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[spelunker]

Just wondering... how accurate are the Zero speedometers? I've had motorcycles that have had varying degrees of accuracy, some not very.

[Richard230]

Just wondering... how accurate are the Zero speedometers? I've had motorcycles that have had varying degrees of accuracy, some not very.

Not very.  In other words typical for most motorcycles.  My Zero seems to read about 8% fast.  That is very close to the error that both of my BMW's have in their speedometers - although their odometers seem to be pretty accurate.

The worse inaccuracy that I have ever seen was my last EMS GPR-S.  It read 20% fast.  That is the cheap way to make your motorcycle fast.  Use a speedometer that reads high.  A lot cheaper than adding more power.   

There is a thread on the 2012 board where Harlan tells how to correct the speedo so that it is accurate.  Something about pushing a couple of buttons at once and changing the number displayed on the speedometer screen.  But I never tried it.  I like to pretend that I am going faster than I really am.   

[lolachampcar]

The odometer comment is insteresting as that would affect how one would view the bike's range.

[trikester]

In my ride to cutoff on the 2013 FX Wednesday (46 miles) I noted that distance on the bike's gauge was +1 mile for each 12 miles on my GPS and speed was +3mph at 35mph on my GPS.

Trikester

[amahoser]

I mounted my phone with a GPS App on my '13 S 11.4. an indicated 30mph, the GPS showed 28. This jived with one of those "Your Speed Is" Radar signs by my house. At an indicated 80mph, the GPS showed 76mph. The odometer showed similar dispcrepencies.

Jose Soriano

[trikester]

It looks like your speed reading is a little closer than what I reported. If my +3mph @ 35 mph held in a linear fashion you would have had +6 mph @ 70. Of course who's to say that the error is linear.

Did your distance error correspond with what I reported?

Trikester

[amahoser]

Did an indicated 26.8 miles with a GPS  distance of 25.4 today. I did notice almost a 2 mile difference at around 35 miles previously. So it seems that it tracks pretty close to the same error as the speedometer.

Trikester, are those speed and distance measurements with the stock tires or with your new tires? I wonder if your tire diameter is different than stock causing more error.

Jose Soriano

[Harlan]

Trikester, I think between your new tires and the chain conversion, your speedo is a little further off than originally from the factory.

[lolachampcar]

Harlan,
Did you have a way to calibrate the spedo and does the MBB get its speed/distance data from the spedo?

[trikester]

Trikester, I think between your new tires and the chain conversion, your speedo is a little further off than originally from the factory.

The chain conversion may have made the error larger, I don't know what the ratio difference is from the stock belt drive.

The larger tire diameter would bring the difference down since the bike's readings are high. On my '12 DS I increased the rear wheel diameter a lot because I increased the rim diameter and put on a larger tire, it brought the error down to almost nothing since that bike was also reading high before the change. An increase in wheel diameter brings down the bike's speedo / Odo readings since they come from the motor. I was lucky that on the '12 it just about cancelled the bike's error in readings.

Harlan, do you know the chain ratio and the belt ratio for my FX?

Trikester