When you say "new carb", is the original carb available with it? I've low confidence in those mic replacement carburetors. If it is right and in good shape, $850 sounds reasonable.
so long as your buddy has no intentions on riding on highways at 55mph then the elite 125 is an excellent buy, and from what it sounds like, you found a great specimen at an awesome price too! Where I live people usually ask for +1000 for elite 125/150's with 4 times the mileage.
Sounds like a decent deal to me. The Elite 125 is a nice scoot. But it really depends on what you plan on doing with the scooter. If the majority of his riding will be around town and some backroads it will do fine. But the Elite 125 is actually quite a bit slower than the 150 cc version. The 125 tops out around 52 MPH regularly and will will get to about 55 MPH tops, maybe a "little" more depending on rider weight and conditions, but thats about it. It will cruise nice around 40-45 MPH. A properly running Elite 150 will get to about 65 MPH. I've GPSed mine at 70 MPH with a full race tuck and a tailwind, and I weigh in at about 205 pounds or more. It takes a long time to get there, but it'll pull it. The 150 is ok for short jaunts on the interstate, well kind of depending on where you live. But its also no good for long cruises on the interstate. The 125s and 150s are both good. Other than having quite a bit less top speed and less acceleration than the 150, the 125s pretty good. I would think parts are slightly harder to find since the 125 was only made for 1 year and the 125/150's parts are not interchangeable for the most part. But I'm sure on Ebay or Babbits you can find most parts. I believe the 150 performs better not because of the increase in CC, but because of gearing and engine design. I think the cylinder on the 150 was a shorter stroke with a bigger bore, and the 125 was a longer stroke. Or it might be the other way, but the 150 is a little different. As for looks, its a matter of opinion. Personally I thought the Elite series were rather ugly at first, but the look grew on me and I actually like it now! Theres nothing too terrible to look out for. These models are prone to CDI failure, but thats a $40 aftermarket CDI and your problems are over. Its worth it if it's performance meets his requirements. If he plans on doing much 55+ MPH roads, then I'd suggest the Elite 250. Its doesn't top out a whole lot faster than the Elite 150, but its actually designed to hold it's top speed better and cruise at 55-65 MPH. It also has far more high end acceleration. The 250 tops out at about 70-75 MPH. But the 125 is an ok beginner's scoot and great for around town.
I've had four Spacys, we never got the 150 version here in the UK (probably because learner riders are limited to 125cc here). They're cracking, characterful little scooters, if a little slow. As mentioned above low fifties is the best you'll see on the clock. They're tough enough, but here's a few common failings I found: the centrestand bends under the weight of the rider, this can be fixed easily enough by welding a scrap bolt to the stop either side the bracket holding the rear mudguard on rusts like buggery, GRP and a bit of bodgery are your friend here, certainly in the UK where you've got about a 2% chance of finding a replacement the rubber inlet manifold splits causing the bike to run lean the digital clock stops working (as you've found!) but mostly the instruments are reliable check the exhaust is good. The 125 pipe is NLA, and I think the 150 is different. Certainly here in the UK (where they were never big sellers anyway) you've more chance of knitting fog than finding a replacement All in all, well worth getting IMO. See if you can knock the seller down a bit, and buy some new tyres with the cash you save
Hey guys, thanks for all the great info. I took my friend to see it today. He is reading this thread also. I would buy it if I had the room. I already have 2 Vespas. I'll let you know what happens.
IME that only revives them 50% of the time - sometimes the contacts need cleaning up, other times they're really dead.
My friend missed out. Someone else bought the scooter. Oh well, there's always another good scoot somewhere.
