Hitchcocks Forum

has anybody any knowledge of these magnetic ,digital gear indicators ,good or a gimmick .

These things just count how many times you prod the gear lever. Reviews say they have problems with neutral and then it indicates random numbers.

It seems they work fine on a gearbox which stops the lever moving when the lowest and highest gears have been engaged, a friend recently purchased a BMW 650 with five speed gearbox but if he raised the lever when in fifth the indicator went to six and then kept showing one gear too high until the bike was in neutral again there is a wire from the unit to the neutral light which resets it when neutral is engaged. He took it off and binned it, more a pain than an aid it would seem.

I had a couple of Suzukis back in the 70's that had gear indicators and they worked fine. Since I grew up and out of Jappers I've never had a need for them since, whichever of my bikes I'm riding it is pretty obvious straight away what gear I'm in. If a stroker's in the wrong gear and isn't in the power band it dies and a four stroke just chugs harder.

Triumph fitted mechanical ones to some models.
Problem is, with today's traffic, you'd likely run into something as you peered down to see which gear you were in (though some were routed up to the nacelle if I remember)
I really can't see the use for a gear indicator. You are either in too high, too low, or just the right gear and it should be pretty obvious which you're in.
The only gearbox indicator of any use is a neutral indicator and REs don't even need that as we have the neutral finder (older models anyway)

It annoys me that my car insists on telling me when to change gear but I can't seem to turn the function off.

unfortunately both the gear and the neutral indicator are useless on an Enfield, as they do not count or show the various intermediate neutrals!

Can I just ask why you need one?

My mate's Suzi 250 back in the 70s, one of the first with a gear indicator, would happily display 8th and 9th gears when the whim took it.

I seem to remember me riding it back from Knebworth in the pouring rain after he broke the rhs foot peg clean off and couldn't ride it himself, I had to be lifted off on arrival as I could no longer move my knee.

Nico, the gear lever needs a positive attitude



PeteF, I gave up waggling a car gear stick mebbe 30 years ago after I counted well over 1000 changes getting 10 miles to work, waste of effort - automatic.



Nigel, it does rather beggar the question, "can you count to five?", and on occasions, apparently I can't.



Myself, I can enter a corner and find it tighter than expected and be in the wrong gear, so gently prodding the gear lever down will dump it into neutral. I think I'm in third but was in second and found neutral. Using more application usually puts it into first which it too low. Imo it wants a lower 2nd or higher 1st gear.

I have some experience of gear indicators that base the readout upon engine revs, gearbox ratio, final drive ratio, circumference of tyre, and wheel revolutions - and they work pretty well.



But I only ever ran it as a primary readout because, in the event of a 'moment' in a lap, it was good to able to quickly get yourself back to basics for the coming corner - thus adding a small competitive advantage.



But, outside of competition, I can't really see the point.