Installing an Acewell speedo/computer on an airhead --

[bpeckm]

Another pretty picture:

[bpeckm]

[walkingbear]

Originally Posted by datchew

I'm seriously interested. Mebbe this would be good in a /2.

I was thinking how to mount this into a /5 bucket..

[MIOB]

Thanx for the compliment :)

I don't have time to read the hole story, but I'd like to add someting to the chargelight story.

Some people on a Dutcj board (GS-club) claim they've solved the problem by hooking everything up as if the triangle light is the normal BMW chgargelightbulb and than added a resistor paralel to the led.

They claim it's simple and it works, didn't work for me though...

Another possibility, what I've done, is hook up the triangle led like as if it was the BMW bulb charge light and don't do anything else.

What will happen is that your chargelight (triangle led) will stay on and your bike won't charge during riding. HOWEVER, it sounds weird and I don't really understand why, but it's like this on all airheads, if you pull in your clutch and rev it fast once over 4500-5000 rpm the charge led will go off and start reacting like the original charge light.

So hook it up as if the led was a bulb, rev it once every ride (there's plenty of charge in a normal battery to get the engine up to temperature first) and it will behave like the original charge system. Easier than this isn't possible.

by the way: that black acewell looks excellent on your bike!!

[Throbbing Missile]

Originally Posted by bpeckm

Throbbing Missile: 106! Yowza! Got any pics of your installs that you might post up, here....??

Here you go:

If you look between the caliper adapter bracket and the fork leg you can see the sender tucked away there. This bike has the front wheel from a KTM and the disc has a built in magnet.


The dash setup is fairly plain, just the gubbins mounted in a plastic box. That brake line is positioned perfectly to obscure the speed reading when you're seated. Probably ought to fix that...


For the Guzzi I machined an ali bracket that holds the sender and clamps to the wheel spindle inboard of the fork leg. I turned up a deep nut that holds the magnet on the end of one of the disc bolts, visible just below the sender mount.


Here's the dash, again mounted on a plastic box, this time with an ali face:


I want to swap the two over at some point as the round one would suit the Guzzi better and vice-versa.

I love the combination of gloss black, matt black and cream on that BM - very stylish.

[anonny]

Nice!! just in time too, was looking for something for my project and I think this will fit right in.

[baldwithglasses]

Y'all really need to thank bpeckm tons for his contributions.

[bpeckm]

Well, I spent a couple of pleasant Sunday morning hours doing the final installation of the Acewell.

I looked all over the place for a decent mounting bracket, but the motorcycle mounts were all way to fancy, and chrome, etc etc. I wanted a simple clamp-on bracket, and found one at the bicycle store:



The mount is a simple around-the-bar with some flexible black plastic, it came with two sizes, lots of little shims to adjust to any handlebar, and cost $11. Plus, I get an LED flashing, clip-on to attache to my back!

The genlight is the thing with the two wires, above. I was going to leave it in the mount-hole, since it was a nice, elegant solution, but I had no way to make another hole in the Acewell bracket, now that it is wired into the bike. So, I used the Acewell mount as a mount!





I was able to use the little Acewell rubber grommet in mounting the unit, so it has a somewhat-flexible, yet tight and secure mount.



I decided to put the genlight in the triple-tree, using the hole on the right, so I drilled it out to 3/8", pushed it in, and made up the wires by soldering and heat shrink.


I tried a new joint, that I had read about: pushing the strands together and soldering, but frankly, it was a pita and did'nt come out as neat as one might have hoped..... But, it worked, and the heat shrink plus TommyTape made for a neat installation.

[bpeckm]

This is the final result, showing the red gen-light mounted to the right. Works great, is simple and easy to read, and most of all, a very sparse, clean installation.....

[bpeckm]

I am getting the bike ready for her new owner, and in cleaning the bike, have found a new favorite for cleaning aluminummmmmmmm........



It's a metal polish called White Diamond. It is truly amazing. It gets everything black....

Of course I forgot to take a picture of the "before".... best I could do was to stop at mid-cover, and attempt to take a picture (ps I hate these digital cameras with so little control over what happens: flash/no flash, and that's about it...)



This shows the side on the left pretty well cleaned and polished, and the right is how it started out. It took about fifteen minutes to do that on the left...



It gets everything, including hands, very black!.... You squeeze some stuff onto the rag and start rubbing. The rag immediately turns black, so you rub it all with one side of the rag, then go back with some fresh stuff on the other side, and turn it black.... eventually it doesn't get so black, at which point you let it dry to a haze, and when you wipe it off with another sortaclean rag, it shines up!



I don't think I spent much more than half an hour, and probably eight little rags (6" square?) that I had made up from old discarded bath towels.

Pretty amazing stuff! And it leaves a wax on the metal so that it does not spot, stain, etc.... I am sure that it won't last forever, but it sure looks good and will probably be relatively easy to "re-polish"....

[bpeckm]

I also have this pic of the bike: you can see, in spite of the p-poor lighting in the gayrage, that the block and starter cover look really good compared to the fins on the jugs....



It is going to be fun to put it all back together with some (relatively) shiny cases, and go out for a glamour shoot....

[Beater]

Just bought mine ... will be in the mail to me this week. They also gave me a 10% online coupon from Electrosport ... use as many times as I'd like. PM me and I'll send you the code.

Thanks for the write up pbeckm! You too MIOB!

[drhach]

I like that. The integral tach is something that I especially like. It is very reminiscent of the /5. Also, the Idiot light symbols sort of spell my name (DAN), so that's cool too. Does this unit have a programmable odometer? I kind of want to keep track of the miles that I rack up on the bike.

[bpeckm]

	FUNCTIONS		SYMBOL		SPECIFICATIONS
	Bar Graph Tachometer				12,000 rpm
	Digital Tachometer & Warning				100-19,900 rpm, 100 rpm increment
	Speedometer				2.4-300 km/h (187.5 m/h)
	Trip Meter				0.0-9,999.99 km/m
	Odometer				0.0-99,999.9 km, 0.0-62,499.9 m
	Maximum Speed				2.4-300.0 km/h (187.5 m/h)
	Average Speed				2.4-300.0 km/h (187.5 m/h)
	12/24 Hour Clock				0:00:00-11:59:59/23:59:59
	Riding Timer				0-99:59:59
	Total Riding Timer				0-9,999:59:59
						It's pretty slick with two trip odometers and a real odometer that keeps its memory.

[drhach]

Too cool.