Free and simple way to check the accuracy of your speedometer

[nrsheikh]

Quick and easy way to check your speedometer on your bike without having to hook up a GPS. Find a newer Honda Civic on the highway, preferably at dusk. Pull up besides the car and you can easly see the large digital dashboard in the car. Pace the car and see his speed and match it to your speed on the bike. Quick, painless, and simple!

 

[670cc]

With stock tires the US model NC700X is accurate to less than 2% so it would seem to be a non issue.

Why would the Civic be any more accurate than the NC? Is the Civic speedometer GPS based?

 

[davidc83]

yep, at 70mph on speedo, the gps is reading 69mph. Usually at all speeds I have noticed, the gps is right on or 1 mph less than the speedo.

 

[that l do pig]

Coming from a widely inaccurate Vespa GTS, after putting the GPS on my NC700X I was thrilled that the GPS speeds were in line with the indicated speeds in all areas (slow, medium, fast).

 

[that l do pig]

Quick and easy way to check your speedometer on your bike without having to hook up a GPS. Find a newer Honda Civic on the highway, preferably at dusk. Pull up besides the car and you can easly see the large digital dashboard in the car. Pace the car and see his speed and match it to your speed on the bike. Quick, painless, and simple!

I thought this was a set up for the punchline "and then the officer will ask you, 'do you know how fast you were going?'"

 

[happy]

Basic flaw....who said the baseline is accurate?
Best is still to use GPS, but then who cares about SPEED anyway...

On most highways, radar detectors or speed guns are never calibrated after the first initial use. Just go "AT" the speed limit. Manufacturers, HONDA, TOYOTA, in fact most...are always conservative. Means 50kmh on meter means 48 kmh in actual speed.
Helps people drive "quick" but they are under the limit = no tickets.

 

[StratTuner]

At 72 MPH (indicated), my GPS says I'm going 70 MPH.
The speedometer isn't especially accurate, but you learn to adjust.

 

[BerndM]

Mine seems to be about as nuts-on accurate as it can be. Never more than 1 mph off based on both my Garmin GPS, my cellphone GPS and the tons of neighborhood radar speed indicators all over the SoCal area.
Compared to the 10% error, YES....10%, of the 2012 Suzuki Burgman 650 I just sold, I'm really pleased.

 

[TrackCage]

This has been one of the most accurate motorcycle speedometers I have ever had. Way less error than my supersport bikes.

 

[Fuzzy]

Quick and easy way to check your speedometer on your bike without having to hook up a GPS. Find a newer Honda Civic on the highway, preferably at dusk. Pull up besides the car and you can easly see the large digital dashboard in the car. Pace the car and see his speed and match it to your speed on the bike. Quick, painless, and simple!

If I have a speedometer I know how fast I am going. If I have two to look at I am not quite sure.

 

[AdamW]

My 2013 DCT is pretty accurate. This is a marked improvement over my Aprilia Scarabeo 500ie, which consistently indicated 10% faster than actual speed.

This is all well and good, but I'd be a lot happier with an accurate fuel gauge than an accurate speedometer.

 

[honda_nc700x]

I agree that the speedometer on this bike is quite accurate (compared with the GPS) vs other bikes [my old bike CBR600 was off by 7% across the speed range).

Hopefully I am not highjacking this thread, but I have yet to see a thread commenting on the fact (?) that the odometer appears to be off - at least on my NC700X. In my car and my CBR600, the mileage was dead on with the mile markers on the road, with my GPS, AND with Google Maps. However, I have noticed that on the NC700X, the odometer runs approximately 2% further than how far I have actually traveled. This may or may not seem like a big deal, but it is (at least on my bike) consistent. Over 100 miles, 2 miles may not seem like a big deal, but it adds up. So my odometer may say 5,000 miles, but I really have only traveled 4,900 miles on it.

This also impacts the gas mileage calculation, making it seem artificially higher (inflated) than it actually it. For example, 200 miles (indicated) per 3 gallons (66.7MPG) vs 196 miles (in reality) per 3 gallons (65.3MPG). I love Honda products, but the cynical part of me half thinks they could have done this to inflate the gas mileage rating. I don't really care, but I also don't like it one bit if it was true and that could lead to trouble for Honda. If/when I go to sell the bike, I'd like it to have the true distance traveled on the odometer.

My bike gearing (sprockets, chain, etc) is completely stock. Perhaps, tire diameter changes as it wears or inflation, but I haven't seen such changes in the 2% error in the odometer since getting the bike new and I haven't seen these variables impact the car measurement. I keep check my pressures quite often - a bit OCD.

Has anyone else see the odometer being off relative to their GPS or the highway mileage markers? I am quite sure of my measurements (I am an engineer) and know how far my commute is and, as I've said, the car (two cars actually) and old bike matched GPS distance and the highway exactly.

It's just a minor irksome issue and I'd just like to know if anyone else has observed the same thing? Thanks!

 

[670cc]

I agree that the speedometer on this bike is quite accurate (compared with the GPS) vs other bikes [my old bike CBR600 was off by 7% across the speed range).

Hopefully I am not highjacking this thread, but I have yet to see a thread commenting on the fact (?) that the odometer appears to be off - at least on my NC700X. In my car and my CBR600, the mileage was dead on with the mile markers on the road, with my GPS, AND with Google Maps. However, I have noticed that on the NC700X, the odometer runs approximately 2% further than how far I have actually traveled. This may or may not seem like a big deal, but it is (at least on my bike) consistent. Over 100 miles, 2 miles may not seem like a big deal, but it adds up. So my odometer may say 5,000 miles, but I really have only traveled 4,900 miles on it.

This also impacts the gas mileage calculation, making it seem artificially higher (inflated) than it actually it. For example, 200 miles (indicated) per 3 gallons (66.7MPG) vs 196 miles (in reality) per 3 gallons (65.3MPG). I love Honda products, but the cynical part of me half thinks they could have done this to inflate the gas mileage rating. I don't really care, but I also don't like it one bit if it was true and that could lead to trouble for Honda. If/when I go to sell the bike, I'd like it to have the true distance traveled on the odometer.

My bike gearing (sprockets, chain, etc) is completely stock. Perhaps, tire diameter changes as it wears or inflation, but I haven't seen such changes in the 2% error in the odometer since getting the bike new and I haven't seen these variables impact the car measurement. I keep check my pressures quite often - a bit OCD.

Has anyone else see the odometer being off relative to their GPS or the highway mileage markers? I am quite sure of my measurements (I am an engineer) and know how far my commute is and, as I've said, the car (two cars actually) and old bike matched GPS distance and the highway exactly.

It's just a minor irksome issue and I'd just like to know if anyone else has observed the same thing? Thanks!

Well if you hang with the Civic long enough you can check the odometer, too!

 

[duk2n]

The speedometer is not so accurate in my european NC700X. It has an error of about 5%

 

[bamamate]

It has been discussed a few times, at length, in some of the MPG threads.

Government has regulations on speedometer error. They allow more error on over reporting speed than under reporting actual speed and most manufacturers, auto and motorcycle, over report a bit to be on the safe side. I'm sure there are also regulations on the odometer accuracy with an allowed % of error.

 

[The_Drifter]

I found the NC700 speedometer to be the most accurate motorcycle speedometer that I know of. Mine is about 1 mph off at 70 mph. My Suzuki S50 (800 cc twin) is about 7 miles off.

 

[anglachel]

It has been discussed a few times, at length, in some of the MPG threads.

Government has regulations on speedometer error. They allow more error on over reporting speed than under reporting actual speed and most manufacturers, auto and motorcycle, over report a bit to be on the safe side. I'm sure there are also regulations on the odometer accuracy with an allowed % of error.

My mom's crv over reports on the odometer, there was a class action suit and as a result the warranty on th car was extended out another 10% above the previous mileage, and time to place claims was extended... fixing it was not part of the settlement.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[showkey]

fixing it was not part of the settlement.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

Prior to the settlement there was no federal standard to odometer accuracy......but everyone settled.

2007 and newer.....After the dust settled the stated accuracy NOW is -2.5% to + 2.5 %. This is with stock tires.....change the tires all bets are off.
So the 2 % is in spec............no need to worry.

PS. The class action suits were against many manufactures.......millions and millions were paid to the attorneys by you and me.......with little to no benefit to average consumer. (rider or driver)

 

[Papafox]

You guys are still lucky with your speedo errors. Here, it's legislated that all vehicles must over-read their speeds. The upper limit of the over-read varies with the type of vehicle, motorcycles being given the largest allowable error. 10% of the true speed, plus an additional 8km/h is allowed, so 118 displayed for 100 true is legal. Luckily the NC is only 8% over actual speed. The displayed speed is obviously just fudged electronically, as the odometer still records accurately.

 

[SergeantChuck]

I'm not too worried about the accuracy of my speedometer. If I drive the speed limit in Little Rock I'll become a statistic. I know mine is close because of those occasions when suddenly all the traffic is running the same speed (exact speed limit) due to a trooper sitting on the side of the road.