Add a Tachometer

[Quimrider]

yes both red and blue.

[grego]

hi all

today i installed the tach.. took me about 2 hours cause i'm anal. i didn't take the tank off because everything was accessible. the red and blue i ran inside the sheathing took the plug apart and soldered the wires to the back of the connector. removed the shrink on the neg at the coil soldered the green wire to it and installed new shrink all the way up to the harness. did the same to the ground going to the coil mount. checked out the tach. according to all that i have read i'm 500 rpm higher then everybody else. at 25 mph=3000,20 mph=3500.... don't ask me why cause i couldn't tell ya, but perhaps someone could inform me as to why i'm 500 higher then the rest of the world..

safe biking

grego

[tcrave]

grego- just shift earlier I suppose, thats what I am doing. My bike is doing the same thing, but I'm just shifting earlier than i used to to keep the RPMs down a bit better. It took me a little longer than 30 min only because I solder the wrong wires by accident the first time.

Also, I noticed right after I installed the tach that for some reason my trip meter kept screwing up, it kept advancing itself unexpectedly and was all around screwy. After a couple days of irritation, I figured out that by installing my tach, my clutch cable was rubbing against my trip knob when I turned left. Problem solved though, I ended up just zip tieing it to get it out of the way, I'll take a pic next time I get a chance. I think the reason I was having this problem and others weren't was because I decided to install it on the left side instead of right. The tach on my car is on the left so I wanted to keep it consistent.

One thing I don't like about the tach though is when the sun is shining behind me, I get a lot of glare from it...not sure how to fix this yet.

[Water Warrior 2]

LOL. Always ride towards the sun. I get the same thing with the speedo on my bike. Reflections happen.

[bwader]

For a cheaper digital alternative. This digital tach/ hour meter works pretty good, though it does have a few seconds lag. I have had 2 of these one for over a year until the battery died, then the last one I got it worked fine for 80 scooter hours and 3,000 miles when it started to malfunction.

I'm buying another one. I just use zip ties to mount and it has its own battery and has two wires. One wire you literally wrap around the insulated part of the spark plug wire and the other end you connect to ground or to the frame. Very simple and easy to mount and use.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Hour-Me ... 2a2f2c230c

It can be set for 2 stroke or 4 stroke engines. I had one on my 2 stroke motorized bicycle and 150cc scooter last year. You can every engine you own and it keeps track of the hours, rpms, and service time due you set.

I'm going to order another one for my GZ.

I do say that analog tachometer looks sharp on the GZ!

[bschift]

Originally Posted by bwader

For a cheaper digital alternative. This digital tach/ hour meter works pretty good, though it does have a few seconds lag. I have had 2 of these one for over a year until the battery died, then the last one I got it worked fine for 80 scooter hours and 3,000 miles when it started to malfunction.

I'm buying another one. I just use zip ties to mount and it has its own battery and has two wires. One wire you literally wrap around the insulated part of the spark plug wire and the other end you connect to ground or to the frame. Very simple and easy to mount and use.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Hour-Me ... 2a2f2c230c

It can be set for 2 stroke or 4 stroke engines. I had one on my 2 stroke motorized bicycle and 150cc scooter last year. You can every engine you own and it keeps track of the hours, rpms, and service time due you set.

I'm going to order another one for my GZ.

I do say that analog tachometer looks sharp on the GZ!

This looks like a very easy and inexpensive solution. Has anyone else tried it?

[5th_bike]

Haven't tried it but my analog one is still going strong after almost six years and more than 8,000 miles.

It seems that the ones bwader was talking about give up after one year or 3,000 miles, whichever comes first...

Ebay also has a lot of analog tachometers for $10 to $75, search for "tachometer motorcycle".

[wacio]

I'm looking at my options to install tach. I did go thru the schematic and found potential source of power in the front headlight that does not require modification of the wiring. There is unused power connector that appears to be for powering front parking light (not connected in US version). It is always on with ignition on, same circuit runs rear taillight (brown wire). Second wire in the connector is ground (black with white tracer). The drawback is that this is powered also when ignition switch is in parking light mode, but not too many would use this mode anyway.

Picture below is the schematic:


This is part showing headlight with spare connector outlined red:


This is picture of the inside of headlight:


Described connector:

[5th_bike]

The easiest source of power is the yellow/green wire at the horn. Is also close to the coil.

[wacio]

Originally Posted by 5th_bike

The easiest source of power is the yellow/green wire at the horn. Is also close to the coil.

Thank you. Yes I agree for the +12V. Where do you get good ground from that's nearby though?