What else can I use?

[nity11us]

With the help of a fellow GSer I have come to the conclusion that the gauge cluster on my '79 GS850GN is unique. Can't seem to find another year that will cross match. Does anyone know if it is possible to graft a speedo & tach from a pre 1980 bike into my cluster. Or just replace mine from one that appears to match. I've found 2 on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=280318603760

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=260372557138

Will they work without a mass amount of work (noobie) if operable that is....

--Al

 

[Shaughn]

This won't be as helpful as you're looking for, but different year/make/models may (will) have different gear ratios between the speedometer gear at the wheel and the head. Meaning even if it 'fits' it will read incorrectly. This is assuming the cable is a direct fit. I'm sure somewhere on here there has been a thread on this, try searching for speedometer gear and you might fall backward onto the relevant info.

What you can do tho is get an electronic head unit, which uses its own magnet & sensor to determine wheel rpm, and then you input the rim diameter into the computer and it figures it all out nicely. One option out there is this: http://trailtech.net/adventure_vapor_kits.html

Personally, my head unit is ugly, and I'm going to refresh it. I bought new faces for it from Rudy (see the Custom Gauge Faces Thread). The only thing I'm still looking for is to replace the melted plexi over the idiot lights. Is yours too far gone? Might be surprised what you can fix...

 

[Zooks]

A lot of guys that build cafe racers use smaller gauges and just ditch the idiot lights. Beergood (on this site) built a cool cafe bike and had a pretty good instrument set up - IIRC.

Here it is - http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?p=589893&highlight=gauge#post589893

 

[C.V.]

The second link appears to match the cluster on my '79 850, I'm pretty sure that one would work.

 

[nity11us]

The second link appears to match the cluster on my '79 850, I'm pretty sure that one would work.

Thanks for the info. I'll try & find out more info on this. Anyone else that may know? Yep, 2nd one looks identical to mine on the 79 850 also. Want to take the plunge but would like to be more sure of proper ratios... may be I'll just wait... e-bay goes on forever.

--al

 

[Nessism]

Does anyone know for a fact that the gear ratio is different between the different year bikes, or different models? I ask because most GS bikes use the same 19” front wheel. It seems strange to me that Suzuki would bother to have different gear ratios when they could share parts across different models and save money. That said, I installed a 550 speedo mechanism inside my 850 gauge cluster and now the speed reads slow compared to before. This could be due to the gearing, or it could be that the 550 speedo is messed up. Not sure.

 

[rustybronco]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=260373742386
on forever... even the same day.