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speedo off

Wed, 2008-09-17 04:58 — afj69

We have heard and shown that the speedo is off by 4 miles an hour slow, but something new I just discovered. My speedo is putting more miles than I travel. The first clue was when I road to work, I have driven this many years and it has always been 30.0 mile each way, when I went on the bike it was 31.7 miles. The second test was with my GPS and again it was off by almost 2 miles to every 30, then the final test was on a group ride, three buddies and I filled up at the same time we all zeroed our speedos and guess what on a 100 hundred mile trip I had over 7 miles more than they did. By the way we all had different bike but the other two were the same.
3000 miles on the bike now, I figure I have at least 150 more miles then I should

Has anyone else check or found this to be the same on their bike?

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Thu, 2008-11-13 07:16 — deweys

Dewey's As I pass the Radar

Dewey's
As I pass the Radar that show us our speed my 09 is off by 5 miles an hour high. I haven't checked the miles driven but they seem off. I asked a yamaha Rep at the bike show and was told all bikes were off and to live with it. I'm sure I going to get my dealer to look at and make it right now that I find it is so wide spread.
Duane

Wed, 2008-11-12 21:46 — ClaytonG

I haven't run a GPS on it,

I haven't run a GPS on it, but the other night driving down the highway I passed 3 cars with the digital speedometers that I could read. All 3 showed my speedo to be 5 miles off.

Thu, 2008-10-30 19:26 — Snakerider

My speedometer is 9% too

My speedometer is 9% too high -- at actual 55 mph, the speedo reado 60 mph. Mileage is about 3% high.

Thu, 2008-10-30 22:49 — MORG_kw

re: speedo

I understand your comment about your speedo being high, as most of them are found to be off by an average of about 7-8%, typical for almost every metric bike made today. I've corrected half of that with new tires. Since I've switched to the Metzeler ME 880s with the 180/70-16 rear tire, my speedo is now off by only 3 to 4%.

It's your statement about your odometer that's puzzling. According to most GPS units, they have shown time and time again that our 1300's odometers are "almost" exactly correct and nowhere near that 3% error as you reported. It's not that I'm doubting your word, but I'm puzzled as to why yours is so much different than many of the other 1300s, mine included.

Be well.
Morg

Fri, 2008-10-10 17:17 — MORG_kw

Speedo error

Another long-time discussed topic, it's been fairly consistent for a GPS to indicate our speedo reading generally being around 7% high at all speeds. The GPS also indicates the odometer being "almost" right on the money with just a marginal error. The reason for the difference is that the odometer is controlled within the ECU in a different manner than is the speedo. Additionally, for anyone who has switched to a 180/70R-16 radial rear tire (Metzeler, Avon, etc.), their speedo error is reduced to about 4%.

Enjoy the weekend.
Morg - Key West

Wed, 2008-09-17 20:09 — hd not

speedo off

HD NOT
Mine reads exactly 5 mph over @ 50 mph

Wed, 2008-09-17 08:02 — giddyup

Speedo Off

Very interesting...our warranties will run out sooner!

Keep the faith, Rog

Wed, 2008-09-17 09:49 — T_Rider

Wow...I'm going to test this

Wow...I'm going to test this out on my bike. I'll let you know my results in the next day or so.
If this is true for all of us then we really need to press the issue. I know I don't want my warrantie to run out before it's time.

Thanks for sharing this bit of interesting info.

Wed, 2008-09-17 17:37 — cfinn1

When I first heard about the

When I first heard about the speedo's being off I got out the GPS to verify the speedo error and I also figured the odometer would also be off. I found very little difference in the odometer and GPS distances.

Mon, 2008-09-29 09:26 — jlshooter

Hmmmm

What is interesting to me is that when my speedo has me at 120 kms/h my GPS has me at 113 kms/h. However when in my car and the speedo has me at 120 kms/h, my GPS has me at... Ready for this? 113 kms/h. So I don't put much stock in the reading on my GPS unit.

Now there is an odometer test section of the highway just east of this city. It's a 5 km stretch where they have a sign at 1 km intervals. In those 5 kms my bikes odometer has me doing 4.8 kms. Going by that, the odometer on my bike is currently reading 12000 kms. It should be reading 12480 kms.

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Most problems with motorcycles are caused by the nut that connects the handle bars to the saddle.

Fri, 2008-10-03 08:00 — T_Rider

Done Testing

Well for the last week I've tested out the mileage reading. My bike is exactly a tenth of a mile per mile off. When I drive to work on the bike it's 8.4 miles when I drive to work all three of my trucks it's 7.7 miles. When I drive 10 miles in any of my trucks, then drive the same 10 miles on the bike I'm at 11 miles.

Fri, 2008-10-10 18:34 — wonbyone

New bike... speedo

Greetings all.
My name is Bill, I picked up a brand new 08 silver bike on Tuesday. I rode Wed 223 miles with a friend on a bike that I sold him many years ago. When I owned that Bike (V-Star 650), I tested the speedo with a GPS, and found it to be dead accurate. On the ride Wed, I let Mike lead and asked him to raise his arm with he reached 60 mph. When he raised his arm, my new bike indicated 60 mph. Later we both re-fueled and reset our trip meters. At 120 miles on my bike we stopped for fuel again. After pumping in 2.2 gallons, which brought the fuel level up to the top of inside recessed ring, precisely as I did on the first fill up, I went over to Mike. His trip meter indicated 119 miles, and he put in 2.4 gallons. The trip meter on the vstar 650 is mechanical and I don't believe reads tenths of miles. Another observation... the recessed ring in the fuel tank has many slots in it to allow air to escape, and I was surprised to see these based on comments of people who punched holes in the ring to allow air to escape. I'm very happy with the bike overall. I have noticed the "clunk" on bumpy roads at slow speed.
I'll retest my speedo with a GPS to be sure, but it seems that my speedo is accurate. If I find it different, I will post the info here.
Respectfully --Bill

Thu, 2008-11-13 03:21 — wonbyone

Yep, it is off

Finally got the GPS mounted and was able to get a little ride in yesterday.
The speedo is off my 3-4 mph (over stated just like everyones). Did not test the odometer, will do that tomorrow.
Best regards, --Bill

Fri, 2008-11-14 02:49 — wonbyone

GPS miles

OK, Here is the result of ride today.
GPS says 192 miles. The trip meter on the bike indicates 186. Did not test this with the odometer, presumed they would be the same.
Not what I expected given the bike's indicated speed is overstated by 3-5 miles per hour depending on the speed.
But it is within 5%... go figure.
Regards, --Bill

Thu, 2008-10-30 22:57 — MNeedham73

Perhaps not the most

Perhaps not the most accurate way of testing a speedo, but I've purposely ridden by the police units around here that have the speed guns tied into the display that show how fast you're going.

I've passed them doing 35 (in a 35 zone), 50 (in a 45 zone), and 60 (in a 55 zone), and my speedo was reading the same as what I was getting clocked at.

*shrug*