Anybody install a tach on their X or R?

I have a Stihl tach on mine, it works and it's done by wrapping a wire around the plug.

SheWolf wrote:

I have a Stihl tach on mine, it works and it's done by wrapping a wire around the plug.

You were able to get it installed without issues trying to put the boot & coil back on the plug? Got any pics of the install?

I didn't get any pics of the damned wire around the plug, no... All I did was pull the boot off, feed the wire down thru the boot and wrapped it around the base of the boot, under where the coil assembly is. I siliconed where the wire slides past the boot, no water or mud gets in there and the tach works fine.

Thanks for the info. I may have to try your set up for the tach.

Sorry but I got a tach on my bike... It's called my ear...

Some people would actually like to SEE what it's running at, not just hear and guess.

But why? Red line is 11500 rpm when the stage one of rev limiter kicks in....

Not everyone rides the rev limiter. If you ride it there then yeah, that's a no brainer IMO. You can't tell what RPM you're running without a tach, merely guess. I like to actually SEE what it's revving at. I don't NEED it, because I don't even look at it when I shift, it's more to see where the RPM range is at certain speeds. Nothing wrong with installing a tach.

Okie dokie! It is a nice, clean install for a tach too!

I wanted something small and easy to use, and it was cheaper than the other ones I had a look at. I can easily remove it and use it for other applications...such as my powersaw to fine tune it.

Another option if you got money to burn...

Motoscope Mini

Jesus Christ on a Crutch! $500 for that thing? Crap you can buy a Trailtech speedo that does the same things for $80...

That's funny coming from somebody who has no toys of his own...

https://wr250rforum.forumotion.com/off-topic-f6/how-else-do-you-have-fun-t807.htm#7575

Where the heck are you going to mount the Trailtech and still keep the factory meter? You can't replace the factory meter with the Trailtech, unless you want to give up the ability to check for CEL's and DIAG codes. Besides, the Trailtech thing is just butt ugly. I'm not too hip on the looks of the factory meter either, but you need the ability to check the DIAG and CEL's if you have a problem. No other way to do that that I know of.

Sure, the Motoscope is expensive, but hey, I had the cash at the time, and it IS my bike. And just for the record, it wasn't $500. In fact, if you knock off the price of the handlebar mounts it was less than $350. I'm not using the handlebar mounts anymore anyhow. I found it is much easier to read mounted like this...

Mine is like it is in the pic. It stays on all the time. I wondered about the shelf life of that thing as well and one of the mechanics who has the older version of that unit is still running the same battery...13 years and counting..

I'm working on a tach design ;)
Here's pic of my prototype, I've got a complete redesign in the works with graphical LCD...

Keep us posted Brooks, that looks like a nice little setup.

SheWolf wrote:

Mine is like it is in the pic. It stays on all the time. I wondered about the shelf life of that thing as well and one of the mechanics who has the older version of that unit is still running the same battery...13 years and counting..

Wow! thats a long time! I appreciate the info. Never used gadgets like this on my bike. My other bikes always had a full instrument panel.

12oclocker wrote:

I'm working on a tach design ;)
Here's pic of my prototype, I've got a complete redesign in the works with graphical LCD...

Looking forward to seeing how it works out and what the price point will be.
It's certainly not a necessity for me, but I sure miss the tach on the little bugger. Heck, even the KLR has a tach.

Shush you...no booger talk in here....

I've got a small hour meter/tach on a few of my bikes and like the functionality. I don't use it for riding really, but when I'm running at higher sustained speeds on the slab it is nice to know what's going on inside the lump between your legs.

I can't say I miss having a tach. Possibly because all I rode for the first five years when I started riding was motocross bikes, and no tach to admire there either. Then I introduced myself to the slab on a succession of RD350's - and with an expansion chamber on them, the fun factor fed via the right hand volume adjustment was diminishing long before the redline was approached.

And all analysis of where you were on the power curve came via the ass-o-meter and how hard you had to hang on.

Jeez, it may be politically incorrect, and I was undoubtedly pretty ignorant about noise and lack of respect for other people who didn't want to hear the racket, but hearing those RD's expansion chambers shriek when you grabbed a handful of throttle was about the most addictive sound I ever heard. We used to go to the airport road to hunt down 750's of various persuasions and Kawi Z-1's which were considered to be the rocket ship of the day.

Which perhaps makes me a dinosaur. Or a Philistine. Or perhaps simply unsophisticated and ignorant. But I doubt if Yamaha had provided a tach on the console if I'd notice it much. The rev limiter seems to do the job for me.

Besides, I ride like an old man these days, so I don't think a tach would show anything too earthshaking to be thinking about.

I would probably appreciate an oil pressure warning light, but that's probably more about unfounded paranoia than anything else.