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Odometer Testing

Date:
By Wom Battle

Today I was going to do a preliminary test on the odometer on my new Road King because I reckon it's wrong.  Not far from me there's an RTA 5km odometer reading test thingy on the freeway so I headed out with my daughter with science in mind.  Right now I have to assume that the RTA can measure 5k's properly if they are going to put signs up.

To be fair, I noticed when I was configuring my GPS data logger today that it was set to log 10 second intervals which is more suited to walking than riding.  I can't say if it was using that setting when I went up the Putty and saw the big difference, (my wife uses the logger when she walks), but next time I travel I'll confirm it's on the 3 second interval logging.

I rode out to the 0k sign, stopped, took a photo of the trip meter at zero (which should be the same as the odometer) and the 0k sign.  The photo included the handy white line the RTA painted on the road to mark the spot. I then rode the 5k's and took a photo of the odometer including the white line and then the 5k sign.

The data in the images will confirm the times.  The odometer reading 5.2km.  I was right, the odometer is wrong.  Not the 9 - 10% I suspected I saw over 440 odd k's but 4%+ in that test.  I say 4%+ because the odometer said 5.2, but all I can say for sure is that it was more than 5.2 and less than 5.3....

If the odometer's workings are related to the speedo reading, then there's something smelly in the results the dealer reported when I got it serviced.

During the test I changed up from 1st to 6th and cruised in 6th.  I got a sense that in the first 1km it was reading closer to 10% over, so I'm going to do the same run in 5th gear and perhaps 4th gear next weekend to see if there are any differences.

Not finished yet.

K's travelled this trip: 53 (or so).

 

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March 2024
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