All New New Honda Goldwing for 2018

[alarmguy]

Originally Posted By: blupupher

..
One of the good things if you have a chain drive, you can do a sprocket swap and change the gearing some. Shaft and belt drives are pretty much out of luck.


Not really,

I owned a VSTAR 1300 Tourer, LOVED THE BIKE, but hated the fact I had no sixth gear and hated the fact that YAMI intentionally covers up the lack of a sixth gear by making you think you are going 8 miles an hour faster they you are when traveling 80+ MPH and when you think you are doing 75 MPH you are only in the upper 60s!
Once i found this out with my GPS did I go on this 5 speed/6speed rant and the built in, intentional speedo error of many Asian bikes (possibly american and german bikes too, I dont know)
One common thread was always 5 speed bikes, now we know how honest companies are and I am sure, they intentionally make you think you are going faster then you are in order to stay within the law. Yeah, right, and I can sell anyone a bridge who wants to believe that. (not you, just talking)

Ok, back to my reply, I solved the problem on my Vstar 1300 by swapping out the Front Belt pulley with a pulley that had 1 extra tooth. If I remember correctly it was a 30 tooth pulley I had, the new one was 31 teeth or 31 teeth to 32.. anwyay.
The Yamaha Stryker has the same engine and trans mission as the 1300 tourer and one extra tooth in the pulley.

Once that new pulley was installed, OMG, I transformed the Vstar 1300 into an interstate cruiser. It lowered the RPMs at higher speeds by 200 to 300.
I loved it so much, I thought now I would own the bike forever (we all know how that goes) ... anyway, another benefit was, what do you know, now even the speedo is accurate, well, isnt that convenient! within the normal 3 Mph or so.

Anyway with some research, you can swap pulleys but yes, you need to get lucky like I did.
Once I posted my experience, many others in the Vstar 1300 forums did the same and LOVED the results. )
So anyone reading this can understand how I became so jaded against the speedo error. I love in a fast moving state and thought it was downright dangerous having cars ride up my butt and constantly pass me, then I realized I was actually going the speed limit and under, instead of over the speed limit by 5 to 10MPH.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Not this tired old garbage again...

 

[Mik]

Originally Posted By: alarmguy
Originally Posted By: blupupher

..
One of the good things if you have a chain drive, you can do a sprocket swap and change the gearing some. Shaft and belt drives are pretty much out of luck.


Not really,

I owned a VSTAR 1300 Tourer, LOVED THE BIKE, but hated the fact I had no sixth gear and hated the fact that YAMI intentionally covers up the lack of a sixth gear by making you think you are going 8 miles an hour faster they you are when traveling 80+ MPH and when you think you are doing 75 MPH you are only in the upper 60s!


espousing conspiracy theories now, lol Classic stuff!

 

[02SE]

Originally Posted By: alarmguy
Originally Posted By: 02SE
Originally Posted By: alarmguy

Oh and by the way? Lets talk GPS speed, chances are your 5 speed bike speedometer is lying to you by up to 9% so if as was the case with my Yamaha 5 speed, when the speedo showed 75 my ACTUAL GPS speed was 68/69 MPH.




Speedometer error has nothing to do with the number of gears in the transmission. Harley DOES have pretty accurate speedometers by design. Most other manufacturers design their bike speedometers with intentionally optimistic speedometer error. Why? because by regulation they CANNOT read low, or the manufacturer can be penalized. So in order to avoid that possible penalty, they intentionally design them to read high.

There are several devices to correct speedometer error, by the end user: Yellow box, Speedohealer, etc., etc.


Completely disagree with you, seems to always be the excuse for 5 speed Asian brand bikes to make you think you are going faster then you are so their speedometers dont read to low. Its really laughable and I read those excuses on the internet all day long, liability concerns, speedo CYA concerns.

I never said speedo error have anything to do with the number of gears, I say speedo error in Asian brands seem to be the norm with their 5 speed bikes, how VERY convenient to make the rider think he is going faster then he is in the VSTAR 1300 it is almost 10%, so those RPMs dont make him wish for that next gear.
Its almost dangerous, always used to wonder why cars were rushing by me on the interstate when I was doing 75 to 80 MPH, till I put a gps on the bike and found out I was doing 69 to 73 (+/- 1 mph)

But never mind that, you would think these "advanced" Asian brands would be able to match Harley Davidson and come out with a speedo that is accurate. ) (just having fun here) I mean come on already, think about it, for gods sake, ALL these companies are so incompetent they they cant produce a bike with at speedometer that is accurate, if so, they are not as advanced as one thinks.



Of course you disagree with me...

You apparently didn't understand what I said, either. I said that most manufacturers (not just Asian brands) INTENTIONALLY calibrate their speedometers to read optimistically high. I also told you WHY they do it. 4,5,6, and now 7 speed transmissions doesn't matter, the speedometers on most brands will still be calibrated to read optimistically high.

 

[alarmguy]

Originally Posted By: 02SE
Originally Posted By: alarmguy
Originally Posted By: 02SE
Originally Posted By: alarmguy

Oh and by the way? Lets talk GPS speed, chances are your 5 speed bike speedometer is lying to you by up to 9% so if as was the case with my Yamaha 5 speed, when the speedo showed 75 my ACTUAL GPS speed was 68/69 MPH.




Speedometer error has nothing to do with the number of gears in the transmission. Harley DOES have pretty accurate speedometers by design. Most other manufacturers design their bike speedometers with intentionally optimistic speedometer error. Why? because by regulation they CANNOT read low, or the manufacturer can be penalized. So in order to avoid that possible penalty, they intentionally design them to read high.

There are several devices to correct speedometer error, by the end user: Yellow box, Speedohealer, etc., etc.


Completely disagree with you, seems to always be the excuse for 5 speed Asian brand bikes to make you think you are going faster then you are so their speedometers dont read to low. Its really laughable and I read those excuses on the internet all day long, liability concerns, speedo CYA concerns.

I never said speedo error have anything to do with the number of gears, I say speedo error in Asian brands seem to be the norm with their 5 speed bikes, how VERY convenient to make the rider think he is going faster then he is in the VSTAR 1300 it is almost 10%, so those RPMs dont make him wish for that next gear.
Its almost dangerous, always used to wonder why cars were rushing by me on the interstate when I was doing 75 to 80 MPH, till I put a gps on the bike and found out I was doing 69 to 73 (+/- 1 mph)

But never mind that, you would think these "advanced" Asian brands would be able to match Harley Davidson and come out with a speedo that is accurate. ) (just having fun here) I mean come on already, think about it, for gods sake, ALL these companies are so incompetent they they cant produce a bike with at speedometer that is accurate, if so, they are not as advanced as one thinks.



Of course you disagree with me...

You apparently didn't understand what I said, either. I said that most manufacturers (not just Asian brands) INTENTIONALLY calibrate their speedometers to read optimistically high. I also told you WHY they do it. 4,5,6, and now 7 speed transmissions doesn't matter, the speedometers on most brands will still be calibrated to read optimistically high.


Facts, figures, models please ... no, i didnt think so

 

[gman2304]

My 2008 Suzuki DL1000 with a 6 speed transmission registered 8 mph fast from new. My 2009 Harley is within 1 mph of posted speed limits from 25 mph to 70 mph. I typically ride at 5 mph over the posted speed, and it got old quickly having to mentally “do the math” in each speed zone on the Suzuki.

 

[Mik]

buy a speedohealer and be done with it... talk about a tempest in a tea cup

 

[Mik]

Originally Posted By: alarmguy
Originally Posted By: 02SE
Originally Posted By: alarmguy
Originally Posted By: 02SE

Speedometer error has nothing to do with the number of gears in the transmission. Harley DOES have pretty accurate speedometers by design. Most other manufacturers design their bike speedometers with intentionally optimistic speedometer error. Why? because by regulation they CANNOT read low, or the manufacturer can be penalized. So in order to avoid that possible penalty, they intentionally design them to read high.

There are several devices to correct speedometer error, by the end user: Yellow box, Speedohealer, etc., etc.


Completely disagree with you, seems to always be the excuse for 5 speed Asian brand bikes to make you think you are going faster then you are so their speedometers dont read to low. Its really laughable and I read those excuses on the internet all day long, liability concerns, speedo CYA concerns.

I never said speedo error have anything to do with the number of gears, I say speedo error in Asian brands seem to be the norm with their 5 speed bikes, how VERY convenient to make the rider think he is going faster then he is in the VSTAR 1300 it is almost 10%, so those RPMs dont make him wish for that next gear.
Its almost dangerous, always used to wonder why cars were rushing by me on the interstate when I was doing 75 to 80 MPH, till I put a gps on the bike and found out I was doing 69 to 73 (+/- 1 mph)

But never mind that, you would think these "advanced" Asian brands would be able to match Harley Davidson and come out with a speedo that is accurate. ) (just having fun here) I mean come on already, think about it, for gods sake, ALL these companies are so incompetent they they cant produce a bike with at speedometer that is accurate, if so, they are not as advanced as one thinks.



Of course you disagree with me...

You apparently didn't understand what I said, either. I said that most manufacturers (not just Asian brands) INTENTIONALLY calibrate their speedometers to read optimistically high. I also told you WHY they do it. 4,5,6, and now 7 speed transmissions doesn't matter, the speedometers on most brands will still be calibrated to read optimistically high.


Facts, figures, models please ... no, i didnt think so


you ignore/deny facts when presented with them anyhow... the Denial is strong wtihin you.... lol

can't believe you are making such a commotion out of something that can easily be fixed with a speedohealer; the irony is that fixing everything else that is wrong on a Hog costs a lot more money than that, lol the common thread through your comments is beginning to make sense, however. On a bike (your Hog) that is overpriced, underpowered, ill-handling, the only things that are noteworthy are its six-speed tranny and accurate speedo.... wow, talk about getting your money's worth, lol The final irony is that the new Wing with a two-speed and no speedo would still be a better bike that anything coming out of Milwaukee..... chew on that....

 

[02SE]

Originally Posted By: alarmguy


Facts, figures, models please ... no, i didnt think so


Why are you SO averse to learning new things?

It is common. Most bike speedometers read high. It is common knowledge. It's by design. There are laws in some Countries that state the speedo CANNOT read low, but reading as much as 10% high is ok. So most manufacturers building bikes for all markets err on the optimistic side. I've already told you that Harley's tend to be the most accurate.

Here's just one example of an industry scribe answering the question: Motorcycle Speedo accuracy

 

[alarmguy]

Originally Posted By: gman2304
My 2008 Suzuki DL1000 with a 6 speed transmission registered 8 mph fast from new. My 2009 Harley is within 1 mph of posted speed limits from 25 mph to 70 mph. I typically ride at 5 mph over the posted speed, and it got old quickly having to mentally “do the math” in each speed zone on the Suzuki.


Ahh, great post, thanks for the update, my Suzuki and Yami always ran 8 faster but were 5 speeds. So assumed they were just trying to fool me since I only had 5 speeds. Now I understand, they just cant build an accurate speedo *LOL*
As once I put the larger pulley on my Yami the speedo was within the 3 MPH error as most cars.

Same with my Harley, its just as accurate as any automobile (maybe even more accurate then some) and I wrongly assumed it was because it had six speeds and the Asian brands 5, now we just know the Asians cant build an accurate speedo. (just kidding around with the excuses given) *L*

I have the same results as you with my Harley, like yours it is dead on within 1 MPH in the speeds you list and when I am up to 85 MPH or so it is still as accurate as most automobiles and an error 2 to 3 MPH tops in the 85 + MPH range.

It will be interesting to see if any error on the new Goldwing, my personal feeling is there would be no excuse on a high end machine like that, magazines USED to report speedo error, rare to see it any more. Maybe it was automobiles, I cant remember.

Anyway, I do like the look of that GW ...

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: alarmguy


Facts, figures, models please ... no, i didnt think so


Just about every bike except police Harleys. (For the tenth time.)

 

[BigCahuna]

When you think about what could possibly effect a speedometers accuracy,there are alot of variables. A brand new bikes speedo should be the most accurate it will ever be. As a bike gets more miles on it,wear comes into play. Obviously tire wear will effect speed as the tire gets smaller.If you change rims to different then stock sizes, Any gearing changes , stretched belts or chains also change the ratios. Wear on wheel driven gear drives ect. My old '05 Road King has a speed sensor in the top of the trans. A magnetic pickup that over time can acquire a coating of metal fuzz on it like the drain plug does. If it's too coated, the speedo will start giving wild speed variations.All the little things will effect accuracy. I wonder if those roadside speed monitors are ever calibrated once they leave the factory. They sit out in the weather all their lives thru rain, heat, cold,snow. I wouldn't bet the farm they are dead on accurate in a court of law, if you tried using their reading as proof, you weren't speeding.,,,

 

[dwendt44]

With autos, I used to go up a size on tires to
bring speedometer back closer to true ground speed.
Can't even do that anymore. Most tire shops refuse to
change from stock specs. Bummer.

My 2¢

 

[BrocLuno]

Geez folks, if you are concerned with GPS speed, put a taller rear tire on it ...

Too Star Wars for me ... RK all the way. Could never get used to the ergo's of the GW ... RK eleven hours in the saddle and still thinking could do more. Never happened on any Honda, and I've owned at least a dozen different models, and ridden many other folks ...

I dunno why they can't do a decent auto tranny?

 

[alarmguy]

Ah, well, I see we agree on the RK, feel much the same, though, I like the idea of having and trying all kinds of bikes yet limited to one! )

I think, at least for me, I bring up the the speedo error only when we are talking speed related issues, whether its a 6 speed vs 5 or MPG, ya da ya da, simply because 10 different people will chime on on the subject, riding 10 different bikes and we will all hear what speed they normally do, in what gear or what MPG or whatever ... numbers, thoughts, opinions will then turn sometimes into a war of words yet the speeds they quote will not be true speeds and honestly depending on brand, they will be all over the place as far as accuracy, one bike can be doing a true accurate MPH and the other biker may think he is doing the same speed but is actually doing 8 MPH slower, which is pretty significant, when talking about MPG or how many gears the bike has etc, the only standard then is GPS speed, so at least, then, we are all commenting for the same reasons at the quoted true speeds and can honestly discuss the subject on the same playing field.

 

[dwendt44]

Going up a size in tires is one way to
reduce speedometer error.
IF there's room and if there's the next size tire.

The only stock bike I've read about in magazine
tests that was dead on was a Kawasaki from several
years ago.

My 2¢

 

[Silverado12]

Originally Posted By: sunruh
Originally Posted By: gman2304

Cool...then those same people can "cruise" at 90 to 95 mph at the same engine RPM's without sacrificing wear and tear and fuel mileage...

exaclty!

when you exit Hwy 16 and get on I10 west. the very 1st sign you see is this:
SPEED
LIMIT
85

nobody drives just 85 when its over 550 miles till el paso
(i think there are only 3 other states (north/south california, east/west montana and alaska) where you can even see a mileage sign that shows a city in the same state over 500 miles away)


I love roads like that but unfortunately we don't have them around here.