speedomter question

[brucealmighty]

1982 XJ1100 Maxim. Speedometer just bought the farm. I'm thinking maybe of trying a wireless speedometer. Has anyone had any luck with those?

[TADracer]

You mean wireless like in GPS? I have been looking a a few of those but I just cannot bring myself to make the leap. I do like the idea though.

[TopCatGr58]

When I was searching for Electronic Tachs, saw a few of the digital speedos, they use a sensor attached to the spokes of the wheel, you program the computer with the total wheel/tire diameter, and it counts the wheel rpms and converts them to speedo in mph. But I think it still uses a wire running from the sensor pickup on the fork up to the gauge.

At my recent XS east rally I attended, my brother was using a GPS, and was using it for a SPEEDO. I don't know the stats on the preciseness of the readout??
T.C.

[brucealmighty]

After looking around some more, I guess what I'm talking about is the speedo that has a sensor attached to the wheel and is connected by a wire, but not a cable like the OEM. I've read about tachometers that work just by pointing a laser at the end of the crankshaft. I wonder if there's a speedo that works by pointing a laser at the ground and measures speed that way?

[Yahman]

This one looks like it would work well.

http://trailtech.net/vapor.html

http://www.trailtech.net/75-704.html

It gives you speed, distance, tach, temp and clock all in one.

Larry

[brucealmighty]

That certainly looks like it would do the job, and then some. A bit pricey and more bells and whistles than I really need, or want. I was hoping to keep it under $100, and all I really want is a speedometer with odometer (trip odometer would be nice, too).

[trbig]

Just to back up a bit.... What do you mean by the speedo bit the dust? Is it just the cable or the cable end? Does it just need some grease on the internal gears?

It wouldn't take much to fix it.. I probably have a spare sitting here somewhere. Unless you're just set on getting something different.


Tod

[brucealmighty]

Yes, I probably should have provided some details earlier.
Cruising along, speedometer starts making chattering, grinding noises, gets shaky, stops working, starts again, quits again...etc.
I take it apart. Sending unit appears to be working fine. Cable appears fine. Just to be sure I replace them both with other units (pays to have mountains of junk parts lying about). No difference. I connect an end of the cable to an electric drill and spin it in reverse and the speedometer does work, although still makes noise. I'm stumped. Am I not assembling the sending unit correctly, so the tabs aren't in the slots and it's not working? If so, after numerous assemblies and disassemblies, I'm unable to verity that. Is it that the speedo works as long as the cable is inserted far enough into the unit, but somehow it keeps falling out? If the same true of the other end? After taking it down and putting it back up so many times that I've exhausted my supply of cotter pins for the axle nut, I final convince myself that what I really want anyway is to chuck the whole thing and switch to a computerized, cable free speedo. I pulled the whole gauge cluster and tossed it into the recycling compactor. Boy, I do the dumbest things sometimes. Sometimes they turn out okay though. I really didn't know what I might be disabling by disconnecting the whole computer module. The headlight, tail light, and brake lights had to be rewired, but that was easy enough. I'm now driving it with no gauges at all. I gotta say, there isn't much about that flashy grab bag of bells and whistles that I miss. I just would like a speedometer, odometer, and resettable trip odometer. I suppose an oil pressure gauge would be a good thing to have also.
I've been looking at this unit on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mini-...spagenameZWDVW

What do ya think? Look any good?

[xschop]

speedo

The Bell brand bicycle speedometer works great and is ACCURATE. It has a speedometer (km or Miles), odometer, and trip distance, time, and is programmable for different tire diameters which makes it nice....Chop

[brucealmighty]

Are you saying that a bicycle speedometer that sells for $7.22 on Amazon, will work on an 1100cc motorcycle? I guess I'm a little skeptical. Have you used this on your own bike?

http://www.amazon.com/Bell-SpinFit-C...outThisProduct

[Lamric]

I use a Sigma Sport bicycle computer on my SG. It works great. Totally recommend them.

One tip, don't try to set up any speedo by attempting to measure the wheel circumference or diameter - it will be inaccurate 'cos the tyre is flat at the bottom. Instead, ride a known distance (or use your current tripmeter) and compare this with what distance your new bike computer thinks it has traveled. Then do this sum....

True Distance Travelled * Current Wheel Size in bike computer / bike computer reported Distance Travelled = Accurate Wheel Size value to use.

[brucealmighty]

Originally posted by Lamric
I use a Sigma Sport bicycle computer on my SG. It works great. Totally recommend them.

One tip, don't try to set up any speedo by attempting to measure the wheel circumference or diameter - it will be inaccurate 'cos the tyre is flat at the bottom.

Well... how 'bout if I turn the tire around so the flat part is on top? Uh, no, I guess not
I see that Dick's Sporting Goods sells the Sigma Speedometers, so I'm going there today to check it out. If I buy one, I'm sure I'll have questions or comments to add here. Thanks for all the help.

[xschop]

$7.22

you can't even get a speedo cable for that cheep!....Splurge and spend an extra 10 bucks at walmart and get the wireless one...Yes, they are Great and help with the front end swap problems on our bikes....chop

[psycoreefer]

that vaypor thing gets me a little excited.... so damn sexy. If I ever do a front end swap I'm getting one of those.

[brucealmighty]

Went to Dick's Sporting Good and bought a Sigma Speedometer ('scuse me, now they're called computers). It has 12 functions, most of which I'll never use, but for $35.00, how could I lose? I had a bit of trouble mounting the sensor and magnet to the front wheel, because of course, they're meant to go on a bicycle. I lost the tiny magnet that is supposed to clip onto a wheel spoke, but I substituted a refrigerator magnet and that works just fine. I calibrated the unit according to instructions, but measuring the distance the front wheel travels, but I'm not sure how acccurate it is yet.