GEAR INDICATOR; (UPDATE: SUCCESS, IT WORKS!)

[Boxermed69]

As you say Nick it's not a bank breaker at £13. If it does work properly and reliably it'll have been a proper bargain. Here's hoping...

Mike

[el-nicko]

As you say Nick it's not a bank breaker at £13. If it does work properly and reliably it'll have been a proper bargain. Here's hoping...

Mike

That's wot I'm hopeing Mike. Mind you after this weeks traumatic experience (see 'HELP! Why does my brake light stay on? SOLVED!!!!') I'm giving it a few days before I dive under the tank again. Both me an me bike need some R+R

[Boxermed69]

...and then you could go for one of them natty tyre pressure monitors Ee, it'll be like the flight deck of the Enterprise

Mike

[el-nicko]

...and then you could go for one of them natty tyre pressure monitors Ee, it'll be like the flight deck of the Enterprise

Mike

Ear mate, u takin the piss

[Boxermed69]

Only slightly - I'm a sucker for gadgets too. Got a thermometer to fit somewhere up front

Mike

[el-nicko]

Only slightly - I'm a sucker for gadgets too. Got a thermometer to fit somewhere up front

Mike

Oh yeeees So that's a thermometer, a tyre pressure indicator, and a gear indicator. I'll need a metre square solar panel on top of me helmet to power that lot but it'll be worth it when it's all lit up. I'm a sucker for flashing lights. My Hi-Fi/home cinema system makes Blackpool iluminations look like an aneamic firefly on a sunny day. Seriously tho, I made the bracket today to mount the sender units on. I'll get some double sided sticky stuff tomorrow so I can move 'em around before I fix 'em permanently. I'm not convinced it'll work tho. As some other trixter queried; What happens if you miss a gear and so have to re-select it? Will that be 'seen' as another change and consequently indicate a gear up from the one you're actually in? Well I'll know by the weekend. Watch this space.

[el-nicko]

Here it is fitted and working. Wired it up so it only works when the lights are on


SDC13677 by manick4u, on Flickr


SDC13674 by manick4u, on Flickr

[Daveg2812]

So come on Nick, does it actually work when you're riding, or is your bike still in bits at the moment

[el-nicko]

So come on Nick, does it actually work when you're riding, or is your bike still in bits at the moment

Hi Dave, "Does it work?". Er, well, sort of. Got the bike back together about an hour before dark last night and set off down the '44'. First results not good. Display eratic. Sometimes not registering a change down and then showing 2 'up' changes when only 1 movement was made. From this I deduced that the positioning of the sensors needed to be done with a little more care. Easier said than done because I was trying to place the upper one so that it would'nt register the shorter movement from 1st to 'neutral' but would 'see' the longer one from 1st to 2nd. I've 'fixed' the sensors to the (thin) plate with double-sided sticky tape(not screws) so I can re-position them easily. Actualy it's not that easy 'cos that tape realy sticks. Anyway, I found the best thing was to place 'em as far apart as possible but for them to still register. The tiny magnet I superglued and cable-tied to the linkage arm, as u can see. Well I soon got fed-up trying to find a place to park, get off the bike, get the tape out, move the sender get back on, ride another half mile......Then I realised the mounting plate was thin enough to bend a little and I could do that by just carefuly reaching down to it. Just as the light was going I think I 'cracked it' and finding myself right outside a mates house in New Radnor I called it a day and joined him for a glass of single malt. On the way home all the changes registered correctly. I was going to go visit my daughter in Malvern today and get a more extensive evaluation on the way but it started 'spitting' here in Kington and I hate turning up wet. One 'fail' (which I kind of expected) is that tho there's a wire coming out of the display that the wireing diagram identifies as ' NEUTRAL' (and I broke into the bikes neutral idicator light circuit to connect), in practice dos'nt register. What happens is, on start-up (I've taken power from the sidelight circuit so the whole thing only works with the lights 'on') the display shows a number 8 for a few seconds then a zero (0) with the bikes original green showing to confirm. Selecting 1st shows a '1' but if neutral is then re-selected the display shows a '2' and physicaly moving the upper sensor to avoid this results in up-shifts failing to register so I may (I'm not even going to atempt entering into a dialogue with a chinese bloke in Hong Kong) just have to live with this if the rest of it works and I choose to leave it on the bike. In practice what happens is; Switch on; -'ign', Display -'8', then '0'. Select 1st,- Display-'1'. Move off, select 'second'- Display-'2' and so on... I've positioned the display (again with tape) as shown so it's just on the periphery of my vision 'cos it is bright and would be slightly distracting if placed between the 'clocks' and also, I hav'nt had to 'molest' the bike by drilling holes.
Now,I know there's some of my fellow Trixters who question the need for a gear indicator at all. This is usually followed by the implication that indicators(gear) are for wimps and any biker worth his salt should know instinctivly what gear he has selected. Well all I can say is this; You'll never see a gear indicator on a racing machine for the simple reason that the rev' counter performs that function. It tells the rider what gear he's in by virtue of the fact that if he's not in the machines indicated power band then he needs to make it so. On the public highway different conditions apply. And especialy so with a large engined bike like the 1100s that delivers a lot of it's wide band of torque right off the 'stop'. I find 'first' on my bike a little, shall we say, 'frisky'. Around town, with the traffic light dash to the next diesel soaked 'island' (circle) to contend with, the last thing I want is to be astride the explosive grunt of that big boxer with it's wide power band and first gear selected when I get there. And yet that's what sometimes happens. I'm up and down the middle gears in the box, filtering thru traffic, block changing up and down, up and down. 4th to 2nd or was that 3rd to 1st? Did I see a momentary flash of green out of the corner of my eye as I went thru neutral? Uh uh here comes another island. Now, I like to negotiate them in second so my motors got a little bit of load on it to 'drag' it down a bit. I might even 'feather' the clutch (tho I hate having to resort to that) just to keep things under control. I think, and this is just my personal preference after 60+ years of biking, it's so much nicer just to glance down and get instant visual confirmation as to what cog I've selected.

EDIT (UPDATE. 22/9/12) It works fine Finaly got to do an extended test today. Did about 100 miles (Kington-Worcester-Malvern-Kington) with a lot of gearbox work in Worcester and it never failed to show the selected gear correctly. The only shortcoming is, as already noted, a failure to display '0' when 'neutral' is selected. This is not a problem tho because in practice the bikes own indicator provides this 'info'. Coming to a standstill, (at the 'lights' for instance) , if I'm careful selecting neutral from 'first' the display will continue to show '1' or, if not so careful, '2'. But, as I say, the bikes own indicator tells the truth. All in all I'm more than happy with it and consider it £13.00 well spent. In fact I'm so chuffed I've 'promoted' the display so it's now up with the other instruments.





EDIT (UPDATE 12/10/12) Just found the following on another website in answer to someone else who has the 'neutral' problem. So it seems I could have simply wired it wrong. Will try this tomorrow. Watch this space.

[buzzz90]

Well said.
Do I need it?
95% of the time, NO.
But for the 5% remaining, I'm glad I have made this mod.

Reading your adventures, I'm also glad I chose to build my own indicator. It confirms the doubts, that I had when I saw these "universal' things

[Boxermed69]

Good effort Nick, thanks.

Mike