Aftermarket Speedo

[sam_cg_cook]

Anyone have a link or suggestion for an aftermarket speedo that goes higher than 85?... will a '79 fit?
Thanks for the info.

[Bill]

Re: Aftermarket Speedo

posted by sam_cg_cook wrote

Anyone have a link or suggestion for an aftermarket speedo that goes higher than 85?... will a '79 fit?

Yup, a '79 Special speedo will fit a 1980/81 Special, and a 1978/79 Standard unit should fit 1980/81 Standard models. What year and model do you have?

So... where are you in "Mid-Coast Maine? I'm up north in Caribou.

[sam_cg_cook]

Bill,

Thanks for the info...
I'm down in Rockland, where the weather is absolutely hideous, still.
I just bought an '80 special, but I have to pick it up in Virginia, which I'll probably do in early to mid April... since there isn't much point in having a bike in Maine before then.

[capocrimini]

Another alternative to the speedo is the 140mph (round) off of the xs750/850. You may have to switch the pigtail, but this is how I have mine and it works great!! They are a lot cheaper than the 78-79 160mph! I got my 140 on ebay for $17.

[Wayne]

I have often thought about getting an older speedo on my '81. But the milage on my bike is only 18+K original miles. Dont wana put a speedo on with more miles than the bike has. Oh Well.

Ride Safe.

[Jerry]

Remenber, this is for an XJ...other XS or Yamaha speedos won't fit the XJ instrument pod.

There is a mod for the XJ, but involves some work and slight modifications. First posted by Dean Kohler several years back.

Get a 160 MPH speedo faceplate from an early XS
With a small file, enlarge the trip odometer digit 'window' to the same size as the XJ's 'window'.
Send the faceplate and old speedo to a shop where they will swap faceplates and recalibrate speedo. Old faceplate is the same size and uses the same mounts as the XJ plate, so the 'window' resize is the only modification required.

I did this on my XJ after Dean posted the info. Cost was about $15.00 for the faceplate and $50.00 for the swap/recalibration, $65.00 total. Goes back to 2000, though, so prices may have gone up a bit.

Shop that did the work was in Oregon. Will have to go back through notes to get address, but guy who did the work split off on his own and as far as I know is still doing speedo work.

An option I have not tried, but other have used it on XS models. is the Sigma bike speedometer. Uses small magnets and a pickup sensor on the front wheel instead of a mechanical drive.

Let me know if you would like more details on the faceplate swap.

[Jerry]

Sorry, didn't read the original post closely enough...question was not for an XJ. However, I think the same mod will work for other XS bikes with the slow-meter (85MPH) except you won't have to resize the trip odometer window, just get the speedo recalibrated.