Low speed speedo ???

[fredintoon]

alternative speedos

- - - I only discovered it because I'm searching for a replacement for mine which which reads 220 kmh/140mph and will quite happily achieve this when i'm in the mood (weather, road and god willing)

Hi Brian,
Jimmy Carter's 55mph speed limit also had a suggested domestic thermostat setting of 68ºF.
Which led to the cartoon of the young lady saying to the cop:-
"55 is the speed limit? No wonder it's so cold in our house!"
However, don't limit the search to XS11 speedos. Any XS series speedo will work for you including the Canadian & Euro metric ones. The smaller capacity bike speedos don't read quite as high as the XS11s but the lowest of them reads 120 mph which beats the 85mph max reading of a Carter years US speedo.

[b.walker5]

....However, don't limit the search to XS11 speedos. Any XS series speedo will work for you including the Canadian & Euro metric ones. The smaller capacity bike speedos don't read quite as high as the XS11s but the lowest of them reads 120 mph which beats the 85mph max reading of a Carter years US speedo.

Thanks, I'm aware of the similarities between models, in fact the UK XS11 site has a very useful cross reference chart for parts searches. I had two XS750's before the 11 and one was a parts bike, but other than carbs, some electrics and the final drive I got rid of them when bought the 11. Hindsight tells me that was a dumb move 'cause now I cant find any of the required parts anywhere in this country or Australia and everything else is on the other side of the world where freight seems to be charged by the ounce in USD. Our exchange rate against the USD at the moment is .49 cents.

But at the moment I havent been able to find any metric speedo's anywhere in the world and now I'm thinking I might have to ditch the Tacho as well and mount some sort of after market guage setup to get going again.

Problem with that is our archaic laws in this country prohibit vehicle modification without re-inspection and certification (and the required revenue gathering fee) by the Land Transport Safety Authority and any change away from original design, not matter how minor, is considered a modification, which is why I cant use an imperial speedo.

I may not be dead in the water yet though as think I can ressurect the internals of mine with some glue and small hammers and fit it in a new can. Once i figure out how to seperate the top ring to replace the glass.

[oseaghdha]

Like some wanker from the Land Transport Safety Authority will have the sightest idea what a 30 year old motorcycle's speedo should look like?

[b.walker5]

Like some wanker from the Land Transport Safety Authority will have the sightest idea what a 30 year old motorcycle's speedo should look like?

Yeah, you would think so, but every six months we have to get a Warrant Of Fitness (WOF) inspection to keep them registered for the road and it's then that mods get picked up. The inspections are often done by dealers and guys who ride bikes and know when somethings not original.

[XJOK2PLAY]

"Welcome back"...

Yes.. you are absolutely right, and I totally agree. The same (or worse) mentality is back... Thank goodness they haven't decided to start screwin' around the speed limits again... (figure it's just a matter of time.)

I just bought a 160 speedo off of ebay for $57.75, and the conversion's not that tough... (especially if ya got a friend who's done it!)

I agree, something else was wrong that caused the self-cancellors to quit.

Also, FYI... We had a fatality bike wreck in Tulsa, Ok. this morning.
Seems Bro. Biker tried to take an off-ramp from Hwy. 169 to East bound B.A. Expressway too fast, lost control and went down, and got ran over by a truck that was behind him... Condolences to the family.

[TopCatGr58]

I may not be dead in the water yet though as think I can ressurect the internals of mine with some glue and small hammers and fit it in a new can. Once i figure out how to seperate the top ring to replace the glass.

Hey Walker,

If you look at the Repairs Forum, you'll see one about replacing the tach face, but the way the bezel comes off is the same. Takes some patience and a fine flat screwdriver to slowly pry up the lip on the bottom side of the bezel. Other's have taken a dremel cut off disc and just cut the bezel in half all the way around it, and then just glueing it back together. Have fun.
T.C.

[fredintoon]

But at the moment I havent been able to find any metric speedo's anywhere in the world and now I'm thinking I might have to ditch the Tacho as well and mount some sort of after market guage setup to get going again.

Problem with that is our archaic laws in this country prohibit vehicle modification without re-inspection and certification (and the required revenue gathering fee) by the Land Transport Safety Authority and any change away from original design, not matter how minor, is considered a modification, which is why I cant use an imperial speedo.

I may not be dead in the water yet though as think I can ressurect the internals of mine with some glue and small hammers and fit it in a new can. Once i figure out how to seperate the top ring to replace the glass.

Hi Brian,
look for a Canadian speedo (it's metric).
Q&D fix to get the bezel off is to carefully cut it into two C-shapes with a cutting disc in a Dremel tool and pull them off sideways.
Put the two C-shapes back on with epoxy. Be warned, once the half-rings are epoxied back on they will NOT come off.
And don't tell the fascist bastards if you change stuff, on a bike that old it's likely they won't know the difference.

[b.walker5]

[QUOTE]Originally Posted by oseaghdha
Like some wanker from the Land Transport Safety Authority will have the sightest idea what a 30 year old motorcycle's speedo should look like?
[/QUOTE

Yeah, you would think so, but every six months we have to get a Warrant Of Fitness (WOF) inspection to keep them registered for the road and it's then that mods get picked up. The inspections are often done by dealers and guys who ride bikes and know when somethings not original.

Thanks for that Fred, but as can be seen from a previous post our facist regulators have "Vays of finding out"

I'll do some searching in Canada and see what comes up. In the meantime I'll fire up the dremel and see what I can destroy.

[fredintoon]

[QUOTE=b.walker5;196169]

as can be seen from a previous post our fascist regulators have "Vays of finding out"

Hi Brian,
do these witless petty-minded bureaucrats actually do a road test?
If not, put the original dead speedo back on when you take it down there.
When my son was in OZ (similar BS there) he had an original muffler to put on
in place of the carbon-fibre aftermarket one for the test and to take off again afterwards.
That spare muff had accompanied the bike through several previous owners.

[b.walker5]

[QUOTE=fredintoon;196176]

Hi Brian,
do these witless petty-minded bureaucrats actually do a road test?

Yeah, they do. They test the brakes at 50km/h on the speedo and guage stopping distances, which is total crap as they don't make allowances for the differing weights of bikes. But as I said earlier most WOF tests are done by dealers who know what should and shouldnt be on the bike. If your'e lucky enough to live in small country towns where there are no dealers, and the local garage has a mechanic with a bike licence you might get away with it for a while, but all WOF testing centres are linked on a national database where test results are recorded, including mods and approvals etc. This was done in the name of safety to prevent vehicles which fail a warrant at one testing centre from going to another where the tester may be a little less vigilant.
I think Australia has become much worse than us now. I have a brother in Sydney and he tells me that their warrant and rego is combined into one and can only be done at special testing centres where they hold an extensive OEM specification database which is compared against the vehicle being tested.

[Pat Kelly]

Check this thread for a speedometer.

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread...ghlight=cateye

I have one on my E and it works great

[b.walker5]

I've seen that already and thinking seriously about it. I used to do a bit of road cycling years ago and I have one in my tool cupboard that I kept after I sold my last cycle, but once again it wouldnt pass our WOF requirements due to being unable to prove calibration. Australia had a case a few years back where a cage driver was pinged by a speed camera. He fought the ticket based on the speed shown on his GPS Navman. He won but he had to prove calibration of the GPS through the CSIRO (govt test labs) which cost him far more that the speeding ticket was ever going to. Shortly after that the Aus Govt changed the law and removed the opportunity to use GPS speed readings as a defence. Shortly after that our Govt did the same. As a result any changes to speedo's require testing and calibration before issuing a WOF.

It can be done, but they don't make it easy and it's expensive.

The logic is stupid 'cause there's no way my 30 year old speedo is accurate and I'd much rather trust a GPS or other electronic speed reading than a mechanical device thats only as good as the lubrication of the cable driving it.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Walker,

I've seen some of the Metric Speedos that show both Kph and MPH. I don't know IF they use the same internals, but just switch the faceplates when they have the Imperial MPG only ones, but I would think that it would be the cheaper thing for Yamaha to do, vs. making a different type of internals for the guages for the Metric folks.

SO....I would think that you should be able to get the innards of an Imperial unit, and swap them with your broken ones, using your metric faceplate, I would think it would match.

I don't have any photos of the Metric/Imperial combo gauge to show or compare the location of certain speeds and their position on the faceplate vs. your Metric only unit, but that would probably provide you the info to determine that you could use ANY Imperial gauge of same style..Standard/Special to swap with your Metric only unit!
T.C.

[b.walker5]

I've seen some of the Metric Speedos that show both Kph and MPH. I don't know IF they use the same internals, but just switch the faceplates when they have the Imperial MPG only ones, but I would think that it would be the cheaper thing for Yamaha to do, vs. making a different type of internals for the guages for the Metric folks.

SO....I would think that you should be able to get the innards of an Imperial unit, and swap them with your broken ones, using your metric faceplate, I would think it would match.
T.C.

That might be worth a shot, but the odometer records Km travelled not miles. Could be that the drive on the front wheel has a different ratio but it also could be that the internals of the guage are calibrated differently. Wouldnt be a problem if WOF testing centres didnt record odometer reading, and enter it on LTSA's national database, every six months, but they do.

I recently had a problem when getting a WOF on my car. At the previous warrant check some twat had incorrectly entered the odo reading and this time the system showed that the reading was less than the last time. The result of this was a letter from LTSA warning of the evils and penalties of speedo tampering.

All of this came about because importers of used Jap cars were winding speedos back before sale to inflate the value of the car. Our law makers decided this was grossly unfair and introduced a whole bunch of rules which did bugger all more than piss legitimate owners off.

[DGXSER]

Walker, just so I can make sure I understand your system. The reality is that you will never find a replacement speedo with the same miles on it. I have never tried it, but perhaps you can "adjust" the milage to match when you switch the guts out. But if not, does your WOF inspection requirements not take into account that you need to upkeep your machine by replacing parts? Is it really expected that you trash any vehicle once a speedo gives up completely? Maybe I am misreading or interpreting this.