Hitchcocks Forum

bought an orange crush late Jun. covered 3000km now with no issues. anyway, thought i would show you all my gear indicator dashboard. was forever forgetting what gear i was in....must be an age thing !
anyway, three attempts later and this last result is what i come up with. hope you like it.

Interesting!
I have similar age-related gear forgetfulness ...
What did you fit and how?

Nice!

Found a universal one on e bay. It was cheap enough, so thought I would give it a try. Found a live and ground plug not being used inside the headlamp. That’s the power sorted. Also found the neutral wire and piggy backed off that. After that, it was a matter of the two sensors to sort. Made a bracket, stuck the sensors to it and glued it behind the gear selector shaft. After a bit of jiggling and poking with the exact position of the sensors, all worked fine.

What happened to being able to tell which gear is engaged by listening to the engine, or the vibrations through the seat , handlebars, foot pegs or rattling teeth?

I recall an interview with Mike Hailwood; I believed he was asked about his Honda ‘six’, and how many gears the bike had. He answered that he didn’t know!

Leon Novello wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 22, 2019 11:55 pm

What happened to being able to tell which gear is engaged by listening to the engine, or the vibrations through the seat , handlebars, foot pegs or rattling teeth?

What happened? They improved the bikes, made them quieter, vibrate less and fitted more gears.

I’m not sure why you need to know the number of the gear you’re in – if it’s too low change up; if it’s too high change down. Whether it’s called 2, 5, 6 or 8 seems to me to be irrelevant. The right gear is decided by the riding, not by numbers.

But I guess a gear indicator is a nice extra.

Most useful when coming to a stop, so you know exactly where to find neutral, also when about to set off again.

I've only ever had one bike with a gear indicator light; it was a 1981 Suzuki 400 with a six speed box. I used it to commute on, often in heavy traffic. Trying to set off in too high a gear just didn't work.

My 2000 Bullet had 45 neutrals, so a light might have been useful on that bike..