[dsn_klr650] speedo calibration

[Mark Wilson]

Hi everybody, I was out on the 4th cruzing on my KLR, and the holiday drivers seemed to be stupider than the everyday drivers. One time in particular, a little car decided it wanted over into my lane without my approval. I tried Jeffs method of cage repellant, and blasted them with my dual horn setup. Their quarter panel was spared my boot print by an inch or so. But they definatelt woke up with the horn blasting them, and they swerved back into their lane. I highly recommend putting loud horns on bikes. Loud pipes arent enough! Mark Wilson http://www.geocities.com/motormark64/ http://www.angelfire.com/mo/motormark/ KLR-650 A-13 "warthogg" XR250R "superfly" Stone Mountain, Ga ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Jim Hyman]

Tom, The use of loud horns is (usually) successful in alerting a car driver & stopping their actions immediately. I have had them on my road bikes for over 30 years. Usually, the driver is about to cut me off by entering the road from a side street. I've lost count how many times their car jerks to a halt & they look repeatedly from side to side, trying to see who's bearing down on them. They don't even see me going by them. I've also had cars try to occupy my lane on the highway & they swerve back into their lane when I lean on my horn. With all the road-rage incidents occurring, I wouldn't even think of using my horn to teach someone a lesson. BTW, I always keep my stock horn hooked up to a secondary switch. I've heard that in parts of Europe, the 'shame' is on the driver who has to use his horn, because he allowed himself to get into a bad situation. So be it, my loud horns have saved my butt too many times over the years. Professor A9 Federal Way, Wa. [USA] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --- Tom Myers wrote:

> I hope folks aren't out there using loud horns to scare > other drivers (satisfying as it may be).

[snip]

> There are times when "teaching other drivers a lesson" > is a poor lesson in itself.

[Benjamin Lee]

I don't know how you use your horn, and I am not saying anything relating to you. While we are on the topic, one of my pet peeve is people using horn unecessary. There are times when I edge forward on a side street to get a better view of traffic just to have someone think I did not see them, and they honk at me. Is a difficult judgment call to sense whether the other person is going to go or whether he is just edging out. People need to be more in tune with other people's body (vehicle) language to know when to use a horn. Some people just assume you are going to dart out into the street, and use the horn no matter what. They think they are being extra extra extra safe. Irritating. Of course, the worst people are the spaced out or nervous driver who cut into your lane. They deserve a loud horn to shock them back to their senses. Ben

> From: "Jim Hyman" > >The use of loud horns is (usually) successful in alerting >a car driver & stopping their actions immediately. I have >had them on my road bikes for over 30 years. Usually, the >driver is about to cut me off by entering the road from a >side street. I've lost count how many times their car jerks >to a halt & they look repeatedly from side to side, trying >to see who's bearing down on them. They don't even see me >going by them.

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[David Pumphrey]

Hugh Stout wrote:

> >There is a hell of a lot of uncertainty associated > >with the type of speedo used on motorcycles (or > >bicycles for that matter). > > This used to be true of automobiles as well...possibly a characteristic of > magnetic drag speedos, though I doubt it...but modern Japanese cars are > dead on on the speedos at all legal speeds vs. GPS. >

VERY NKLR, CAGE RELATED Rarely am I qualified to give an answer on this list (I am still putting off a new bike until after law school) but on this NKLR topic I have an opinion based on empirical evidence. I drive an Infiniti G20 and the speedo is off by 3 mph at anything over 60 mph according to my GPS (Garmin eTrex, student's budget don't you know). Here is the catch if by modern you meant newer than a '92 you may still be correct. To further water down my "empirical evidence" my beloved little G20 has had 50K put on it in the last 12 months (up to 138,000 now). I know this matters to almost no one on the list, but dammit I have learned so much about a bike I do not even own yet I just wanted to add something. dave pumphrey