[Dragoon]

:?:

So I have read several times that folks think our Speedos are purposely off by five to ten miles per hour hence when I make reference to my speed I use the word indicated. Not being up to speed on the mechanics of the device, I had to wonder, if this is true that my speed is set higher then it really is, does the odometer operate the same way :idea: . This could make a huge difference to someone like me who had put on 14k miles since June 22nd. It means that over a period of three or four years, I may have 85k showing on my speedo when I have really only traveled 60K.

Does anybody know for sure and does this concern make sense? :?:

 

[sdbrit68]

I have heard most speedos are off, but never thought about the odometer

 

[rixemailfl]

If your speedo is off (as most of these apparently are) it will cause your odometer reading to be off as well. They are strictly a mechanical device on the Spirit 1100 and go simply by the number of revolutions the front tire.

 

[cycleheart1100c]

If the speedo is off by that much, should your warranty expire at an indicated mileage or?..... :shock:

 

[Dragoon]

If your speedo is off (as most of these apparently are) it will cause your odometer reading to be off as well. They are strictly a mechanical device on the Spirit 1100 and go simply by the number of revolutions the front tire.

This is exactly like I thought it worked, thus my 14k on the speedo is maybe 12k. This is grossly unfair. It also make my MPG tracking inaccurate. So, I guess one needs to find out where I can get the info on how much off they really are. Maybe some one has put it on a machine to determine this, but even then, a mechanical device will always have deviances thus no two would be alike. I truly have no worries about it but its one of those things that sticks in your mind till I have an answer.

It would also be good to know when I am speeding. When I first read abut this, I had my wife drive along side me on the HWY at three separate speeds only to discover it is not linier at all. I was off by 8 mph at 50 mph ( indicated by her GPS) and I was off by 12 miles an hour at 70. now, a friend of mine rented a radar gun when he was tuning his boat. I think I might find out where he got it from and do some testing. By the way, he spent $1200 on a prop to buy him 5 MPH. not bad but who need to go 80 across the water, the 75 mph his boat did comfortably would have been just fine for me.

Cheers

 

[Dragoon]

If the speedo is off by that much, should your warranty expire at an indicated mileage or?..... :shock:

:shock: Great point. I see class Action in Hondas future :twisted: . This as so many implications.

I am still on a hunt for a good tach or electric Speedo that includes a tach, so anybody know of a good product, please chime in .

 

[bullzeyet]

I think I read somewhere(newspaper/moto mag??) a "class action" is being pursued. Not sure, but it may have been in Motorcycle Consumer News(but don't quote me). This suit is against Honda and the "auto division", if I remember. :roll:

As most of "us" that have bought/used Honda motorcycles for many, many, many years....as the speedo gets over 55mph, the "error" gets worse and worse(5% to 10%). Below 55mph...not as bad(generally 1%).

We've been harping about this for years and some of the "explainations" go like this.........it'll save you money on your speeding ticket, for example. :roll: :shock: :?

Bullzeyet

 

[crazyneal]

speedo error

I remember reading somewhere, that here in the US, Fedral regulations
require odometers to be fairly accurate, while no such regulation
exists for speedometers.

I'm pretty sure that even though they are actuated by the same
cable, that the speedo and odo are separate mechanisms, so that
it is quite possible for the odo to be dead accurate while the speedo
is way off. I've had vehicles that had speedo needles which swung
around randomly, while the odo seemed (according to the mile
markers on highways) to work well.

 

[gotopage69]

Speedometer and odometer error are not necessarily the same percentage. Each bike must be checked individually. My old KLR650 had a speedometer error of plus 10 percent, but the odometer was right on. I have had several bikes that had a greater error on the speedometer than the odometer.

My Shadow reads between two and three percent high, both speedometer and odometer. The next size larger tire would help, but there is not enough fender clearance to do that. The factory fork brace makes it difficult to raise the fender, so I just live with the error.

My Harleys get the signal for the speedometer and odometer from fourth gear in the transmission. Both bikes have speedometers and odometers that are right on. If Harley can make accurate speedometers, Honda should be able to do it also.

Yes, I believe that the Honda speedos are purposely erroneous.

 

[Snooze]

There is a class action against Honda cars model years 2002 thru 2006 alleging the odometer is off by 2 to 4%. As might be expected, the lawyers are asking for up to $9.8 Million for fees, expenses and incentive award. The woman who started the suit will get a measly $10,000.00.

 

[sbartos]

I know that my odometer is pretty accurate. When I replaced my front Dunlop with a slightly lower profile Metzler I checked my mileage when I went through one of those Caltrans odometer checks. It was spot on.

 

[AngryHatter]

I had my wife pace me and we ticked off 50...60...70 mph and the durango and the honda agreed?

The same day I drove past a radar gun display...YOUR SPEED...
It was reading 42 mph and my speedometer said a hair above 40.

Weird.

 

[Trueseaker]

I own two hondas. One is an Element, the speedo on it reads about 4-5 mph high at 60 mph. the Shadow feels like it's off by more, but I have yet to trick a radar sign into telling me how fast I'm going... maybe I'm too small a target? I know I am between 63 - 68 on the highway by my house to stay with traffic, and in my car I'm doing more like 60-64. Of course thats averages so it's not real accurate. I didn't know about the class action Odometer lawsuit against Honda, I just recieved notice that there is a class action lawsuit against them for putting windshields in Elements that were known to crack. (Yup, mine cracked, 2 years ago...it's down low, I see over it, I ain't fixin it unless they have to fix it due to this lawsuit.)

 

[red_haint]

(Yup, mine cracked, 2 years ago...it's down low, I see over it, I ain't fixin it unless they have to fix it due to this lawsuit.)

You'd be wanting to replace that shield buckaroo, modern car design incorperates the windshield to help with strength. If the shield is cracked it can't properly hold a load should there be an accident. Insurance might pay for a new one though.

 

[vito]

Can / does a GPS unit show distance or just locations? That would give you a very accurate reading for distance traveled vs. what your odometer says. May not help with the speedo though....

 

[jaydrake]

I checked my speedo with my gps and it was 1.5 mph high at all speeds. Next time I think of it I'll check the odometer and report back.

 

[spoupard]

According to my GPS, both my speedo and odometer are off by about 7% at 60mph. Since I bought my bike used and out of warranty, I didn't worry about it. However, if I bought a new bike and the odometer counted up too fast and my warranty ended early because of it, I'd be pretty upset.

 

[bearkatbiker]

Made a trip to Big Bend a few years ago on my ACE 750 and a BMW rider had his GPS. Above 60mph my speedo was off by 4mph below actual speed and my odometer was off by about 2% below actual distance traveled.

Another guy we were riding with was on a Nomad and his was off by more than 7mph below actual speed when riding above 60mph and his odometer was 5% off below actual distance..

He was our road captain too, and we kept telling him to speed UP!!

--BB

 

[XRay]

I may have 85k showing on my speedo when I have really only traveled 60K.

C'mon now. Speedometer/Odometer inaccuracy is an annoyance to be sure, but the sky's not falling. In order for the above statement to be true your odometer (which is typically the more accurate of the two) would have to be off by a little over 40%.

Regards. -Jay

 

[adlowe]

if this is true that my speed is set higher then it really is, does the odometer operate the same way

On my bike, the speedometer reads high by about 10% but the odometer only reads high by about 6%. On my Accord, the speedometer reads high by about 5% while the odometer is accurate. Both have been repeatedly verified by GPS (Garmin 60CS) and a measured mile.

Somewhere here we've got a thread about it; it also includes a link for a device that can be installed to correct the overstatement for those of us with an electronic speedometer system -- which I don't have (hence the reason I didn't keep the link handy).