The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2

Technical Discussion => BMW Technical Q&A, Primarily R65 => Topic started by: Flora_Max on September 17, 2007, 08:52:08 PM

Title: Back and loving it
Post by: Flora_Max on September 17, 2007, 08:52:08 PM

Hi all, Glad to be online again,
Question. By using a GPS I discovered that my 81 R65's speedo is way out.  Is this worth trying to fix?
With Thanks Shannon

Title: Re: Back and loving it
Post by: Bob_Roller on September 17, 2007, 09:01:34 PM

It usually is quite costly to have a shop go into the speedometer. Here in the US the '81 model year speedometers are quite accurate, I had my odometer repaired about 8 years ago and the shop said that it wasn't worth recalibrating it, as it was less than 1 mph high. We have informational only speed indicators in the area that I reside in, and on all of the speed indicators in town they all show me doing 1 mph low when traveling at the posted speed limit.

Title: Re: Back and loving it
Post by: Justin B. on September 17, 2007, 09:26:45 PM

If you get real bored some winter you could un-crimp the speedo case, gently pry off and reinstall the needle.  You can then check the "calibration by spinning the speedo with an electric drill and timing one mile by the odometer.  The odometers are dead-knuts on, at least all of them I have checked against interstate mile markers were...  We did this on out '80 speedo when we had it apart to glue the speedo needle back on...  Yes, the needle had actually came un-crimped from the center section and was just kind of floating around...

Title: Re: Back and loving it
Post by: Flora_Max on September 17, 2007, 09:29:48 PM

Thanks for the replys.  As I am in australia the speedo is about 20km out.
I can get used to it for now.

Title: Re: Back and loving it
Post by: Justin B. on September 17, 2007, 09:44:53 PM

I have found that all of mine (except the '81 R100's 85 mph speedo) are about 10% fast  so I usually just do the cipherin' in my head as I ride.  See what a college edumacation'll do for ya?  ;D

Title: Re: Back and loving it
Post by: Flora_Max on September 17, 2007, 10:10:57 PM

My speedo is 20 under. Wonderin why I was getting overtaken so often.
No chance of getting booked

Title: Re: Back and loving it
Post by: Justin B. on September 17, 2007, 10:21:34 PM

That's what I meant, they read about 10% faster than you are really going.  This is pretty "normal" for BMW speedos...

Title: Re: Back and loving it
Post by: Semper Gumby on September 17, 2007, 10:49:56 PM

Palo Alto fixed mine within a knot of actual speed without me asking.  It was expensive and thank goodness came with a warranty.

Title: Re: Back and loving it
Post by: Rob Valdez 79 R65 on September 18, 2007, 09:23:15 PM

I say mount the GPS and be done with it!

(https://bmwr65.org/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pbase.com%2Ftomfarr%2Fimage%2F80167065%2Fmedium.jpg&hash=3fab524302a2cbebd142aee074c50904721092b1)

I have a clock, too!  And I can go Geocaching if I get a wild hair.


The cheapest fix is a push-bike speedometer.  Just make sure you get one that will go up to a fast speed.