everybody's is off...what's even stranger is that my odometer is spot on (checked it against the .5 mile markers in both WV & NY over 50 miles & it was dead on). so, the true question is...how can our speedos be off, but our odometers aren't?

 

There's always the speedohealer. (http://www.speedohealer.com/eng/intro.htm)

But, it seems like an unnecessary expense when you can simply deduct 10% from your current speed.

 

with mine it's not 10%, more like ~5% (gsxr front end). hard to tell, but next time i'm riding with my friend (who has a GPS) i'll get the actual speeds at 60, 70, 80.

 

Mines about 8%, but it's easy enough to calculate that I can't bring myself to spend $95 to "fix" it. I can see how it would bother some, though.

 

Well, by putting some different size tires (just 5 off in aspect ratio) on my Audi, I was able to get the factory speedo within .5 mph @ any speed, and I love having it be right on - enough so that I would be willing to spend $100 on the new bike, but I would think some calibration must be possible within the stock unit...

 

A 120/70 will get the speedo close , but now the odo reads short :BangHead:

 

everybody's is off...what's even stranger is that my odometer is spot on (checked it against the .5 mile markers in both WV & NY over 50 miles & it was dead on). so, the true question is...how can our speedos be off, but our odometers aren't?

OK, now instead of annoyed, I'm just pissed. My speedo is roughly 10% off, and my odometer is about 1% off... checked with my GPS over ~50 mile distance. So, the F'ers at the factory did this on purpose! :angry4:

 

the factory wants you to think you are faster than you really are (to sell bikes).
if the cops are behind you, go by the speedo and you'll be ok, if no cops are around just keep pace with the rest of the traffic (or go fast as hell, it's more fun anyway).

 

Speed Healer is on the way

Once you've driven with a perfect speedo - anything else pisses you off...

 

Speed Healer is on the way

Once you've driven with a perfect speedo - anything else pisses you off...

And it works too. I did mine a few months ago..Mine was more like 14% off. Used a few successive rides down a back road at constant speeds to get numbers from the Speedometer and GPS. Once I had a ratio to correct with, I programmed the speedo healer and it works great.

If you get the Suzuki model, you'll have more than enough wiring harness to go from the speedo cable junction box (in front of the airbox) to the dead space behind the access panel in the front fairing (Making it easy to get at the box in the future.)

 

How does the healer work?

 

sort of off topic, but this is really bugging me...

about 3 weeks ago, I had this strange feeling that my speedometer/tach were off. It would register about 62-63 MPH in 6th gear at 5000 RPM. When I first bought the bike (04 sv650s), I thought it would do 69-70MPH at that RPM, and when I switched to a 120/70 front tire, it dropped down to like 66 or so. I think. When I saw it was like 62-63 a few weeks back, after me not having touched the bike mechanically that I can think of (it was wrecked last year and there was some damage to the tach, but it still "worked"), I just chalked it up to me just seeing things, that it was actually 62-63 when I switched to the 120/70. Then I ride with my friend today (2002 R6) he said that we were going well over 70MPH when my speedo rarely hit 70. Then I got pulled over on Deals Gap for doing faster than I thought my speedo said, and now I'm just paranoid -- what the crap is going on with my speedometer

So yeah, if you have any ideas why my speedo could be off like it is, let me know, else just let me know what front tire you're running and what speed you're doing at 5k RPm in 6th gear, and I'll also be thankful!

Joel

 

Rob, the healer is just a little black box that alters the electrical signal to the speedo. Basically, you can set the correction factor to make your speedo accurate. It plugs in the wiring harness that goes from the speed sensor to the speedometer. I recommend checking your speedo with a handheld GPS, or riding at a VERY constant speed over a VERY known distance. GPS just makes it much easier.

Joel - sometimes our minds can play games with us. I would scrap any ideas of what may have happened/changed in the past and verify your speedo as it sits now. We haven't checked my brother's R6 yet, but we do know that it is WAY off too. Basically, trust no speedo until you've verified it with GPS. Tach's usually don't become more or less inaccurate, I would also check that - you can use a timing light with tach readout or temporarily hook up a car tach and see what happens... But beware, both of those items are notoriously inaccurate too, but at least you'd have an idea of where your's is at.

 

We haven't checked my brother's R6 yet, but we do know that it is WAY off too. Basically, trust no speedo until you've verified it with GPS.

Yeah, I wouldn't be worried about it but he has switched from a 120/60 to a 120/70 tire as well, so it should be decently close to mine at least I'm going to try pacing my dad in his car or talk to the local LEO's about it and see if they can help soon -- they've been setting up the roadside speed things lately in our county, but those may be off, too. Makes me wish I had a GPS!

 

How does the healer work?

It's a signal generator that goes inline with the speedo sender wire.

As the front wheel rotates, a little ring with teeth in it at the front wheel generates electrical pulses. The faster the front wheel spinds, the more pulses per second the sender generates. Normally, these pulses are fed to the instrument panel which does the math and displays the motorcycle's speed on the LCD.

The speedo healer listens for the pulses from the front wheel, then creates it's own pulses based on whatever multiplier you program into it. Those pulses from the speedo healer takes the place of what the actual speedometer unit gets, so you end up seeing the corrected actual speed displayed on the LCD panel of the bike.

Hope that makes sense.

I can't say why the panels are off to start with. Sounds like a quality control issue at the factory.

 

I can't say why the panels are off to start with. Sounds like a quality control issue at the factory.

They're only off on the speedometer - the odometer's are very accurate. Suzuki purposefully altered the programming for the speed readout - either politics or for performance figures.

 

I don't think I've ever owned a motorcycle with an accurate speedometer, and they always seem to read a couple MPH high. This goes all the way back to the mid-'60s. I've never heard a decent explanation. None of the current crop makes a lick of sense ("Slow the rider down" - hah! "Top speed for advertising" - again, hah! Timing is done electronically. "Protect the company against lawsuits" - hah!).

 

sort of off topic, but this is really bugging me...

about 3 weeks ago, I had this strange feeling that my speedometer/tach were off. It would register about 62-63 MPH in 6th gear at 5000 RPM. When I first bought the bike (04 sv650s), I thought it would do 69-70MPH at that RPM, and when I switched to a 120/70 front tire, it dropped down to like 66 or so. I think. When I saw it was like 62-63 a few weeks back, after me not having touched the bike mechanically that I can think of (it was wrecked last year and there was some damage to the tach, but it still "worked"), I just chalked it up to me just seeing things, that it was actually 62-63 when I switched to the 120/70. Then I ride with my friend today (2002 R6) he said that we were going well over 70MPH when my speedo rarely hit 70. Then I got pulled over on Deals Gap for doing faster than I thought my speedo said, and now I'm just paranoid -- what the crap is going on with my speedometer

So yeah, if you have any ideas why my speedo could be off like it is, let me know, else just let me know what front tire you're running and what speed you're doing at 5k RPm in 6th gear, and I'll also be thankful!

Joel

I don't know about 5k, mine is doing 62-63 at 4500rpm in 6th mine is still stock