Does anyone know / or has had the pleasure of retro fitting a gear indicator to a 916 ? Had a look at a few online which have 7/8 different wires to connect, one for the common, and one for each gear. Is there any easier way to fit one of these. A bit of plug n pray would be good
Silly question but why would you want that display unit when you have your eyes & ears, i.e RPM's/engine labouring
I remember back in the day when we were all on LC's, these were refered to as idiot lights on some of the bigger Jap stuff and were seen as an admission of needing stabilisers on your bike. How soft and cosseted have we become.
Suzuki fitted them as standard in the 70s from X7s and GT380s upwards. Big LED figures that indicated odd things like 8, H, n or L in the wet and occasionally the correct gear. I had one on a 1978 GS550E which started indicating all sorts of things so it was ignored.
If fitting one I’d go for the heal tech one. Their stuff is spot on. But best thing you could do is just fit a new dash! (Already has em built in).
Same one I had at Donny, Paul. Just refined it a bit, got a few more bits working. The second photo shows the water temp at 101. I was just checking it this morning to make sure the first fan kicked in when it should. The gear indicator works from the gear box ratios Vs engine speed and it’s very accurate.
Thanks, I never saw that at Donny. I bet that was a bugger to wire in? Is there a thread on here about it? Edit: Just been looking into it. Would still like to know how you did it. TIA
Not sure mate. I had loads of help from both @Old Jock and @Dukedesmo. Not that hard to wire in, the tricky part is getting the sensors set up to give the right readings.
No worries, Paul. I’ll start a thread on what I did this coming week as i’ll have a bit of time from work.
There is no plug n' play gear indicator for 916 models as they have a mechanical speedo and no way of actually detecting which gear it is in. Gear indicators require input for RPM (from ignition coil) and speed to make the calculation so you need some kind of electronic signal related to speed. I've got a Translogic dash on mine which does this but it uses a sensor on the rear sprocket bolts for the speedo and you would need something similar - not sure if there is something you can fit 'inline' with the speedo cable to give a signal? otherwise you'll need to devise a speed sensor from somewhere.
I can’t find it on EBay at the moment but Im sure Ive seen ones for about £30 that work on magnetic sensors at the gear lever. ie a magnet on the lever and the sensor stuck on the crankcase. As the lever moves up or down past the sensor it causes the display to change. Basic but I believe they work. Healtech ones are £100+ but, as with everything in life, you get what you pay for.
I've seen theses two https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GT3000-N...832440?hash=item569586e278:g:WL8AAOSwOgdYsAXK https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ducati-H...hash=item4d5cbb98a5:m:msH4MVNyRysYcc9gqYykv9w
Don't know about the first one? but the Healtech linked to should be OK if you get the WSS (Wheel Speed Sensor) version but you'll need to work out a place to fit the sensor. On my 916, for the Translogic speedo (with GPI) I fitted it to the rear disc mounting bolts.
There are cheap Chinese ones that simply work off detecting a magnet glued to the end of your gear shift lever. You fit a sensor at the top point of the gear lever going up, and another at the lowest point going down. Now when you change up a gear it will +1 the gear indicator as it detects the magnet near the top sensor. When you shift down it will -1 the gear indicator as it detects the magnet near the bottom sensor. Good units also have a feed from the Neutral light so they can reset themselves. The trick is in getting them setup nicely to work consistently. Expensive ones are expensive...
