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Getting a 2001 Honda Reflex for free

L

longhaul747

Moped
Wow I just found the deal we all love.  Actually it found me!!

Often when work on my bikes this fellow who lives in my complex walks up and talks with me.  He always said he used to ride a lot when he was younger but gave up 5 years ago.  He never really went into details.  Just watched me work.  I don't recall him ever saying he had a Reflex in the garage.   

Today when I was doing some stuff he came up and told me he has a 2001 Honda Reflex sitting in his garage collecting dust and he does not believe he will ever ride it again.  He said back in 2005 he had surgery and it was laid up for a few years.  In 2007 he broke it out and got it serviced and had new tires put on it but found it to difficult to ride so he parked it with intentions of getting back on.  Never really did so it has been sitting and sitting.  He finely decided that its not worth keeping and its taking up room.  Basically said that if I can get it running I can have it. 

I was like...UM...Yeah O.....kay!!!

So I walked down to look at it.  Its berried behind a ton of crap in his garage.  Surprisingly in very good shape minus the inch of dust on it and the almost flat tires.  He said it ran perfectly last time he road it but its been sitting since 2007 or 2008 (last licensed in Aug of 2008) and I assume no fuel stabilizer in it.  First thing on the list is replacing the battery and getting the old fuel out of it then draining and putting fresh oil in it.  After that I will have to see what I got to deal with.  BTW it has 14,000 miles on it!

The deal is if I can't get it running he will stuff it back in his garage and forget about it.  If I get it running he will write up a bill of sale and sign the title over.  I am supposed to get it tomorrow morning once he clears space in his garage.  Hopefully with a bit of luck it will not take much to get it going. 

I don't know much about these.  I know its 250cc but no idea if its water cooled or air cooled or if its fuel injected or carburated.  Hopefully fuel injected and if it is it just might fire up with a new battery, plug and gasoline.  Carburated its probably going to give me a lot of grief but maybe I will get lucky.  I have had friends that revived very old bikes with nothing more then fresh fuel and oil in them.

Weird I don't consider 2001 all that old but I guess its 11 years old now.  I do remember for the first few years I lived here I did see a Reflex going down the street on occasion.  Must have been him.  Never really gave it much thought back then.  I will post tomorrow if everything materializes and see what happens when I first dig into it.  Very first thing I will probably do is air up the tires and clean it up.  That way I can take more pride when I dig deeper.  He is a pretty honest and nice guy and lived here forever so its not any sort of shady deal I am sure.  I really believe he just does not care any longer as that was the attitude I picked up on.  He knows I really care about my machines so he probably just wants it to have a good home.  Hopefully they only real cost to me getting it running is the battery and the spark plug.  I already got some spare oil around here.  If he flakes and wants it back I can just yank the battery I put in it.  I doubt that will happen though!!             


 



 
 
That sounds like a fun project.  Knowing that you havn't spent a mint makes is so much more fun to try to fix things up.  I am patiently awaiting the pictures :popcorncouple:
 
Talked with the guy this morning.  He is out having breakfast with his daughter and will be home soon.  He will call and I can come push it home.

Just to provide a bit more info the guy and I don't want to offend anyone in anyway but he is really getting up there.  I never asked his age but he is in his late 70's or maybe even early 80's.  He has always admired how I take care of my stuff.  I am pretty sure his riding days are past and he just wants his old scooter to be in good hands.  He is a pretty genuine guy and full of wisdom and stories.  I have no reason to doubt he will flake out on me.

   
 
You can just use some jumper cables and not even be into it for a battery. My '01 sat in the PO's garage for 4~5 years and started right up with some fresh gas and oil, and a boost.

A 250, how hard can that be to remove and clean the carb?

I had to Google Honda Reflex, found this:

attachment.php
 
I  got it.

First thing I did was clean it up a bit.  Looks a lot better cleaned up and a fresh coating of Honda Polish.  It has been dropped on its right side before.  I can see a few scratches on the exhaust can and he took touch up paint to the front turn signal.  Also some scaring on both mirrors and the left mirror has some deep lacerations on it.  The black plastic on the hump between your legs and the instrument cluster is fairly aged.  Lemon Pledge did it wonders but you can still tell its not new by any means.

Some of the bolts on the bike are partially rusted and the exhaust muffler (stock) has some rust on it but nothing to be really concerned about.  Overall its a pretty sharp machine. 

It does not have much gas in it.  What it does have smells like paint thinner.  The tank appears to be rust free though. 

I went to see if it had any juice in the battery but nothing.  Not even a hint of any life at all.  I hooked in the battery tender and it just acts like its not even hooked up.  I assume the battery is either shorted out from sitting or maybe even reversed itself. 

Next order of business is to drop in a new battery.  Then I need to drain the gasoline out of the tank witch is looking tricky.  A lot of plastic on this thing.  The engine is not to hard to reach though. 

Thing that sucks is I need to be at work now and won't have anytime until Monday afternoon.  However I plan to have this thing running by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. 

 
I picked up a new battery at Wal Mart last night.  Installed it this morning and got power in all circuits but did not hit the starter obviously.  Then went to my work for an hour then came home and changed the oil.  The oil looked perfectly fine considering it has been sitting in it 4 + years.  It was serviced then ridden a few times and parked.  So not a lot of miles on the oil but for good measure I changed it anyway.  Dumped in some spare Rotella T6 5W-40 synthetic that I had left over when I changed it in another motorcycle.  I pulled the plug but it looked brand spanking new and the gap is correct.  As for color it was right where it should be so I assume it ran perfectly when parked.  I am not going to bother changing it out.  I removed the drain plug from the carburetor but it was dry.  Actually removing the drain plug was a PITA.  It was sort of fused into place and wanted to strip out.  I sprayed some PB plaster into the area and let it soak in.  Not sure if it did anything but on the 3rd try it snapped loose.  Seems fine now however no gas came out of the bowls.  Not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing.  Obviously the carb is dry witch may actually limit the amount of buildup in it and what is there "MIGHT" just go away when fresh gas is run through it.  However the rubber bits may have dried out.  At this point I am not concerned until I go to fire it up.

Next step is to remove as much of the old gas as possible.  The 3 gallon tank is berried in a sea of plastic.  Its probably not that difficult to get to it but without a service manual I don't think I will attempt it.  I don't see any fuel when I shine a flash light into the filler hole but I am pretty sure I hear a bit sloshing around.  What I can see is the tank looks very clean and rust free.  My Brother in Law has a fancy fuel transfer pump and you stick one hose in the tank and the other hose into something else and you can remove the fuel by hand cranking the handle on the pump.  However I won't be able to get that until this evening.  I also need to stop by the ethanol free station and get some fresh fuel.  I think I will toss in an ounce of TCW3 and a double dose of RedLine SS-1 into the fuel just to help clear the carb if anything.  A shot of Heet should not overdue it either. 

If everything goes to plan I should be able to hit that starter button tomorrow morning.

Time permitting I plan to pick up some crush washers for the final drive and swap that oil out.  I have visions of it never being done.

If all is well I will call up the guy and get the title and bill of sale.  Then I will have to get it transferred to my name and licensed.  Until I do it can't leave the complex road witch really limits my ability to blow out the cob webs.  I suppose if I want to be tricky I could barrow a plate from a different bike.  I was told that deep in the law books if the vehicle you are riding is actually yours and the plate you are using is actually yours its legal to swap plates for ferry purposes.  However I can't confirm the deal on that and it seems highly unlikely.  Plus technically this scoot is not mine yet making that idea pointless even if it was legal.  It will not take long to get it legal anyway.

YES, I need to get pictures.  My camera is nowhere to be found and I will have to use the camera on my iphone witch sucks.  Once it is running I will shoot a picture.

Alright I did some googling.  Not legal to swap plates unless you have a dealer plate.  Best way to handle this is to remove the license plate completely.  Once you have the Bill of Sale and the signed over title just have this with you.  If you get pulled over show the officer your paperwork and they will let you go.  It might be a none issue since i may not even get it out on the main road until it is fully licensed though.  Weather sucks super bad at the moment and is forecasted to stay that way. 



                 
 
OK its RUNNING  :)

I tried to suck out the old gas but nothing to be found in there.  From what I can tell the tank must be completely dry.  Looking at Ron Ayers micro fiche the tank is fairly square in design.  So if I don't see any fuel in there it must be dry.  As far as I know it was just road and parked but it seems odd all the fuel disappeared.  I suppose in an open air fuel system and if it was put away very empty some could evaporate out in theory but I never heard of a tank going completely dry.  No fuel leaks observed either!

I was pretty dang nervous.  Turned the key to ignition and everything lit up.  Off switch set to on to double check and kickstand up with the bike on the center stand.  I hit the starter and it turned over but no ignition.  Obviously need to get fuel into the carburetor.  After cranking it for 4 or 5 times starting to get nervous it sputtered for a second.  Tried again 2 more times and it sputtered for slightly longer but died when I touched the throttle.  Started again this time and was idling on its own but kind of roughly and some blue/green smoke (TCW3???) was coming out of the exhaust but it wanted to die as soon as you touched the throttle but as long as you did not give it to much it would stay running.  It was very cold blooded but I just let it warm up for a minute or two.  After a few minutes it was letting me hit the throttle and it would throttle up.  However it was running kind of roughly and getting a lot of vibration and the plastics vibrate making a fair amount of squeaking noises.  Of coarse the back wheel is spinning fast when you throttle up and that is probably what is causing it more then the motor. 

I just let it run until completely warmed up and once warm it smoothed way out.  I shut it down and fired up again really fast and no hint of any carb issues witch is amazing.  Now I just need to get it transferred to my name and licensed so I can blow the cob webs out.

YES,  I found my digital camera...let me go put it back together and take a few pictures.  I tried using the camera on my iphone.  I got the old 3GS that is on its last legs and lately the pictures are so blurry its not worth using. 

I think this is so cool...I just hope the fellow does not flake. 

 



 
 
Alright a few technical snags.  First my batteries for my digital camera are dead.  2nd my new battery I put in is giving me grief.  Decided to take it for a spin since we had a break in the weather.  Put on helmet, gloves and jacket and went out to take it for a spin.  I get power but when I hit the starter button I get nothing.  I checked the off switch and its in the run position.  Kickstand up and breaks engaged but nothing from the starter.  I know I have been doing some work on it and have not really bothered to charge the battery.  So I hooked it up the the Battery Tender.  It was solid Yellow for a long time.  Every once in a while I would see a little blip from the green light but not much.  Finely after about an hour the green light started flashing.  It never did go solid after waiting a few hours.  I tried to start it again but nothing.  When I hooked it up to the battery tender again it was completely flat again and took a long time to come back up.  For some reason the battery is not holding a charge even though its new is what it looks like.  Back to Walmart it goes!!

I called the nearest Honda dealer.  A direct OEM Yuasa replacement $161  :eek:

The parts guy told me that the starters on these are a bit picky.  They will not engage if the battery drops below a certain level.  He was surprised it did not come back up on the tender but sometimes new batteries fail.  He did rant about it being a Wal Mart battery.  I tend to believe batteries are commodity products and brand and price really don't matter.  However I must admit I have had good luck with my Yuasa's. 

He said I can go to the YTZ14S and get a bit more juice.  It should eliminate the problem and its what a lot of people do.  OEM battery is fine if you ride it all the time and never have an issue.  However if you work on it or it gets discharged a little you are stranded. 

I took a bite and will pick it up tomorrow morning.  Will also get some new batteries for the camera!

Still need to get the title and bill of sale.  He was not around today as far as I can tell. 
 
There is a huge difference in quality between battery manufacturers. But $161 seems rather excessive. Have you tried an auto parts store? Probably a little more than Walmart, but should be way less than Honda.
 
WillyP said:
There is a huge difference in quality between battery manufacturers. But $161 seems rather excessive. Have you tried an auto parts store? Probably a little more than Walmart, but should be way less than Honda.
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No I have not tried an auto parts store.  Searching google it seems like an odd size and not many alternatives.  You can find the battery elsewhere on the net for around $125. 

I did find one made by Battery Mart for $69.  Not sure how good these are. 

I will probably bite and buy that overpriced battery from the shop since I am excited to get this thing on the road.  MF AGM batteries last a long time so after a while it will not really matter anyway.  If it was the dead of winter and had all the time in the world I would order one of the cheaper ones.  In fact I still need to order new batteries for my SV's.  Remember the thread below?

http://forum.cog-online.org/index.php/topic,29731.msg131635.html#msg131635

I never did get around to replacing them and they still work.  However I am really pushing my luck.  These are bit more reasonable $91 a piece and can easily be found elsewhere for a lot cheaper.  I will probably order 2 new ones from one of the online vendors.



 
Last week Advance Auto Parts online had a 15% coupon on store pick ups and an AGM C-10 sized battery netted out at $76.49 plus tax at our local stores.
 
ron203 said:
Last week Advance Auto Parts online had a 15% coupon on store pick ups and an AGM C-10 sized battery netted out at $76.49 plus tax at our local stores.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up.  Right now I am debating on what to do for my SV batteries.  The original Yuasa's are now 8 going on 9 years old and so far seem to be taking a charge as normal.  I won't know for sure until I pull them out for the Spring.  Basically anytime we get a break in the weather.  Actually had a bit of snow this morning in my neck of the woods and last night I got caught in a hailstorm when I was returning home from dinner.  Luckily I was only a few miles from home and made it before it started to stick. 

Anyways I picked up the ungodly overpriced battery.  As long as it last for 5+ years its not really that big of a deal. 

The scooter fired up the first time and ran really good.  I am actually amazed at how well its running.  I decided to let it completely warm up and get the new fuel with the cleaners into the carburetor even though its obviously in there anyway.  Only thing I notice is a bit of hesitation just off idle as you apply the throttle.  Not sure if its going to be a real issue on the road.  Hopefully once I get it onto the road and get it good and warmed up it might just work itself out. 

I also got the title and bill of sale this morning and got it officially transferred into my name and licensed.  No snags except in WA state you gotta pay sales tax on the book value of the bike.  Only clause is if its in a non running condition witch I would have to have proof.  It can also be gifted but this creates additional headaches.  They did give me a small break and the book is $2050 but they dropped it to $1800.  So I had to pay $171 in sales tax.  Not really that big of deal and about $100 in other licensing and title transfer fees.  Its a small price to pay for a free bike.

Last thing to do is drain and replace the final drive oil.  This scoot seems a bit more tricky then most.  The drain plug is underneath the pumpkin (if it can be called that on a bike) and I never could find the fill plug.         
 
You don't just flip it upside down and pour the new gear oil into the drain hole...?  :-\

Seriously though, it sounds like you've been having a great time - congratulations!
 
ChipDoc said:
You don't just flip it upside down and pour the new gear oil into the drain hole...?  :-\

Seriously though, it sounds like you've been having a great time - congratulations!
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I was thinking that.  Just flip it upside down  :D

It was alright...everything went smoothly except for the new battery crapping out on me.  It was also just above freezing so my hands got numb but I did not have to do anything serious. 

Damn...the sun is trying to come out after pouring all day.  I would just die to get this thing on the road and give a good run in and an Italian tune up to blow the cob webs out.  Like to see if I can work out that off idle hesitation.

I need to get some photo's.  Let me go work out the digital camera. 
 
Al rightly finely some pictures.  These pictures are not the best because the weather sucks.  In a perfect world I would pull out the Concours but in the shuffle it got put way in the back.  My garage is a single width but a double depth so you can get 2 smaller cars in there if you wanted.  Of coarse mine is filled with motorcycles and some boxes.  Barely had room for the Reflex but I tossed some stuff in the garbage and moved stuff around better.  In the spring I plan to organize it better.  If I did not have any boxes of junk in there I could probably fit another 2 bikes if I wanted  ::)

Reflex5.jpg
 

Reflex1.jpg


Reflex4.jpg


Reflex6.jpg


Reflex2.jpg


I took a picture of the new battery.  I have it hooked up to the tender to make sure it stays topped off and to make sure it did discharge any when I was working on it.  I plan to pick up some pig ears and hook it into the battery.  A cover goes over this area as well.  I just have it off currently.  As you can see its a pretty cramped engine bay with lots of (WTF) hoses.  You can easily pull the inner tray to gain access and you have access panels on the sides of the engine. 

Overall pretty clean but not as clean as in the pictures.  It took a lot of work just cleaning it up to this point.  It was very dirty and needed a wax job but it was stored in a somewhat environmentally controlled garage and not a barn. 

The pictures really don't show it but its a fairly good sized scooter.  I would say pretty close in length to the C10 Concours and almost as wide.  Seems to take up a very similar foot print in the garage.  I tell you I am half tempted to throw on the all weather riding gear and go for a spin.  However I am nervous about the older tires combined with very wet roads.  Plus I just spent several hours cleaning it up. 

Oh it looks like the brake fluids are a little dark as well.  I got a mitty vac and a speed bleeder making this project easy.  I will just wait for it to warm up and dry up first a bit first!  I think I will order a new air filter as well.  The one in it is not to bad but has an interesting yellow spot on it.  My first thought was a rat got in there and took a leak but no other evidence in there.  Could be just about anything I guess.





 
Found a service manual for it online in PDF format...

In order to completely service the final drive you have to remove the side cover for the belt and transmission.  They just happen to place the fill plug inside there.  Some people actually managed to drain and fill it through the drain hole by using a clear ketchup bottle then quickly putting the bolt back in before much leaks out.  If its a cold day the oil will be fairly thick.  Seem a bit half ass to me though plus you can't be completely sure it has the proper amount of oil in it.   

Removing the transmission cover is just about 7 or 8 bolts and not sure a gasket is in there as well.  Once removed the fill bolt is right behind the variator.   

Also seems to have an incredibly simple and clever valve adjustment system as well but probably is one.  Basically you just loosen a bolt and slide it until tight in opposite directions and then back  to loose in one cycle.  The 2 parts look similar to the doohickey in the KLR and it has a range of adjustment.  I am sure other bikes have a system like this but I have never seen it before.  Not that I have ripped apart a lot of motorcycles.  To get to this adjustment you just remove the cover for the spark plug access and place the motor at TDC.  To do that you gotta remove some hardware but no big deal.

This bike is so simple to work on I would b!tch slap any shop that charged more then 1 hours labor for everything. 

After I do the final drive oil replacement I plan to replace the coolant.  Last but not least give the valve adjust a go.  I am nervous about doing them on a lot of bikes but this thing is super easy.  After all this is done it will be almost like new.  Oh I need to do the brake fluids but that is not a big deal.               
 
2linby said:
Looks great!  Wish I had a neighbor like that!  :)
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I wish I had neighbor like LH747 that knows what he is doing about motorcycles. 

Unfortunately, I have a rock-band wanna-be drummer next door riding an H-D to the bar with his wifey while on probation.  No help there...  :(

Very nice writeups about the work that you are doing, LH.
 
Nothing beats free :-* and it looks to be in very decent shape.  :beerchug:
You're right about the tires, they still look pretty darn good but they may be dry and brittle, so just be carefull on your first long test ride.

Enjoy!  :bravo_2:
 
Finely after what seemed like forever I got this scooter out on the open road.  A combination of snow, rain and wind plus a hectic work schedule and a high maintenance wife kept me from taking it out for much of the past week.  Today the wife was working and for once since I got the thing we had a break in the weather this afternoon. 

It fired right up on first crank.  Seems a tad cold blooded and is not interested in running smoothly when you first start it but it does stay running witch is good.  However if you try and takeoff to early the engine will just bog down on you.  For the record it was a rather chilly 39F when I took it out.  I am thinking on a warm day above 60F it would have little drama.  Luckily it really did not take long for it to run at least somewhat normal.  However it remained pretty choppy until completely warmed up witch took forever.  It was not until I got stopped at a traffic light that it finely really warmed up.  Until it does it will hesitate a bit just off idle but once I finely got it completely warmed up the hesitation was gone.  Interestingly when it does eventually get completely warmed up it seems to stay warm.  Just takes forever is all.  Again it may not be optimized for riding in such cold temperatures. 

I put about 20 miles on it and this included stopping for a Costco Hot Dog.  One stretch of road is wide open with a 45 mph limit but everybody seems to do about 60 on it.  Once warm it accelerates  pretty darn fast and is amazingly smooth.  It spooled right up to 60 mph without much issue.  Still very smooth and quiet at that speed.  Not sure what it tops out at since it was at 6,500 rpm and the red line is a conservative 8,000 rpm.  I am thinking it might top out somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 mph but just maybe a tad more.  I would have gone all out but traffic would not allow it. 

When cold it seems the scooter is a lot more shaky and best way to describe it is stiff.  When you try and get on it when cold the variator takes longer to catch and seems to create a lot of vibration.  Not sure if this is normal but I suspect it mostly is.  It seems to work as it should once warmed up.  Also I am thinking once it gets ridden more frequently these things will sort of self correct.  The bitter cold is probably not helping matters either.

As for tires I did not seem to notice any serious issue.  I inflated them to the proper pressure mentioned in the manual but I am 240 lbs so I am thinking of going a few pounds over at least in the rear.  It still feels a tad bit soft in my opinion.  The rear is supposed to be set at 29 psi but for 2 up the recommend 37 psi.  I figure I can safely be in between that amount.   

Overall though I am petty impressed  :motonoises:   

Its ready to join the fleet and be ridden on a regular basis.  Here very soon I need to service the final drive.  A gasket is required if you do it right.  I suppose if I am lucky I can can remove the transmission cover without damaging it but I am usually not that lucky.  The final drive is one of the most neglected things on these scooters because its not easy to service.  If they don't ever get serviced a bearing will usually go in that area around the 20K mark.  The drain plug on this one shows evidence of being touched at some point in its life but the owner did not do his own services and its not known if the shop ever did it.  Some seem to be really good about it whereas others seem to believe the oil in it will last forever. 

Brakes and coolant also need to be done ASAP as the condition of those fluids is not completely known.  The brake fluid is dark for my taste but I have seen darker.  The coolant is still green if that means anything.  Green is probably better then brown but its hard to say.  I went 4 years on my SV's and the coolant was still green but no longer smelled like coolant.  So I am glad I changed it out when I did.  I try and do it every 2 to 3 years maximum now.  2 years seems so short now and the coolant at the 2 year mark still looks and smells strong but after that it will eventually break down.  As for brake fluid I like to use Castrol GT LMA DOT 4 fluid.  It goes in completely clear and stays that way for a long time.  Twice as long as any motorcycle specific brake fluid.  I used to do it yearly and that seemed like a waste of time so I switched to every 2 years and even that seems overkill but at 3 years it does darken considerably.  Still not as dark as some of the motorcycle specific stuff.  It also has a high boiling point as well.  Only problem is finding the stuff.  Only place that carried it back in the day was B&B auto parts but they are out of business. 

I did use Napa DOT 4 in my KLR last time and its an LMA formula.  No reason to believe that would not work the same. 



     
 
Here is the latest update....

Had a nice stretch of weather over the past week so I road the thing almost daily.  Starts without issue every time and now that it has warmed up a bit its not as cold blooded and interestingly the shakiness off the line has really smoothed out.  It also seems to accelerate very fast now.  As we all know in theory when things sit they tend to get messed up.  This scooter is a prime example of that but often once you get the cob webs out it will slowly return to normal in many cases and this seems to be happening in my case.  Also the hesitation when cold and off idle seems to have mostly cleared up.  I got a strong dose of Redline SS1 in the gas plus some TCW3. 

Fuel economy seems pretty impressive so far.  Its a 3 gallon tank and I have put 140 miles on it and its still half full.  This included some work in the garage.  I am sure the last half will go quicker then the 1st half but if I can make it to 240 and it takes 2.8 gallons that is 86 MPG. 

Only issue that has me concerned is the tires.  I seem to be loosing air out of them at a fairly rapid rate.  They don't go flat overnight or anything but in about 2 weeks I lost 10 lbs out of them.  I also get a fierce resonance at about 40 mph and the front end hops like mad.  Go slower and it rapidly smooths out and if I go faster is quickly smooths out but right at 40 it hops like a bunny.  It might be partially nature of the beast but I think its being exaggerated by tires that have been flat to long and are likely out of round.  The tires themselves still have a lot of tread left and as far as mileage are not old but the rubber looks kind of dry.  Not cracking or anything but just has that look.  Also the front is a Pirelli and the rear is a Bridgestone.  I am thinking of replacing the tires since they are pretty cheap.  About $55 each plus mounting.  If the tires are sketch its best to replace them and a non issue considering the price I paid for the scooter. 

Last Saturday I finely got the guts to take it on the freeway.  I did it at 2am in the morning when returning home from work.  I did not want to deal with a lot of traffic just in case something went horribly wrong.  Also at my work the next exit is only a few short miles north and has a exclusive exit only lane.  So if it did not work out I can just get on and stay in the same lane to the right and get right back off.  My main concern was just how smooth the ride was going to be and how stable the platform is at highway speeds?  I was also concerned that the motor would have zero reserve power above 50 mph.  It was all a non event and it took the freeway in stride.  At 65 mph the engine is very relaxed and smooth despite running at 7,000 rpm's.  I noticed the turn in was slightly aggressive and abrupt as I switched lanes at high speed but as long as you are aware its not dangerous.  As for stability it was surprisingly rock solid at highway speeds.  It was so smooth I actually slowly drifted to 75 mph at 7,500 rpm's and it was still butter smooth.  For a 250cc automatic scooter its surprisingly peppy at highway speeds but I would not attempt to pass an 18 wheeler.  I suspect this scooter can easily go all the way to the red line at 8,000 rpm's at an estimated 85 mph without complaint.  The engine is supposedly under stressed and the 8,000 rpm is really conservative.  Basically this thing is designed to run at or near red line most of its life.

I still need to do the final drive and coolant.  Just waiting for a gasket to come in for the final drive and I need to study the service manual for the coolant.  I don't think its difficult at all. 

Once I get it running good I am actually confident that it will last a while.  Parts seem readily available and not to expensive.  For about $100 I can make it look even better then it does now.  New mirrors and replacing the chrome cover on the muffler will help 10 fold in the cosmetic department.  For another $20 I can replace the right turn signal cover.  However replacing it looks like I would have to pull all the plastic off the front.  So that will take some thinking.     
 
       
 
Enjoyed reading the whole story about how you got the bike, fixxing it up, to finally riding it and on the highway no less. Sounds like you are having fun with this and I wish you the best of luck in the future with this scooter. I had a '84 Yamaha Riva 180 that I had a lot of good times with too. Keep those follow ups coming.....  8)  :motonoises:
 
A most impressive & enjoyable read from page 1. Thanks so much for sharing. Enjoy your new (too you) scoot & keep the updates coming.
 
This looked like a fun project and easily worth the effort.  Over the last 30 years I have been given a total of four free bikes.  Each one has been a lot of work and I ended up selling each one not long after.  The latest was an old high school buddy gave me a 83 V65 Magna that sat of 10 years.  I have had it now for almost three years and still have not heard it run.  The tanks were rusty and the carbs were so bad the throttle would not turn.  I believe that MTB fuel was in the tank and that is some nasty stuff.  I started on it again this spring and when I put acid in the auxiliary tank it sprung a leak :'(.  The good news is the wife texted me that the new/used auxiliary tank came in today ;D.  Maybe this will be the big weekend.  By the time I add up all the hours and missed riding, I wonder if I should have passed on this one.   
 
Not much new to report... First I got hit with a pinched sciatic nerve that is still giving me trouble after 4 weeks.  Then I went on vacation witch ended up being pretty boring because I could not do any physical activities I like to do.  Still I was able to relax and finely things are about 90% and can now wrench and ride again. 

I still need to service the final drive.  Now that I can bend over and work on my knees again I plan to do that very soon.  I have ridden it about 200 miles now and so far so good.  During my vacation I browsed the Yahoo Reflex Owners Group.  I have not joined yet because its so difficult to track so many forums but probably will eventually.  The cool thing about browsing the forum is I learned a lot of about the scooter.  A lot of things I thought were issues turned out to be nature of the beast witch makes me feel a lot more confident.  Also some issues are easily correctable.  For example the scooter is rather shaky when you first get going.  Apparently the clutch gets glazed and tends to get a bit grabby.  If you hold the rear brake and throttle up to 5K RPM's it tends to De-glaze the clutch solving the problem.  If it comes back in short order you can remove the clutch and sand the surfaces down with Emory paper and that should fix it for a long while.  Before reading this I was thinking I may have to rebuild the clutch and possibly the varieter.   

I also learned that keeping a fresh belt in this scooter is pretty important.  Apparently several people have shredded the belts around the 10 to 12K mark.  Its a $60 part plus a few bucks for the proper tools.  The normal replacement schedule is 10K miles witch for a scoot is probably once every few years for most people.  However a few people have crazy high miles on these Reflexes.  One guy has a 140K and another has 120K.  Being a single some oil consumption is considered normal.  So regardless of miles its important to check the oil.  I can't say that I noticed any loss with mine so far but it is a lot like the KLR 650.  All is well and then for some reason it burns a lot at once.  As long as they don't run out of oil these scoots are damn near bullet proof. 

On my first tank I managed to pull off 59 mpg.  Witch is not exactly great considering the type of vehicle this is and the size.  However I am not sure I ever filled the tank completely and I spend considerable amount of time working on it and running it in the garage.  So I expect the MPG to really improve.  Most seem to get 70 to as much as 80 mpg. 

I also learned the spotty idle and rough running is also nature of the beast.  Retuning the carb can help a bit and also changing spark plug temperature rating during the different seasons can help.  If this scoot sits for a period of time it can be very difficult to start.  I can't say mine has had much drama other then when bringing it back to life but then again I have not ran it for the past 15 days being on vacation.  So I will find out in the few days. 

Before leaving on vacation I did not have the opportunity to put the charger on.  When I hooked it up it was still greater then 80% charged.  So it does not look like any sort of drain is taking place witch is good.  I do need to check out the charging system.  Pre 2004 Reflexes have very weak stators.  They usually hold up if you don't have any accessories but even then they tend to fail at the 20 to 25K mark.  Basically I need to make sure I get 14 volts give or take a few at 2K rpm's.  If it drops it will require a $300 repair.  Hopefully this is not the case anytime soon.

Once the shop slows down I plan to get it in for a tire change.  I am doing more and more myself but I usually leave tires to the shop and scooter tires can sometimes be more difficult then motorcycle tires.  Tires are about $60 each at stealer prices and about $20 per end to mount.  Not a lot in my opinion and much easier then trying to do them myself.       
 
Finely serviced the final drive the other day.  I first tried the technique of filling through the drain hole.  It worked sort of but it was making a pretty big mess and I had a problem with the bottle sucking the oil back into the bottle as I tried to get air back into the bottle to squeeze more oil in.  In the end I was not satisfied with that sort of way of doing it and I had no idea how much oil I actually had in the final drive.  The amount still remaining in the bottle and what spilled on the ground I came to the conclusion that I had very little in there.  So I decided to just do it right and took off some the plastic and 2 layers of covering on the transmission.  It was not difficult but a lot of screws of varying sizes that have to go back in the right places.  It turns out doing it right is really the best way because I had very little oil in the final drive.  I personally don't recommend trying to fill through the drain hole.

The oil that came out did not look to bad.  It was dark in color and kind of smelly but had very little metallic flake in it.  It was probably due to be changed but I would venture to guess that it had been serviced before.  I also inspected the belt.  I did not see any obvious problems but its looked kind of aged so I will replace that fairly soon.  These things tend to fail pretty quickly and without warning and the best thing to do is to replace the belt on a schedule. 

Today I am riding it to the dealer to pick up some coolant.  This is another fairly easy project once you get to the radiator but that is the tricky part.  Looks like I will have to pull out the tray under the seat and possibly the left side rear fairing.  Once you get to it though its a simple procedure of opening the drain plug and letting the old coolant out and then dumping some new stuff in.  The shop manual suggest running the engine and revving it up and add coolant as it drops in the radiator to burp all the air bubbles out. 

After this its time to do the brake fluids as they are very dark.  I am a bit nervous because this scooter has the famous Honda linked brake system.  Bleeding it properly can be a real project.  The shop manual has a procedure so hopefully that helps.  Shop says they simply suck the old fluid out of both calipers at the same time as they add fresh fluid to both reservoirs.  However they have a special vacuum pump that can do this.  I have a Mitty Vac but as far as I know it can only do one caliper at a time.  My preferred method is the old school way using a speed bleeder and works perfectly on all bikes but I don't know how it will work on this linked system.  I will find out here soon!

I really like this maxi scoot.  The thing is making me think about buying a Suzuki Bergman but they are sure expensive new.  Luckily they can be found used with not to many miles on them for a fairly good price.  Not really serious at this point but if this Reflex starts to be a nightmare I may sell it off and go that route.  One problem with the larger maxi scooters is they really don't achieve any more economy then a regular motorcycle.  Really the Reflex 250 is about as big as you can go and still get crazy good fuel economy.         
 
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