Buddy digital speedo? Way to make stock one more accurate?

mhardgrove · Post by **mhardgrove** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 8:51 am

I know they make a digital speedo for the PGO version of the blur, anyone know if that's the same for any model of the bubu? I am assuming no, because I'm not finding one doing google searching.

Is there any way to make the Buddy speedo "accurate" and not "optimistic"? I would like to actually do the stated speed than a couple mph slower and annoying people tailgating me.

Capt_Don · Post by **Capt_Don** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 1:48 pm

I am with you on this, this optimistic thing is a bitch, I want to know my speed at a glance.

skully93 · Post by **skully93** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 1:53 pm

I used to really worry about it, but now I just take whatever speed mine is going and subtract 5mph, until about 60 where I subtract 7mph.

Even on most other scooters, this is the same way. At least we sometimes get a reasonable idea of how much gas we have!

Post by **ericalm** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 2:14 pm

No, a digital speedo won't help. The issue isn't in the speedo dial. It's all spelled out here: topic10818.html#139168

This is not at all unique to Buddys or even scooters. Almost all motorcycles also have this.

Taking 10% off is an easy way of figuring it out, though the Buddy is probably more like 12% or so off.

lovemysan · Post by **lovemysan** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 2:24 pm

pfff! 10% would be nice. According to my iphone and garmin.

33 mph @ 40 mph indicated
41 mph @ 50 mph indicated
51 mph @ 61 mph indicated

I'm going to run a slightly taller tire in the front soon which will help a little. I've thought about trying a buddy 50 speedo gear thinking it may be smaller due to the 80/80 10 tire.

Mutt the Hoople · Post by **Mutt the Hoople** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 3:56 pm

lovemysan wrote:pfff! 10% would be nice. According to my iphone and garmin.

33 mph @ 40 mph indicated
41 mph @ 50 mph indicated
51 mph @ 61 mph indicated

I'm going to run a slightly taller tire in the front soon which will help a little. I've thought about trying a buddy 50 speedo gear thinking it may be smaller due to the 80/80 10 tire.

Good reference to keep in mind. Thanks for posting that. One of those quaint quirks of scootery.

Howardr · Post by **Howardr** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 6:41 pm

I don't really bother looking at my speedo. If cars are passing me, I speed up. If I'm passing them, I slow down.

Seriously, if you are being crowded by cars, the speed indicated on your bike is moot. Just speed the heck up.

Howard

Edwub · Post by **Edwub** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 8:33 pm

I need to figure mine out.

On the Blur, it's very easy to get carried away and speed! Although I love knowing I can speed, I don't love speeding on many of the 35mph city streets. People in the Blur forum have reported a range of optimism values, from 5% to almost 15%.

I think the best scenario is to do what the post recommends: make a table. I usually do straight-line driving on long streets, so I want to know how far off my speedo is. Ideally I'd borrow someones GPS or use my phone, and try to figure out how fast I'm actually going at 40, 50, 60 and 70 mph indicated.

Edwub · Post by **Edwub** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 8:34 pm

lovemysan wrote:pfff! 10% would be nice. According to my iphone and garmin.

33 mph @ 40 mph indicated
41 mph @ 50 mph indicated
51 mph @ 61 mph indicated

I'm going to run a slightly taller tire in the front soon which will help a little. I've thought about trying a buddy 50 speedo gear thinking it may be smaller due to the 80/80 10 tire.

Those three values are all about 20% off - are you confident? That seems pretty excessive!

Dooglas · Post by **Dooglas** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 8:47 pm

Edwub wrote:Those three values are all about 20% off - are you confident? That seems pretty excessive!

I've checked mine with a GPS also and they don't agree with these numbers. If they are right, it also means that there is a fair amount of variation from one Buddy to another.

JohnKiniston · Post by **JohnKiniston** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 8:47 pm

You could fit something like This trail tech VECTOR speedometer aftermarket speedometer to your Buddy and it would be accurate. It uses a hall effect sensor to count tire rotations, you program it with the size of your tire and away you go.

bluebuddygirl · Post by **bluebuddygirl** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 9:11 pm

Dooglas wrote:
Edwub wrote:Those three values are all about 20% off - are you confident? That seems pretty excessive!
I've checked mine with a GPS also and they don't agree with these numbers. If they are right, it also means that there is a fair amount of variation from one Buddy to another.

It is different with every bike. It depends on a number of factors including tire type and pressure. With a wheel that is only 10 inches, it can change dramatically with those factors. Riding with a GPS is really the only way to know for sure, or hitting enough of those radar flashing signs until you are pretty sure of your speed on average.

neotrotsky · Post by **neotrotsky** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 9:46 pm

Sure, it may upset those who are obsessed with safety and who harp on following the rules every moment because "you must", but every bike I've owned has been off by about 10%. This means my Vespa GTS250ie that I ended up paying nearly $8,000 for OTD to the POS Rattler 110 that cost quite a bit less are all as inaccurate. Even my father's BMW 1200c runs about 8% to 10% pessimistic.

It's just something that motorbike manufacturers can't get their heads around. And with so many variables due to tire pressure, thickness, diameter, build, etc... I don't know if any mechanical readout will match. But to be fair, even GPS isn't 100% accurate either

LunaP · Post by **LunaP** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 10:55 pm

lovemysan wrote:pfff! 10% would be nice. According to my iphone and garmin.

33 mph @ 40 mph indicated
41 mph @ 50 mph indicated
51 mph @ 61 mph indicated

I'm going to run a slightly taller tire in the front soon which will help a little. I've thought about trying a buddy 50 speedo gear thinking it may be smaller due to the 80/80 10 tire.

My 170 wasn't this bad. It was 2-3 off below 30, between 30 and 50 it was more like 5 off, and above 50 or 55 it was 6-8, depending on how fast.

The only thing I hate is that it's a percentage, not flat, it's just really annoying to me. My last car was about exactly 5mph slower than the speedo said, so I got used to that... but it was a flat 5.

Lokky's speedo on the Stella keeps breaking- both on the first one and Stella2.0, it goes crazy and has a psychotic break after riding WOT or high speed for a while and isn't really ever the same again. He's thinking about putting an assembly made for a Vespa in there hoping it'll be sturdier, but if there's a digital option somewhere out there I wonder if he'd like that...

Post by **ericalm** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 1:34 pm

LunaP wrote:The only thing I hate is that it's a percentage, not flat, it's just really annoying to me. My last car was about exactly 5mph slower than the speedo said, so I got used to that... but it was a flat 5.

When it read 1mph were you going backwards?

2wheelNsanity · Post by **2wheelNsanity** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 2:14 pm

I also did the GPS thing and made 10 runs at indicated mph and noted what max speed was indicated, then I had my wife drive the car ahead of me to a set speed. Lovemysan numbers are very close to mine.

40 indicated = 34 gps/car
50 indicated = 42 gps/car
60 indicated = 51 gps/car
72 indicated (WOT) = 61 gps/car

So by my calculations my speedo is about 15% off.
Oh btw, my tires are Michilen S1's.

Rusty Shackleford · Post by **Rusty Shackleford** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 8:05 pm

Mine is 16.7% off. I'm thinking of looking into having a block-off panel fabricated and getting an aftermarket instrument cluster at this point. I really want a dead accurate speedometer and a tach. If it takes something like a SpeedoHealer/SpeedoDRD to calibrate the speedometer still, so be it. This is the one part about scooter manufacturers that disappoints me.

10 -> 09
20 -> 17
30 -> 26
40 -> 34
50 -> 43
60 -> 51
70 -> 60
80 -> 69

Threads I've addressed this in for reference...
Biggest Tire...
spedometer inaccuracy...can it be fixed???
How inaccurate is your Buddy Speedometer & Odometer

z20k · Post by **z20k** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 8:46 pm

I know PGO produces digital gauges for various scooter models.. I'm hoping that eventually they'll produce one that's directly implantable into the Buddy.

lovemysan · Post by **lovemysan** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 9:47 pm

Edwub wrote:
lovemysan wrote:pfff! 10% would be nice. According to my iphone and garmin.

33 mph @ 40 mph indicated
41 mph @ 50 mph indicated
51 mph @ 61 mph indicated

I'm going to run a slightly taller tire in the front soon which will help a little. I've thought about trying a buddy 50 speedo gear thinking it may be smaller due to the 80/80 10 tire.
Those three values are all about 20% off - are you confident? That seems pretty excessive!

Yes, I've checked it multiple times with multiple different methods.

Rusty Shackleford · Post by **Rusty Shackleford** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 10:06 pm

lovemysan wrote:
Edwub wrote:Those three values are all about 20% off - are you confident? That seems pretty excessive!
Yes, I've checked it multiple times with multiple different methods.

I can verify this. Approximately 17% optimistic, give or take a little, is accurate. The Buddy (125) speedo is more off than people realize. It's painfully obvious to the people who push its upper limits (indicated 62mph-72mph).

I'm looking into universal motorcycle speedometers. The degree of error is unacceptable. My GF rides her 125 with motorcycles, so she pushes it often.

JBenjimin · Post by **JBenjimin** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 12:10 am

I've seen plenty of people post that say: if your passing cars, they are passing/pushing you then slow down, speed up. That is fine if you're around other traffic, I like to take back roads where I seldom see a car so I can't use those as a gauge. What then?

I've done a fair bit of riding with the GPS so I've guesstimated that I'm showing about 10% higher that actual. So I do the math in my head, but it would be nice to not have to.

Imagine if all the cars Ford or GM sold had speedometers that are as inaccurate and varied as much as the ones on 2 wheelers.

If someone came up with an easy aftermarket kit to fix it, I suspect they would see a reasonable return on their investment.

TVB · Post by **TVB** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:09 am

JBenjimin wrote:I've seen plenty of people post that say: if your passing cars, they are passing/pushing you then slow down, speed up. That is fine if you're around other traffic, I like to take back roads where I seldom see a car so I can't use those as a gauge. What then?

Then don't worry about it?

z20k · Post by **z20k** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:19 am

If there was a reasonable and verifiable way to fix the issue, I'd buy into it.

spr0k3t · Post by **spr0k3t** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:50 am

Buy a custom speedo which uses electro magnetic operations to determine the speed. You can get them for bicycles for less than $50 (some as cheap as $10, but the higher priced units offer backlighting for nighttime driving)... just mount it somewhere to the handlebars somehow. If you want to go all out crazy with it, get at least 30-50 interested buyers willing to shell out about $150 upfront each and take your information to Koso, Autometer, and a few others makers requesting a custom built speedo. With enough buyers, some vendors are willing to do a little extra for the potential market share.

BuddyRaton · Post by **BuddyRaton** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 12:37 pm

WHY RED IS RED!

Stitch · Post by **Stitch** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:30 pm

Pfffff. If you got throttle left, go faster. If the speedo inaccuracies bother you, either don't look at it, or mount a GPS on your handlebars. Cheap and easy.

BuddyLicious · Post by **BuddyLicious** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 5:45 pm

But folks think about the money you have saved not paying speeding tickets! See there is a positive side to this dilemma.

I agree it would be cool if somebody could find a fix for this speedo error.

Good luck!

Tim

Rusty Shackleford · Post by **Rusty Shackleford** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 7:03 pm

BuddyLicious wrote:I agree it would be cool if somebody could find a fix for this speedo error.

I'm working on solving that right now. It'll likely consist of a block-off panel and an aftermarket motorcycle speedometer. Another, cheaper, way would be to create a new speedometer face-plate that simply goes from 0-70mph instead of 80mph, but obviously have the numbers spread out a little more so 70mph is where the old 80mph is. It'd never be more than a couple of MPH off if you did that, and way more accurate than stock.

JBenjimin · Post by **JBenjimin** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 8:05 pm

This just hit me, if the speedometer is off then so is the Odometer, that makes any fuel mileage calculations all but useless, as well as making the odometer readings that are reported to the government when the scooter is registered, inspected, and transferred off. So doesn't that mean that the manufactures are causing false reports of mileage to the government? Glad we aren't charged road use taxes by the mile, like commercial trucks are, we would be over-paying.

BuddyRaton · Post by **BuddyRaton** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:19 am

Post by **ericalm** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:38 am

JBenjimin wrote:This just hit me, if the speedometer is off then so is the Odometer, that makes any fuel mileage calculations all but useless, as well as making the odometer readings that are reported to the government when the scooter is registered, inspected, and transferred off. So doesn't that mean that the manufactures are causing false reports of mileage to the government? Glad we aren't charged road use taxes by the mile, like commercial trucks are, we would be over-paying.

No, the the speedometer and odometer are separate. They use the same cable but the mechanisms are not the same. The odometers are much more accurate, as required by DOT.

Post by **jmazza** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:44 am

BuddyRaton wrote:

My speedometer got more accurate when I switched to premium gas.

BuddyRaton · Post by **BuddyRaton** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:53 pm

jmazza wrote:
BuddyRaton wrote:
My speedometer got more accurate when I switched to premium gas.

Did you rejet?

Post by **jmazza** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 5:18 pm

BuddyRaton wrote:
jmazza wrote:
BuddyRaton wrote:
My speedometer got more accurate when I switched to premium gas.

Did you rejet?

Of course. But I think it was the airbox mod that had the most effect on the speedo fix.

Post by **jrsjr** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 2:44 am

jmazza wrote:
BuddyRaton wrote:
My speedometer got more accurate when I switched to premium gas.

That's funny, mine was unaffected by octane, but adding SeaFoam gas treatment corrected the speedo error within .05% verified by instruments with calibration traceable to National Institute of Standards and Technology.

BuddyRaton · Post by **BuddyRaton** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 2:01 pm

jrsjr wrote:
jmazza wrote:
BuddyRaton wrote:
My speedometer got more accurate when I switched to premium gas.
That's funny, mine was unaffected by octane, but adding SeaFoam gas treatment corrected the speedo error within .05% verified by instruments with calibration traceable to National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Dude....an error of .05% is not acceptable. Have you tried Chevron with techron along with Marvel Mystery Oil and seafoam? Please report back with your results

ankdworak · Post by **ankdworak** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 2:29 pm

I have a Honda Elite 110 and the speedo is dead on accurate. Verified with a GPS. I am not sure if this is true of all Honda scooters or if I just got lucky.

Post by **jrsjr** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 5:10 pm

ankdworak wrote:I have a Honda Elite 110 and the speedo is dead on accurate. Verified with a GPS. I am not sure if this is true of all Honda scooters or if I just got lucky.

Definitely not true of the Honda Silverwing. Mine was reading 112 or some such silly number when the actual was only about 95. Good thing my rear tire waited until the next day to deliminate, though, eh?

Rusty Shackleford · Post by **Rusty Shackleford** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 7:02 pm

Yeah I get it. Some of you don't care about the issue. Others do.

viney266 · Post by **viney266** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:37 pm

BuddyRaton wrote:
jrsjr wrote:
jmazza wrote: My speedometer got more accurate when I switched to premium gas.
That's funny, mine was unaffected by octane, but adding SeaFoam gas treatment corrected the speedo error within .05% verified by instruments with calibration traceable to National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Dude....an error of .05% is not acceptable. Have you tried Chevron with techron along with Marvel Mystery Oil and seafoam? Please report back with your results

^^^ Unless you checked with Bobistheoilguy its all worthless anyway!

....Thanks guys for a good smile and even a chuckle to save me from the interwebs.

Post by **ericalm** » Wed Oct 17, 2012 1:49 am

This thread is going nowhere because there's largely nowhere to go. The speedometer error is well known and well-documented. This is something that's common throughout the two-wheel industry. The reasons for it are spelled out in the FAQ. There is not reasonable or practical solution.

Anyone who has such a huge problem with it, who needs that level of precision for a vehicle that's going under 50mph most of the time, should probably get a car. A slow one.

Locked.