Hitchcocks Forum

Good evening

The other day I bought one of the retro smiths speedos from our hosts,
I have just fitted it and when I moved the bike , approximately one quarter of a turn of the wheel , the speedo shot up to an indicated 30mph, and promptly dropped back to zero !!

I put it on the centre stand lifted the front wheel, and turned it by hand and the same thing, a small movement and it went up to 30mph and dropped straight back.

My bike is a 2005 four speed kickstart Indian built 500

I have not had a chance to ride the bike and see what it is doing then, but I assume either I have missed something or its faulty ?

I assumed it works with the standard speedo drive and cable ?

The bike has 1950Km on the clock which is genuine so I don't expect anything to be worn, and the standard Indian speedo did not do this.

Has anyone got an opinion on what is wrong ?

Regards

Richard

I am on my fourth.
First one came with the bike and failed after 400 miles.
So I bought a Hosts one - fine until the needle and drive failed (high pitched whine)
Replacement - same problem.
Current one is working fine.
They work with existing cable and drive, although I bought a new steel drive - mine is 08 4 sp classic.
Send it back under warranty. Our hosts know these things arent great. The later model with black/white dial might work better?

I see!
The only problem that I have is that I removed the bulb holder from it so that I could position the existing bulb holder to illuminate it, I did not want to cut my wiring , so that I can jeasily replace the original speedo for MOT time

I gues I'll have to buy another and try it out. Without him messing around with the bulb holder,it's a shame as I wanted the smiths replica as I think it looks much better .

Regards

Rich

I've had the repro Smiths speedo on one of my bikes for years and it's fine>>>>

Never had problems at MOT time with it at all. ATB Chris

Have you fitted separate high beam , and indicator warning lights .
I bought the lights our host sells, but I'm not sure that I want to drill my caskette , and I'm sure you have to have these lights. Fitted for an MOT,

Well I think I will buy another and hope that one will work ok, as I really like the look of the Smiths type

Complete crap shoot with these Indian speedos usually a 50% failure rate

I've heard of speedos massively over-reading when the wrong speedo cable is used. What happens is that if the cable is too long, it forces the spinning magnet forwards until it rubs against the aluminium cup, immediately pulling the cup round to a very high reading.



Obviously this shouldn't happen because the spinning magnet shouldn't have enough axial float to allow it, but if the speedo is badly made (or, in my case, worn), then you can indeed see exactly this effect.



So, Pathfinder856, I would undo the knurled thumb-nut that holds the speedo cable to the speedo, and just check that the speedo cable outer will go all the way up to the large, threaded boss on the back of the speedo, under light finger pressure. If you can't push the cable in far enough for the speedo outer to touch the threaded boss, then you have a problem and should not proceed. If you tighten the knurled nut to hold the cable in place, it will push the inner into the speedo with tremendous force - easily enough to do damage.



If you can insert the cable all the way, such that the cable outer touches the threaded boss, then the cable is OK and it looks like you might have a faulty speedo.

Thanks for your help,
The cable seemed to fit well, but I will take it apart and look again, but maybe I do have a dodgy speedo.
At least they are not expensive .

Thanks for all of your advice and help guys

Regards

Richard

Just in case you DO decide to go ahead with these speedos, you may...or may not... be interested interested: There's no warning lights in them, or certainly wasn't on mine.
So I fitted a cheap beeper to sound when the indicators are on. And I rewired the ammeter light to act for High Beam. If the lights are dipped I'm probably in town so can see the ammeter with the street-lights.

Just a thought, Chris

I have one here that cost me 99cents + postage but never tried it still in the box, maybe one day I'll find a bike to put it in