[steve betts]

I'm in the process of an insurance claim, where among other things, buggered up my speedo. Shocked to discover Triumph speedo and tach for a Bonne is a grand! I was wondering if anybody has had any experience mounting the Dime City Cycles 2.5" units to a Bonne or Thrux? They are inexpensive and look like they might be pretty cool and tidy on these bikes, that is provided there is a way to mount them cleanly, they display correct road and engine speed, and don't stop working after a month.

Anybody done this? How did the installation go? Still working? And please post pics if they are on bike.

 

[goat2321]

I've got the mini speedo, fabbed up a couple quick mounts out of some pre-drilled metal tabs from ace hardware (2 dollars). I just got an official accuracy test thanks to johnny law pulling me over yesterday....I looked down and it said I was going 90...first thing Johnny said "What the hell were you doing going 90mph?!"

So I'd say it's pretty accurate!

There are two wiring diagrams on here that I used to connect the speedo. Total time was about 20 minutes.

 

[steve betts]

[QUOTE=goat2321;2385296 I just got an official accuracy test thanks to johnny law pulling me over yesterday....I looked down and it said I was going 90...first thing Johnny said "What the hell were you doing going 90mph?!".[/QUOTE

Too funny! I love how American cops ask such excellent rhetorical questions. It's like being chewed out by the football coach.

I have a few questions.
1. Now that we've established it does the job of recording speed accurately, does the speedo appear to be of decent quality in real life up close?
2. What kind of bike do you ride and what year?
3. Did you get the electronic one with idiot lights?
4. Can you please post a pic?

Thanks, this helps.

 

[beemerrich]

Anybody done this? How did the installation go? Still working? And please post pics if they are on bike.

Not sure if the Dime City units are the same ones I installed in my D9 minigauge/ignition relocation bracket, but the 8K rpm tacho went boots up after about 200 miles (my redline is 8,500) and the speedo went south at 2,500 miles. The replacement tach I installed in May made it until mid-September. Since my thruxton is an '04, the speedo is mechanical & the tacho is electronic...

This pic was to show the temporary innovate install, but you can see the D9 gauge bracket below. I love the look, but wish I knew where to buy better gauges that fit...

YMMV,

--Rich

 

[GySchmit]

I'm in the process of an insurance claim,

Same Here! Though I don't need gauges. Got other parts from DCC on the way.

I looked at the mini-gauges but decided to go with the Acewell 2853 when I start to work on ceaning up the front. I know it is modern and eletronic but I like the idea of one gauge for everything and the Acewell still kind of has a retro look.

 

[casida]

Yeah, the Acewell is pretty swank. =) I had fun getting it all working, especially fiddling about to get the CEL and the fuel bar working like the fuel light did, and wiring it up so it all plugged directly into the stock connectors. Took a bit of effort and time, but I quite like it.

Only annoyance I have with it is I hate blue lights. I would rather have it yellow, amber, white... Hell, just about anything other than blue would have been preferred. It's not obtrusive in the day, and the night, it's not exactly super-bright. I did disassemble it to see if I could solder some new LED in place, but they're tiny, tiny, tiny SMD LED, so unless you have some pretty good tooling for working in that environment, I recommend just putting up with it. =(

I did disassemble the entire assembly and sprayed down the idiot light surrounds so the clear plastic that normally surrounds them is blacked out, keeping the light from those LEDs in the normal cluster from washing the idiot lights in blue tint quite as much.

Anyway. Have a pic!

I looked at the mini-gauges but decided to go with the Acewell 2853 when I start to work on ceaning up the front. I know it is modern and eletronic but I like the idea of one gauge for everything and the Acewell still kind of has a retro look.

 

[beemerrich]

I looked at the mini-gauges but decided to go with the Acewell 2853 when I start to work on ceaning up the front. I know it is modern and eletronic but I like the idea of one gauge for everything and the Acewell still kind of has a retro look.

That's where I'm headed I think...unless some more-robust 2.4" instruments suddenly hit the market.

With its mechanical to electronic speedo drive adapter, the Acewell is a pretty sweet setup:

http://www.acewell.co.uk/Acewell Accessories and Sensors/Speed Sensors - Cable Drive/ACE-S8.htm?action=full&id=23

Cheers,

--Rich

 

[Danbuc]

How does that speedo pickup work and mount?

 

[casida]

Pretty well!

But seriously, it's the adapter made to work with Triumph/BMW. It mounts in the stock location in the stock fashion, and is a hall effect sensor that measures the rotations of the speedo output.

You just need to config the distance traveled per rotation on the unit. Easy cheese.

How does that speedo pickup work and mount?

 

[Danbuc]

Ahh, yeah looking at the Duc one I see. Just plugs into the speedo gear. Cool beans.

 

[steve betts]

I looked at the mini-gauges but decided to go with the Acewell 2853 when I start to work on ceaning up the front. I know it is modern and eletronic but I like the idea of one gauge for everything and the Acewell still kind of has a retro look.

I also like the look of that Acewell unit, and that's what one of the staff at DCC recommended...just not sure if I would like it on a Bonne on which I am trying to preserve a retro look. Photos of the Acewell and photos of the mini speedos and tachs, on Bonnes or Thruxes, would be extremely helpful. Anybody?

 

[geezfools]

Glad this thread popped up. Will be swapping out the bars on my scrambler, but am going to oversize pro tapers and the normal speedo mount will no longer work. So may as well upgrade the bars AND the speedo/tach. Will fab up my own bracket at work.

 

[casida]

Just so you know, if you mount it like I did, you can potentially get the bars to interfere with the speedo slightly. Once I swapped the bar, I shimmed the bar risers up a millimeter and a half or so with a washer under the cup, just to give myself a little more clearance.

Just something to consider!

Glad this thread popped up. Will be swapping out the bars on my scrambler, but am going to oversize pro tapers and the normal speedo mount will no longer work. So may as well upgrade the bars AND the speedo/tach. Will fab up my own bracket at work.

 

[Rock2D2]

I've got a set of the DCC gauges on my old 72 Honda cl350. They work great, and the build quality seems top notch. There are variations, I've got the one with all my idiot lights in the tach. My only complaint would be the idiot LEDs are too dim and thus hard to see in direct sunlight. I find myself using a hand to shade them during the day.

 

[geezfools]

Just so you know, if you mount it like I did, you can potentially get the bars to interfere with the speedo slightly. Once I swapped the bar, I shimmed the bar risers up a millimeter and a half or so with a washer under the cup, just to give myself a little more clearance.

Just something to consider!

I'll be building the bracket from scratch at work, but I'll keep this in mind. Do you happen to have pictures of your setup?

 

[steve betts]

I've got a set of the DCC gauges on my old 72 Honda cl350. They work great, and the build quality seems top notch. There are variations, I've got the one with all my idiot lights in the tach. My only complaint would be the idiot LEDs are too dim and thus hard to see in direct sunlight. I find myself using a hand to shade them during the day.

That figures! After I buy aftermarket LED idiot lights so I can see neutral and blinkers on the stock set up, I'm going to an aftermarket set up where I'm back to the original problem. At least they work and don't look cheap. Thanks.

 

[casida]

I'll be building the bracket from scratch at work, but I'll keep this in mind. Do you happen to have pictures of your setup?

An overview of it:

That particular gauge has a weird setup, using three tiny screws under the bucket (M2 or M3, at a guess.) The other side is a hole for a M8 to M10 screw, and I drilled and tapped the top triple for a single M8 bolt, and bent the gauge mounting bracket so the gauge actually faced me. That's the basics! Also, this can't be done without removing the gauge mount, which also requires you to split the wiring loom and remove the pins from the connectors to feed it back through. A bit of work, but well worth it! And something I was planning on doing anyway, since I used the stock Tyco/AMP connector to connect it all into the stock harness, plug-and-play style. =)

 

[zenbike]

Has anyone every seen or found the Acewell 4454 model speedo/tach? It has a needle tach above the LCD speedo display.
This looks like a perfect solution. Really want to use this one.
http://www.acewell-meter.co.uk/Acewell Speedometers/ACE-4xxx/ACE-4454CP.htm?action=full&id=40

 

[casida]

Sexy. =) Looks like the setup is extremely similar to my unit, the 2856, but with a temp sensor, and an adjustable range fuel sender. And adjustable color. *drool*

 

[zenbike]

Posted my order for the Acewell 4453 unit today! So excited, but now I just have to wait for it to arrive from Germany...

Will post pics once I start to get it installed.

Does anyone have a source to buy replacement plug so that I can wire it to plug right into the bikes wiring harness?
Also looking for a plug for the tail light/rear indicators for a similar switch with the ability to maintain the plug and plan option.