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How to Correct Odometer Reading?

6K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  Norton 850 
#1 ·
No, I will not be sitting with my bike for 2 days with a drill.

I am surprised to find very little on the forums pertaining to correcting an odometer reading on the KLR. I assumed it would be a not uncommon issue for folks, but maybe I'm wrong. I lost my inner cable d/t a loose cable housing at the beginning of the 2nd half of a recent trip, and after ordering a new cable am now in need of a way to register quite a few miles on the odometer to bump it back up to the correct reading (specifically, 1,696 miles). I could find very little about whether this was even possible, much less the process. I found one person on the "other" forum talking about some ratcheting system for the number dials, but it made no sense to me.

Has anyone done this? Is it fairly easy to do? I am avoiding riding until I get the new cable on, and would like to put the correct reading on as soon as possible.
 
#2 ·
I had that happen to me on my Goldwing. I never worried about it. Just mentally added the distance if I needed to. I kept a record of it and when I sold the bike I told the purchaser about the missing mileage. What he does down the road with it is up to him. I certainly would not have my bike laid up over it. I’m sure there are many bikes out there with the same scenario with less honest owners. Taking the odometer apart doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.
 
#3 ·
A simple solution would be to take a old or a, speedo cable and carefully cut it at the bottom and put it on a drill and let it spin till you get what you want. ( let the drill cool off once in a wile )
I don't know if JC Whitney still sells a speedo cable repair kit. I used it 3 times on an 1991 Harley. It comes with just the inside cable, a long length of it and a couple of different ends and a one time use crimping thing.
 
#4 ·
Any mechanical alterations to an odometer assembly may be illegal. Plus you run the risk of breaking the speedometer needle in your home garage. Then you will be worse off.

Install a 17 inch front wheel assy and calculate how many miles to ride to cause the odometer to catch up. ;)
 
#6 ·
If one was to use a cordless drill with a set / lockable / banded trigger, one could track how many miles on 1 battery dis-charge. Then determine how many times till 1696 miles has been accumulated.

It may not be good to TOTALLY dis-charged the batteries and leave draining / dead overnight. Maybe do it during meal time, re-charge immediately.
 
#12 ·
With some skills and tools you can fiddle the odometer reading, but if it is your first go at it you may well screw the thing up. I think I have an extra dash around here somewhere and someday may have a look at what it takes. Somebody had to put it together and there are (or used to be) speedometer shops that do/did this sort of service.

It has always been illegal to change an odometer reading to commit fraud, but stuff does break and wear out; I can't imagine that a non-fraudulent repair would be illegal. In fact, you are required to disclose an erroneous odometer reading on a transfer of ownership.

You can check my math, but given that the speedometer drive turns the cable three times for every wheel revolution, it should take just over 39 hours to rack up 1700 miles using a drill that turns at 1600rpm. If you're brave, and can stand the noise, a Dremel might do it in half that. I don't think that the cable should be spun at much more than 3000rpm (so don't hook the Dremel up and let it go at 35,000rpm) ;^).
 
#13 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by brycelyoung View Post
Fair enough. I don't mind keeping track of the service intervals, but what about my bragging rights?! In all seriousness, I tend to think that a forthright admission helps build ethos when going to sell a bike (whether that will ever come into play with this particular bike, who knows?).\

Originally Posted by Dave in response to the above :
I'm all for honesty and if we were talking 10,000 kms or even 5k, I'd think it was a bigger deal but 1700 miles is fairly negligeable IMO.

Dave

I think like Dave that you're swatting at an empty piñata.

Jason
 
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