I finally had a chance to test out speedometer accuracy on my '14 FLHTK. Set the cruise control at 75 and had a car with a external GPS trail for a couple miles. The GPS showed 70 mph. The bike GPS reflects the bike speedometer, and showed 75.

I trust the car's GPS more than the bike. So I conclude the bike speedometer reads 75 while true speed is 70, which is a 7% error. Does this affect the odometer? I tested this out on the freeway, by recording miles travelled over 100 miles, comparing the odometer on the bike with the mile markers on the side of the interstate. I got the same result, the bike says it travelled 106-7 miles against the milepost record of 100. It is far enough off that it is not the result of measurement error or other random factor.

So why is this interesting? If a vehicle has a mileage based warranty, on vehicle or tires, then if the odometer says 10,000 miles have been traveled, that's not correct. At a 7% error it is really around 9,345. On a 36,000 mile warranty, actual distance travelled will be 33,644, or a shortfall of 2,355.

Say it's only a 5% error, in which cased the actual mileage is short by 1,714.

In any case I will be adjusting the speedometer value with the Powervision to get it closer to true speed and distance travelled, and remeasuring.

But we should be aware that in these cases, the vehicle manufacturer (and I think cars are not so different in this regard) is shorting the consumer on warranty based mileage. So, if you have a slightly out of mileage warranty claim, it might be useful to have a conversation with the dealer regarding warranty eligibility around this topic.

 

Regarding the warranty, it doesn't matter. The MoCo warranty is 2 years, unlimited mileage.

 

Why don't some of you clowns just go out and ride the damned thing instead of pissing around worrying about all of this stupid crap?

What do you care anyway? You'll probably sell or trade it with 1,500 miles on it.

 

Gotta love today's age of technology, but some of you have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much time on your hands. GPS is for someone who doesn't know how to read a map, or for us men who never ask for directions...

Ride on!

 

Lighten up Greezy, if he's right, Harley has beat me out of 3360 miles of resale value on my 04 with 48K on the clock!?........

 

If this is the case with all FLHTK's the actual service interval for the 5,000 mile service is at 4,650 miles (350 mile error). 9,300 miles for the 10,000 mile service. I will also check mine and share.

 

How worried are you about it?


I ride!
I don't care about whether my odometer/speedometer is a couple of MPH off.
I don't care what my fuel mileage is.
I don't care if I get 10,000 miles out of my tires or 3,000 miles out of them.

I ride.

 

If this error affects all FLHTK's, the odometer would register a full 5,000 miles more than actual when they hit a indicated reading of 76,429 miles. It would take this many miles before the cost of an additional service from the overstated 5,000 miles to occur. Most of us won't keep a bike that long. Greezy is more accurate in his comments than he may realize. That's a lot riding!

 

Mine 'was' 4mph off but corrected with my Fuel Moto tuner in a matter of minutes.

 

Many motorcycle speedos are off. My ricer was of 10% across the board. Suzuki's reply to the complainers was that it was within tolerance. I had to adjust the speedo reading by 10% in my head, no biggie.
The speedo and odometer on my Limited are off s few percentage points when tracked against a GPS, speed trailer, etc. Not a big deal to me.