The GS150R speedometer actually shows close to road-speed !!

I had been curious about how error prone our speedometer might be, so went through a number of situations before closing in on a figure.This is how I closed in, please read it and share your opinions too.

First the incident,
On one of my fast runs on the GS150R along with the R15, when the R15 was traveling by my side at a certain speed before lunging further, the speedometer of the R15 showed 119kmph against the 114kmph on my bike.

On another occasion while riding with an old Karizma on the highway, my speedometer was at 124 kmph against the Karizma's ticking at 135kmph.The Karizma was ahead of me but judging by the distance between us, the Karizma was travelling only 4 kmph faster than me , it was just a one bike distance between us with the Karizma travelling ahead on my left.

On a third ocassion, the Pulsar 220F was going at 133kmph and I was going 116 kmph on my speedometer, it seemed that the 220 was moving atleast 8-9 kmph faster than me.

Now,the most reputed Biker's magazine in India, that is Bike India, has done the Vbox speed judgment of the R15,ZMA and the Pulsar 220 But they have never done such in case of GS.Though the GS150R was their bike of the year 2010.

The speeds of R15,ZMA and Pulsar220F have been compared with the Vbox non-error figure in Bike India's different issues where they have tested these vehicles.
The R15 varies by 8-9 kmph with what that is shown on the speedo.
The P220 varies by 12 kmph roughly with the speedo figure.
The Karizma varies by 10 kmph with the speedo figure.
The speedometer registers higher speed in all the 3 cases.

So taking into account, the above observations, it has been found that:
1.If the R15 was showing 119kmph that means it must have been traveling at 111kmph(by Vbox figures) and at that speed GS150R showed 114kmph.Which means 3 kmph more than the actual road-speed.

2.If the ZMA was showing 135kmph ,it means it must have been traveling at 125kmph(by Vbox figures) actually and the GS150R was behind by 3 to 4 kmph but the speedometer of GS150R showed 124kmph.So that means the GS150R was actually travelling around 121kmph.

3.If the Pulsar 220 was showing 133 kmph , it means it must have been traveling at 121kmph (by Vbox figures) for real.The GS150R which was traveling 8 kmph slower by judging the relative distance between us showed 116kmph on the speedo.The actual road speed of the GS150R was around 113kmph.

So three different comparative road-speeds have been analysed above,
1.At 111kmph real time road speed GS150R showed 114kmph differing by 3kmph.
2.At 121kmph real time road speed GS150R showed 124kmph differing again by 3 kmph
3.At 113kmph real time road speed GS150R showed 116kmph differing by 3kmph yet again.

So, keeping in compliance with all the above analyzed facts, the speedometer of GS150R varies by 3-4kmph at its best,during high speeds
I had confirmed it before by corresponding GPS value which showed 119kmph against the 122kmph on the speedometer.

...

Friendzz.....
After waiting of "one month" am going to get my GS tomorrow (15-6-2011)..
oh i can't wait anymore..... (Candy max orange pearl nebular black) ....

Thanks vishnukmd .....for ur sincere .....advice
but "How can we protect petrol tank from RUST???" because in Kerala it's "monsoon season"

first fall

had my first fall today. while getting into my office parking, my bike slipped and I fell down. Fortunately, i had no damages and there was no visible scratch on my bike. It was drizzling and was an underground parking. I was only travelling at 10-15 kmph.It was a wide curve, my front wheel skidded and i fell on the left side..Many times my back tire has skidded. I wonder if there is any problem with my riding skills or the tire.. The pbm with todays fall is, my gear shifter got stuck and i was not able to shift any gears or lower them. I somehow managed to reach my home in 2nd gear since there was no mechanic shops when i left office 1 hour back...

got my bike back from second service today..cost me 378 bucks..bike is clean and black again..got my vizor aligned so the vibes are less compared to before..couple of points to note:

1. i think the SVC has reduced the handle bar height for some reason. i could feel it instantly when i took it out. When i enquired about it they said nothing had been done. but i am pretty sure that they have made it a touch lower than before. not a major issue, but i dunno why it was done.
2. i told them choke cable was too tight. it is now less tight although still hard. is this normal? how tight is the choke cable in bikes??
3. the front console(digi speedo,tacho) and headlight are two seperate independent peices i thinks. i fell from my bike while overtaking from the left of a suzuki swift(big mistake) now the headlight part is misalligned. i.e both speedo and headlight consoles seem mis-aligned. when i asked if this can be fixed they said that my handle bar is bent and will have to change that.(bull shit)
4. my silencer cover was also damaged in the fall. small dent and scratches. cost to replace this is 600 bucks apparently.(did not do it)
5. SVC ppl wanted me to do teflon coating. i told them to get lost.
6. the 3.5k vibration has become very distinct and feelable now. was not like this before service.

bike has now done 2670 kms.

and now the news - today the showroom got 10 new peices of GS 150R in blue and red. they were unloading when i went for pick up. they looked exactly like my bike. no change at all.

@VISHNU - ha ha..your post look very very familiar...

@BENJAMIN - Congrats on the new bike, take good care of it. Dont park in rain, keep tank full and frequently you can just rub the inside of the filler with coconut oil(must be available a lot in your state)


@CLANX - I hope you are ok buddy. it is possible that the gear cogs got jammed when you fell. get it checked by a mech. Hope there is nothing majorly wrong with your gear box. Did you lean in too much when you turned? wet+leaning = trouble.

i don't know what gear cogs are.. I even tried to stand on one leg over the gear balancing my weight to shift the gears,but that bloody gear did not move an inch. It only goes down to 1 st gear or to 2nd gear. I lost my neutral, 3rd 4th,5th, 6th ...will get the bike to local mech and check it. Meanwhile, how much will be the cost of gear shifters?

Actually, the reason why I took my bike today evening was to accompany my frd to Honda showroom for picking up his twister from 2nd service....Man, customer service is rocking...They have a competition for their customers for mileage..my friends mileage is around 72. On the board I can see almost 50-60 people names signed by them.. had a chance to see the 250 cc. waiting period is 90 days...

@Mach50, compare your bike's speed with that of the speed shown on a ZMR's console. ZMR has the most accurate speedo indicator among Indian bikes that exist today. It has negligible speedo error!

would do friend..........
The problem is, whenever my own friend brings his ZMR, we exchange our ride !!! He loves my mine for its uniqueness and I like his ZMR for its whitish Hayabusa like bulkiness.

I have clocked 116kmph on the speedometer of ZMR in the city and 121kmph on the highway, it was impossible to push the ZMR beyond that.The speed did not rise,the rpms locked and the bike became full of vibrations.

But my interest is judging the GS speedo ,so we would do a side by side 120kmph speed atleast at the very next occasion.

@Mach,

Interesting research there
So our digi is almost foolproof :-) among all bikes..

Hope I can reach those figures after my second service

1 ltr 3 days 60kmpl not out

Local ride on busy streets, bad roads and hectic traffic of bangalore.

Fuel used normal petrol.
Aprox human weight carried including pillon rider: 115 kg.
Riding style: RPM haven't crossed more than 4500 rpm, speed not above 55 kmph.
Mode on console is PWR (may be my riding style is uncle mode. Shifted gears early used to be on 6th gear at 32 kmph.

Reset the tripmeter after hitting the reserve last time. Did checked by turning to main it stopped with in a kilometer so sure last time it didn't hit the false reserve.

No special action taken for mileage,
While riding just tried to enjoy the mini bullet like thump sound of silencer that's it

Weather is not too hot its cloudy and bit sunny sometimes.

Now she is 60 not out, let me see how far she goes further.

################################################
Just got reserve at 60.4 kms

Second that... 20w40 grade mineral/semi-synthetic

I was on Motul 15w50 semi-synthetic for a month before SVC guy compelled me to change it; I agreed reluctantly. Coz I covered only about 1000 Kms with 15w50. Touched 113 kmph on my Speedo with 15w50 around 8500k RPM.

15w50 is good for long haul I believe; However not good for short city rides. As per my observation, at any given Lower(<= 7000) RPM GSR with 15w50 clocks 10% less on speedometer than a GSR with 20w40. That's my observation. Reminds me of that Idli batter.

It doesn't make sense that changing the oil grade has effects on Speedo....

90 minutes

Hi friends, today I had the most frustrating, frightening, tiring and harrowing 90 mins in recent times.

yesterday evening I got my bike from its 2nd service. It was on reserve when I gave it and naturally it was on reserve when i got iot back. At the petrol pump after i turned the fuel knob from reserve to full, it rotated full 360 degrees. i thought may be its a bit loose or somthn but again it happened. The knob didnt stop at any of the 2 ends when turned. I called up the service guy but he said it was fine when he checked, but incase its happening, not to worry abt it as it wont affect the bike in any way.

Today evening at 7, as I got out from work, the bike stopped running. I tried the electric start, it didnt start. I tried kick start, it didnt start. I tried going downhill and picking up in 1st gear, it didnt start. I kept on trying but it didnt start. Finally i started rolling the bike toward the highway from Mahakali caves road area. I tried to spot a mechanic but it was 8 and the shops were closed. I paused briefly to check some mechanic shop when a voice behind me asked, 'kya hua? band pada kya?' I replied in the affirmative and asked, "koi mechanic milega kya?" he said he is the mechanic and took the bike near his shop. He asked ther problem I was facing and started to check the bike. After a few mins he said may the carburetor needs to be cleaned. I told him to 1st check the whether the fuel line was running well. He checked and voila! there was the fault.

The knob, which was rotating 360 degrees, was faulty and had lost its grip on the lining. Due to this the inner setting was stuck between off and reserve.

He rectified the problem and did some packing inside the knob so that it remains intact. He was a nice kid, Abdul, and very sincere even though he was working un-supervised.

Those were the worst 9o minutes in recent times I faced.

PS: My 2nd service was due in May first week. Hence, the SVC guy told me that my 3rd service coupon will be used instead of the 2nd.

Ya its one hell of a time rolling the bike and that too on that road.....