hey guys, anyone out there added a road bike computer to their 500 to get a digital speed readout? i thought i read about somebody doing that and was wondering how well it works

thanks

 

Welcome...MR.???

I did it to my 250R last year. Here is a post from back then:
https://www.kawasakiforums.com/m_87261/tm.htm

I think it makes a difference what brand of cycle computer you use, but mine starts going crazy after 50-60MPH. Just about everything I wrote about the 250R should apply to your bike also. (Your 500 also has an inaccurate speedo from factory. About 10% off)

 

Clever of you to mount it on the brake caliper like that Mark.
If you're willing to plunk down a little dosh, you can get a slightly nicer computer that will also record/display your max-speed, average speed, altitude, trip meter, elapsed time, time of day, heart rate, average heart rate and calories burned.
I'm also a road-bicyclist and just got a GPS-based handlebar computer a few weeks ago that I'm just nuts about:

They ain't cheap (got mine for $199), but they give you several mounts with the unit, so you can quickly transfer it from your bicycle to your motorbike with no fuss. AND because it's GPS-based, the only time it's not dead-accurate is when you're going up or down hills, AND you don't have to worry about mounting the pickup sensor.
I just rode (bicycled) 47 miles yesterday and climbed some hairy hills that got my heartrate up to 192bpm.

OR you can just get a standard hand-held GPS and stick it in the clear mapcase of your tankbag. That will also give you a map of where you are too.

What a time to be alive, eh?
-Chris in C'bad

 

Thanks.[8D]

I know GPS devices can display your speed, but when I tried using my phone's GPS road map once on a trip, the MPH was never consistent. (Was jumping around quite a bit.)

Chris, is your GPS consistent and steady?

 

Hiya Mark.
Didn't mean to try to show you up, or anything. Your way is definitely more economically feasible, and there are some GREAT bicycle computers out there now for not much more than $20. I have two old Avocet Altimeter-50's, so if you'd like one, just drop me a line: calamarichris@yahoo.com
Was your trip pretty hilly? The only downside with GPS is that it seems the world as a perfect sphere/flat glove. Therefore if you're going up a 10% grade of a hill (i.e. climbing 10 feet for every 100 feet of forward travel), your GPS will be 10% off. Fortunately, there are very few roads that steep and most law-enforcement-officers were not briefed on this flat-earth effect at the academy.
Yeah, both of my Garmins are fairly steady. The bicycle one is an Edge 305, and while it does jump around a little, that's because it's measures speed to the nearest tenth of a MPH, so even if you're pedalling steady on flat ground with no wind, it's pretty tricky to keep it at exactly 22.5mph. Same thing with my waterproof GPSMap. But the whole-numbers of the MPH remain constant--you just get used to watching it bop back and forth from 79.8 and 79.9 and eventually quit looking at the number to the right of the decimal point.
Paz y amor, hermanos-cosmicos!
-Chris in Carlsbad, CA

 

The lower grade GPS units and I imagine your cell phone unit probably jump a little more freequently because they do not update as often. for example if your GPS updated every second it show your position as you move like this
.................................................. ..................
But if it updated every5 seconds it would look like this
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The speed you travel is calculated by the distance between the points and the time it took to move that far, so with more points the transition as you change speed would be alot smoother than with a slower unit. Whenever I use GPS, I usetwoGarmin 430's which cost about 10-15k each so I dont really have that problem.[8D]

 

thanks guys. i think im gonna give it a try. im hoping that a $50 bike computer will be able to read at higher speeds. i dont really want to spend a couple hundred on a gps if i dont have to

mr

 

My GPS phone would instantly jump anywhere between 10-25 MPH from actual speed. (On a straight road with no hills.) I know having a cell phone for a GPS device is sort of half-***, so I bet it's why my speed was constantly off. If a good GPS unit is only off by 1-3 MPH, that would be a great way to go.

Chris, Thanks for the offer. Most of my 250R riding is in town anyway, so most of the time the cycle computer doesn't go crazy.