Zuma vs Ruckus

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

Right you are Brad The Cubed. My own comparisons between GPS and Honda-san's instrument shows an 8 percent optimism using stock tire sizes. If this applies to the Ruck, your speed would be 36.8. Flash III now reads within 1% of true thanks to. 3.50 front tire.

Motorcycle Consumer News is the only US publication that does not accept ads AFAIK. They include the speedometer error in their stats tables of every road test. The worst offenders always seem to be the 600cc sportbikes, as much as 12 percent high for obvious reasons.

Only Harley-Davidson speedometers even approach reality, typically 4 percent high. I fixed that on the Sportster S by mounting a 30-tooth front pulley - stock is 29.

Back on topic, if it's not GPS, it's not very reliable. There's no reason to believe Yamaha's speedos are any better.

[az_slynch]

So sez the Wheelman:

Back on topic, if it's not GPS, it's not very reliable. There's no reason to believe Yamaha's speedos are any better.

I'd agree to this. The speedometer on my XC180 consistently reads 10% high.

If you want weird, the speedometer on my P200E is consistently 5mph slow, as long as the speed is 5mph or greater.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

I just GPSed Flash III. I was incorrect in my statement before. With the speedometer needle smack-dab in the middle of the 30 MPH mark, the Garmin said 31, for a ~3 percent pessimistic error. Oops. This was caused by a tire swap from stock 3.00 to a 3.50 front Michelin. It would appear that the the Elite's speedometer wasn't as far off as the Aero's.

[aerorob]

random question. with a stock front tire on a 2001 elite, about what speed am i hitting when the spedo needle is underlining the mph? i cant find my gps for the life of me...

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

I'd say something over 45MPH at stock calibration. With the fat 3.50 tire, I lose my speedometer needle altogether at around 55 GPS. I now realize that a 90/90 up front causes the speedo to read just a bit higher than true - maybe 3-4% optimistic.
Tire growth at higher speeds probably amounts to some factor.

[aerorob]

thanks wheelman.