Subject: Daytona Velona Rev Counter Thu Mar 24, 2016 10:02 am
One of the things I missed on the VL was the lack of a rev counter - I guess most of us have been riding long enough to know when to change gear, but I find the needle sweeping round in tune with engine note to be strangely comforting.
Did a bit of net-trawling & realised that a £10 jobbie from ebay probable wasn't going to cut the mustard. Had a look at the NEC last year & spoke to the guys on the Digital Speedos stand at length. They pointed me in the direction of the Daytona 0 - 800 which looked great, was the right size, was programmable for different spark patterns, had a multi function display - most importantly, it came with a black casing - a chrome casing would have looked out of place. £85 & a tenner for the optional temperature sender unit.
Ordered it, making sure that they confirmed that it would be flicker-free (after reading Micks tale of woe with his) & opted for the optional water temperature sender unit as well. Lovely looking bit of kit, feels well made.
The first issue was a bar clamp - they don't come with one, so you have to source your own. I already had a bar mounted clock that had come with a decent bar-clamp, so I just ordered another one off ebay - cost about a fiver & I have a spare clock should mine pack up.
" />
Next thing that needed sorting was the bracket that holds the tacho to the clamp - this is the one that it's supplied with the unit as standard
" />
which wouldn't work with the clamp I'd bought - well it would, but I'd have to turn the clamp the other way round, which would have sat the tacho too high for my liking. And it was chrome !! I made a template up & had the fabricators knock up a bracket that was slim enough not to be seen from the front
" />
" />
Next thing was just hook it up to make sure it works. You need four connections, a permanent live, a switched live, a negative & pulse feed, either from the plug lead or the coil positive. This is where my new auxiliary fuse box came into its own - no extra connectors to the battery & pissing around trying to find a switched feed
" />
Loosely ran the cables (used 0.5 mm thin-wall) to the tacho & initially tried to use the plug lead for a pulse feed. I've used Posi-Lock connectors initially.
" />
When I've done a road-test & I'm happy that it's all working OK, I'll do a proper solder connection (although, it's all tucked up neatly under the back of the head-stock, so I'm not in a rush to do that)
" />
The lights came on, the needle did a dial sweep - then - nothing - bugger !! So it was going to have to be a piggy-back off the coil. Now even though I have the wiring diagram, it doesn't actually mark which colour is pos/neg. A quick call to Suzuki tech was no help at all - "sorry sir, we can't answer that in case the wiring has been changed at some point" - "the wires are the same colour as in the service manual - what would thay have been originally?" - "sorry sir, we're not prepared to answer that, you'll have to take the bike into your local dealer" - hmm, no fucking wheels on it. So I took a flyer that it was going to be the white lead on the rear coil - this was based on the deduction that as both coils had an orange/white lead they were likely to be the neg, plus, the white lead was the easiest to get to. Bingo !!! You have the option to scroll through four pulse modes - selected "1 pulse per 1 revolution", & it works !! Flicker free, tick-over about 1000 & a steady sweep through the rev range.
The next thing was to tidy up the wiring. Decided on the routing
" />
Then pulled it all back out & covered it with heat-shrink
" />
It connects via water-tight push connectors, which all tuck up under the head-stock
" />
Quick check to make sure it was all working OK, then off for a celebratory coffee.
The unit has four display modes - time, oil or water temperature (using the optional sender unit), max revs or hourmeter. The instructions also show what appears to be an air temperature read-out, but I'm not sure about that, as it doesn't list that function in the description. You can also fit a bar mounted switch to toggle through the functions, but I'm not a big fan of bar-clutter, so I'll pass on that. I've not fitted the temperature sender yet, as it means dropping the rad out & I want to make sure that it all works OK before doing it.
Not been road tested for vibration, but I'll update if any problems. First impressions are good - only found out (after fitting it) that it's fitted with a stepper-motor, which Mick tells me is a must - so that's a bonus.
Rob Reimer Member
Subject: Re: Daytona Velona Rev Counter Thu Mar 24, 2016 10:45 am
Finally got round to fitting the optional water temperature sender. Which of course was not an easy job. You have to remove the existing sender unit from the top of the rad, which means dropping the rad out. Got the sender unit out & of course, it was a different size. The one that came out was a 14 mm bore & the one going in was a 10 mm. Rang up the Daytona supplier, who sold me an adapter for £8.50 delivered - it arrived the next day.
[img][/img]
Easy job from there - so I decided to strip off the now redundant PARE valve pipe work which I'd left on when I took the actual unit off a couple of years ago - that was a fiddly job, but worth doing as the rad was out.
Filled the system up, ran it to temperature - the fan kicked in at 103 - just need to drop the tank off again tomorrow to check the level & jobs a good 'un
Subject: Re: Daytona Velona Rev Counter Tue Jun 14, 2016 8:57 am
Just as a final bonus, I've found that the rev counter works as substitute speedo - never been comfortable at having to look down at the tank-mounted speedo. Fitted with the 1400 diff, (in second gear, which is more than adequate for most round-town work) the rev-counter reads 1000 rpm per 10 mph, so 3000 rpm = 30 mph. Third gear gives me 2000 rpm at 30 mph, 3000 rpm at 40 mph (third gear is what i'm using for more sub-urban riding), & top gear gives me 50% revs of the speed - so 70 mph shows 3500 revs.
I find it much easier to just glance at the rev counter to check my round-town speed than to have to take my eyes off the road & look down at the tank
Hi Dave, Very impressive write up. I have been looking for said item for ages without success. Took the plunge and ordered the necessary. May have to call upon you if I get stuck !!
Thanks Terence (& everyone else !) - once you've sorted where everything's going, it's a piece of piss. Did you go for the optional temp sender ? As Sim said in another posting, you can get a bit panicky watching the digits rise to 106 / 107 before the fan kicks in !
Something else that nearly gave me a heart attack was the maximum temperature recorded was 119 !!! Then I worked out that as the temperature had risen after the bike was switched off, it would be the core temperature of the engine heating the coolant with no way of cooling it down - bit like placing a beaker of cold water inside a red-hot cast iron pan - the cold water will heat up
Any problems, give me a shout
G.Terence Valued Member
Subject: Re: Daytona Velona Rev Counter Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:55 am
Hi Dave, Given the minimal extra cost and the amount of time and effort fitting this kit, it would be silly not to go for the temp sender. Hopefully it will be with me very soon..
Thanks Terence (& everyone else !) - once you've sorted where everything's going, it's a piece of piss. Did you go for the optional temp sender ? As Sim said in another posting, you can get a bit panicky watching the digits rise to 106 / 107 before the fan kicks in !
Something else that nearly gave me a heart attack was the maximum temperature recorded was 119 !!! Then I worked out that as the temperature had risen after the bike was switched off, it would be the core temperature of the engine heating the coolant with no way of cooling it down - bit like placing a beaker of cold water inside a red-hot cast iron pan - the cold water will heat up
Any problems, give me a shout
Must admit Dave, I tend to do the same ..... and I've stopped looking for a sixth gear now too !
Subject: Daytona Velona Rev Counter 
" />
" />
" />
" />
" />
" />
" />
" />
" />
" />
thanks for sharing Dave 
[/img]
[/img]
by Jack70 Mon Nov 18, 2024 4:35 pm