Motorcycle Speedo" never right!

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Vroom

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:cool: Does this just piss off me, or does anyone else find it annoying that your speedo is usually reading 5km or more faster than your going! (Compared with what a GPS shows you doing) I would tend to trust the GPS! Come on---- its electronic, how hard is it to program in tire rotations per km to get it right! Thats how you get it right in a transport truck--each tire manufacturer lists each one of their tires rev/per km. You just enter that in the computer and wa-la, right speed. Now it will vary a bit with tire wear, but is reasonably close! Do the bike manufactures not give their service people at the dealerships access or do they just not care!!! (After you have spent in some cases as much as a car would cost you) Anyone have an answer--maybe you can??:confused:
 
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My speedometer is off by about 6%. It doesn't piss me off at all. ;)
 
Vroom said:
:cool: Does this just piss off me, or does anyone else find it annoying that your speedo is usually reading 5km or more faster than your going! (Compared with what a GPS shows you doing) I would tend to trust the GPS! Come on---- its electronic, how hard is it to program in tire rotations per mile to get it right! Thats how you get it right in a transport truck--each tire manufacturer lists each one of their tires rev/per km. You just enter that in the computer and wa-la, right speed. Now it will vary a bit with tire wear, but is reasonably close! Do the bike manufactures not give their service people at the dealerships access or do they just not care!!! (After you have spent in some cases as much as a car would cost you) Anyone have an answer--maybe you can??:confused:
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I have a speedhealer - problem solved
 
Its done on purpose, Reason why - Not sure. But they are allowed up to a 10% variance.

Odometer on the other hand will read damn near perfect. (Unless you use a speedohealer)
 
I haven't confirmed it, but it sure feels like my speedo reads higher than my actual speed. I'm okay with it, if that's the case. I'll just trust the speedo, and better for me if I think I'm going faster than I really am :P
 
My speedo used to be 100% accurate. Then I got a bigger rear sprocket, and it's still showing the speed I would be doing if I had stock sprocket on at a given RPM. It's 10-20% off (the faster I'm going, the more off it is it seems.)

Yes it's annoying, but I just judge by traffic around me. And if I NEED to know how fast I'm going, I just remember how fast I'm really going at each speedo-stated speeds (for example, when the speedo says 80 I'm going about 71-73 [[which I learnt by radar.]])
 
Mine's always showing 8-10% high than GPS...keeps my math skills in check while I ride.
 
SpeedoHealer is your solution.

Keep in mind something else though: mostly all bikes have the speedometer showing more, between 5% up to 12% with stock gearing! However, the odometer is spot-on! So, it's not that they can't calculate the revolutions per minute, etc., it's just how them Japanese make the bikes since forever.

Using Speedohealer to correct your speedometer will make your odometer off---so it's a trade you'll have to make.
 
Just get a speedo healer and stop crying.
 
I don't find my spedo to be that off.. but I have heard this 6% discrepancy quite a bit ( also know it can legally be +/- 10%) but I always assumed the odo was off by the same amount.. in fact I believe the spedohealer advertises as correcting the odo, and that a benefit to getting one is your odo doesn't show miles you didn't ride, and says it better for re-sale..

The general feeling in this thread seems to be that your odo is already bang on, and that the healer makes the odo read UNDER the real mileage.. do we know this for sure? any evidence? If you rode exactly 100km's at exactly 100km/h the odo would read 94? really?
 
Keeps the cops off my tail If I ride the normal 15km over then I'm likely not to get a speeding ticket. Mayby this explains my good driving record??
 
I think you'll find that all road going machines have speedos that read slightly high. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. If it was exact it has the possibility of being slightly under. If it's under and you get nailed for speeding you could conceivably go after the manufacturer for damages.

Only vehicles I've been on or in that had dead accurate speedos were police spec with certified speedos.
 
I think mine is off by at least 8-10k, because when i am on side streets, if it's a school zone i'll be doing 40, yet even then school buses (which you would think obey the law) will be right up my *** as if they are impatiently waiting for me to speed up. When i'm in a 60 zone cars will be up my *** unless i'm doing 80, and when i'm on the highway doing 120k cars will still be up my ***. Is this likely? or more likely that i'm 10k off on the dial?

But with my luck i am waiting for the day a cop pulls me over and says i was going 30 over or something, because i am thinking my speedo is too slow, only to find out it was dead on the entire time.. lol
 
just_luc said:
The general feeling in this thread seems to be that your odo is already bang on, and that the healer makes the odo read UNDER the real mileage.. do we know this for sure? any evidence? If you rode exactly 100km's at exactly 100km/h the odo would read 94? really?
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Yes, I can confirm that this was true on my previous bike (2005 Yamaha FZ6): without speedohealer, the speedometer was showing 7-8% above with stock gearing (e.g. I'd be going 100 km/h as indicated on GPS, cluster shows 107-108 km/h). However, distance-wise, the odometer was spot on, which I had measured a few times on trips 250+ km with the help of google maps---always I would be within +/- 1km, which would probably account for the lane changes, etc.

On my current bike, I can tell you precisely how much my speedo is off: 12.3%, I did the measuresments already. Mind you, I have a -1 tooth on the front sprocket. Don't feel like doing the math right now to tell you how much of this 12.3% is due to the different gearing and how much is because of the factory error, but I'd guess about half/half. However, I didn't have a chance to measure my odometer reading yet and determine if it is accurate or not.
 
I added a SIGMA pedal bike to my motorcyle for more accuracy as mine was way off... old gear drive from front wheel.

Zipped tied the sensor to my fork, couple of earth magnets to the brake rotor and used my GPS to fine tune the settings to be as acurate as I can be. Only problem is I can't see it at night but I now know what the factory should be reading to do my cruising speed.
 
Honestly, I had no idea how easy it was to set up a SpeedoDRD until I saw Johnny do it in like 5 minutes.
There is an online calculator, type in your gearing (stock/modded) tire size and it will give you the information you need to tune your speedo.
It's $65 and worth the peace of mind.

http://speedodrd.com/
 
I installed my SpeedoHealer today on the Gixxer---took me all but 10 minutes, mostly for lifting the tank and clipping cable-ties. GPS <=> Speedo, 1:1 now :)
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