Digital gear indicator
Well I decided why the hell not install one. it's one of those things I don't need, but I figured it might be nice to have.
I purchased one off eBay for about $20 USD almost a year ago.
Installation time:
I decided on the mounting location, above the warning lights on the instrument panel. So drilled a small hole in the trim panel for the wires to pass thru, and secured the indicator with 3M mounting tape.
I also decided to make use of the power, ground, and neural light at the panel as well. So removed the gauge panel, and found the wires needed.
I used the gauge lighting to power the unit, positive and negative leads, and the neutral ground wire as well. I then proceeded to find the leads at the harness plug, removed the connectors and soldered the leads right to them.
I also removed gauge lighting metal diffusers. I did this due to I'm using LEDs, and just by doing this increased the brightness overall of the gauges. Also I painted the cover between the gauges and lens part # 14024 aluminum, it added a nice subtle accent color to the gauge panel, which ties it onto the main color scheme of the bike. I believe this is a nice touch, and others might find it interesting to try on their own.
So now the fun part, the sensors themselves are triggered by the small magnet you stick on the shiftrod, the space the two sensors apart about an inch.
This is where the tricky part comes in, I cut a small piece of plastic about 25mmx45mm and secured it to frame with 3M mounting tape. This allowed me a place to mount the sensors to.
After that the hardest part was finding the sweet spot for the small magnet, so it would trip both sensors properly.
RIDE REPORT:
It works, once you adjust the sensors, and magnet, which took several times.
I purchased one off eBay for about $20 USD almost a year ago.
Installation time:
I decided on the mounting location, above the warning lights on the instrument panel. So drilled a small hole in the trim panel for the wires to pass thru, and secured the indicator with 3M mounting tape.
I also decided to make use of the power, ground, and neural light at the panel as well. So removed the gauge panel, and found the wires needed.
I used the gauge lighting to power the unit, positive and negative leads, and the neutral ground wire as well. I then proceeded to find the leads at the harness plug, removed the connectors and soldered the leads right to them.
I also removed gauge lighting metal diffusers. I did this due to I'm using LEDs, and just by doing this increased the brightness overall of the gauges. Also I painted the cover between the gauges and lens part # 14024 aluminum, it added a nice subtle accent color to the gauge panel, which ties it onto the main color scheme of the bike. I believe this is a nice touch, and others might find it interesting to try on their own.
So now the fun part, the sensors themselves are triggered by the small magnet you stick on the shiftrod, the space the two sensors apart about an inch.
This is where the tricky part comes in, I cut a small piece of plastic about 25mmx45mm and secured it to frame with 3M mounting tape. This allowed me a place to mount the sensors to.
After that the hardest part was finding the sweet spot for the small magnet, so it would trip both sensors properly.
RIDE REPORT:
It works, once you adjust the sensors, and magnet, which took several times.
Total Comments 1
Comments
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Oh nice! With being new to riding, I find myself wondering if I'm on the last gear when I just got on the freeway and onto the fast lane. A few times I find that I'm on the 5th with one more to go... I know that I should learn to tell what gear I am on by listening to the engine but sometimes it's a challenge to tell when getting accelerating on the freeway going up hill...
Posted June 9th, 2015 at 10:04 PM by johnydecali