Looks Awesome!

Dave, that tach needle responds pretty quickly. What sort of pickup does it use?

The tach uses a wire to the coil.  It scared me a bit at first as I turned the key on and was trying all my electrical switches to see if I had everything wired correctly before I started the bike.  When I pushed the horn button....and the tach needle swung all the way to the top and the shift warning light came on - and I was worried I has going to have to change how the tach was wired.  However....once the engine is running that does not happen and it all works fine.

I haven't ridden the bike day or night since installing the new speedo or front end.....I currently don't have a seat or a front tire on the bike. The replacement tube for the tire should come in the mail today and I will get it in the tire tonight.  I suspect I am going to have to put a piece of foam on the seat pan and go for a ride to test the new forks!

Here is what the gauge looked like in the garage this morning with the lights off.  The gauge has 3 levels of brightness.....I have no idea which setting it is on.  It looks just fine to me and looks easy to read without being too bright.  On the Speedhut gauges there a a lot of colors available for the face and numbers, and they even have some that are one color in daylight, and a completely different color at night.

sounds good, love the gauge!

Kris01 wrote on 05/11/15 at 19:39:06:


I don't know about the daytime colors not meaning anything.  I don't know what happens when the gauge is in the night mode - but in direct sunlight.

The day and night colors are controlled by a wire that is connected to the headlights in a car - and on the bike I just connected the wire to the positive power source and it is in the night mode all the time....Speedhut says this is fine and the lights are durable enough to run all the time.  If you wanted to be able to use both - it would only require you to put a small switch somewhere so you could control the power wire to the little light module (The entire instrument face is luminated by some kind of a glowing surface that requires a 200v power source and there is a small transformer).   The intensity of the gauge face has 3 levels, and you can make it dimmer or brighter - I don't believe it will be too bright as the same thing would happen in a car interior.  I am not sure what setting mine is on - but the black background and red letters is easy to read day or night.

It is imperative that you get the holes where the wires come out sealed up from moisture....they are not sealed at the factory as they expect them to be in a car.  They will seal the gauge face if you tell them to do so when you order it.  Also if you get the GPS they can shorten the cable...I got mine at 18" and I attached the antenna to the top of my master cylinder with Velcro...and it looks just fine.  I have clip-on handlebars and the cable can be short.

In retrospect I would probably order the 4" gauge if I did it again....the 4.5" gauge is pretty big.  My big headlight sort of ties it together...but a smaller gauge would have been just fine.

I took the bike up to the upholsterer Saturday morning and they fined tuned the foam, and this week they will be working on sewing the cover.  It is going to have a bit more padding than the stock RYCA seat, especially down the sides.

Later that day I taped some foam to the seat support/rear fender and I took the bike for a long ride to make sure it is all put back together correctly and everything works.  The change in the fork yokes has made some changes.  The clip-on handlebars are now about 1.5 inches farther forward - so I am leaning forward and reaching out a bit more than before.  The initial turn of the bars seems about the same - but I have noticed that it is far easier to correct your line while turning.  With the other fork yokes the bike was pretty stiff to turn when you got into a decreasing radius turn and needed additional steering while in the turn.....now that is far easier.  It still doesn't steer as lightly as the little 250 Ninja - but most likely never will as the wheels are bigger and the bike is heavier.

The big brake conversion is still getting bedded in....with new pads and a newly ground rotor this takes a while, especially when most of my riding does not require much brake as the engine compression slows this bike down pretty quickly.  So far the big brake feels very smooth, and it is getting more responsive with each stop as the parts get broken in.

The LED indicator lights are perfect and easily visible in daylight and direct sunlight.  The resistor in the blue High Beam indicator light has proven to be good - it is visible in the daylight and not too bright as night.  I did notice the the shiny glass on the speedometer can sure reflect a bunch of sunlight into your face....if it becomes bothersome I may put a satin film on the glass.

I did get up to 82 mph in 5th gear and the new GPS speedo/tach confirmed what my gearing is like with the 110 rear tire and double Kawasaki pulley conversion.  At 82mph I was turning 4,774 rpm, so at 60 mph I would be turning 3,493 and at 70 mph I would be turning 4,075 rpm!  I love it!  

Thanks for the update Dave.

The weight of an EX 250 and a typical cafe conversion is about the same in the low 300's...close enough that the difference between one with a full tank and an empty tank and they could be the same. The real difference is the 16" wheels and the rake (27 degrees) and trail (3.3 inches). Those are some sporty numbers.

I'm looking forward to hear the results of the seat reshaping. So far my bike has been comfort limited to about 25-miles. I'd sure like to go further.