Speedometer is out

[shikano53]

My 2001 speedometer was out by about 10 kilometers per hour. Now that I have a 2004 RSV I checked it with my GPS and it is also out by 10 per cent as well.

 

It is 10 percent below what is indicated on the gauge.

 

Has Yamaha not addressed this or is there a fix for this other than just accepting it and adjusting accordingly?

 

My 1800 Wing was always dead on with the GPS.

 

Thanks for any comments or advice.

 

Chris

[kj5ix]

Mine is also off by a good 4% or better on both the Goldwing, and the 01 Venture. I use the GPS as the speedo on both. As far as actual and true mileage I don't really think it matters once you get past a certain point,,, You can get a device called Yellow Box and put it in the speedo circuit that will bring it to more true speed but the mileage is still off.

[Guest PlaneCrazy]

My 2001 speedometer was out by about 10 kilometers per hour. Now that I have a 2004 RSV I checked it with my GPS and it is also out by 10 per cent as well.

 

It is 10 percent below what is indicated on the gauge.

 

Has Yamaha not addressed this or is there a fix for this other than just accepting it and adjusting accordingly?

 

My 1800 Wing was always dead on with the GPS.

 

Thanks for any comments or advice.

 

Chris

 

It's a designed feature, not a flaw. It happens on most cars as well. The manufacturers purposefully set the speedometers to read high so that there is never a liability issue of someone getting in an accident or getting a speeding ticket and then claiming their speedo was indicating under the speed limit. They have to make the error greater then any tolerance the speedo might exhibit during normal operation. Just seems to be higher on bikes then cars I have noticed.

 

You can get what's called a "speedo healer" or you can live with it. Myself, I just use my GPS to keep track of speed.

 

It should also be noted that tire size changes the error as well. I put a tire on my last bike that was only 1/2 cm greater in diameter then stock and it brought my speedo error from 5% to almost dead on.

[KeithR]

I installed a Speedohealer on my bike and all is well with the speedometer but not sure if the odometer is accurate. I just checked my Toyota Camry and it is off by approx 6% but the Pontiac G5 is dead on.....maybe just the imports?

 

 

Keith

[shikano53]

Thanks for the interesting comments.

My wife's 2002 Pontiac Grande Am is dead on as was my 2008 Honda Ridgeline. My 2011 VW Jetta is also out by about 10 percent.

 

Chris

[Seaking]

Most Japanese bikes will read around 10% faster than they actually are doing. On my 2006 Midnight, it was reading roughly 9.3% faster on the speedometer than I was actually going.

 

I installed a SpeedoHealer this year and it works nicely. And accurately so.

 

Your ODO will not read properly but in the overall scheme of things, this is acceptable, in my opinion..

 

As best as I can figure it out, because it's not overly consistent, the ODO will be roughly 4% or 5% off on average.. To some people this is most unacceptable, for what ever reason... but over a maintenance periodicity, you won't be off schedule by very much for oil changes and so forth..

 

After 85,000 miles on a bike, what's 5% of that overall going to affect things? I'd sooner have an accurate speed than worry about doing my oil change 300 or 800 miles earlier / later..

 

That's just me.. your mileage may vary..

 

Cheers

[N3FOL]

On my RSV, my speedo is almost 5 miles lower than the GPS. So if I really want to run at 75 mph, I simply hit 80 on the speedo and I am almost guaranteed that is my speed.

 

BTW, 75 mph is the sweet spot on my bike. Nice and smooth on the highway.