New speedometer and tachometer

[Louimart]

Has anyone done any upgrades on their speedometer and tachometer?

I want to put new ones on, something more low profile to accompany the drag bars and bar end mirrors I'll be putting on to go for a more aggressive look.

How would I go about mounting new ones on that do not fit the original display bracket?

[Soloratov]

Digital or mechanical?

To make stuff fit, you will have to make a new bracket.

[Louimart]

Digital would be cool, but most likely mechanical.

Know how to mod the existing bracket to fit new ones? I guess it all depends on the kind i get.

[BeerIsSoAwesome]

Supposedly, any of these will work:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dautomotive&field-keywords=speedometer+2240

I've read that the GS500 uses a 2240:60 ratio, which means 2240rpm at 60mph. Allegedly, any cable-drive speedos with that ratio will work just fine.

The Ellaspede 007, am inspirational retro-racy GS500, uses a set of 2.5" aftermarket gauges attached to a modified version of the original lamp / instrument module.

A few photos of the build.
http://www.ellaspede.com/eb007-suzuki-gs500/

The finished product.
http://www.ellaspede.com/bikes/007-2001-suzuki-gs500-2/

I love the way those two tiny gauges look with the low bars, in place of the chunky factory setup.

[Louimart]

Thank you!

I really love that bike. Someday... Haha

Wish they had more pictures from different angles so we could see how they tweaked the parts to put them on.

[amkluttz]

I actually contacted Ellaspede about those guages not realizing they were in Australia.  They sent me back a link for them but were over $100 a piece and only available in KM/H.  I looked around for a while looking for different, smaller gauges but didn't come up with much that made any sense.

As far as I can tell the below information is true.  There a ton of them just on amazon.

"I've read that the GS500 uses a 2240:60 ratio, which means 2240rpm at 60mph. Allegedly, any cable-drive speedos with that ratio will work just fine."

There were two problems I came across.

1. I couldn't find a similar looking tachometer that went above 8000 RPM.
2. By the time I bought both speedo and tach I could've spent the money on a digital TrailTech Vapor which does so much more.

So here was my solution.

[utzguy]

I've got a Trailtech Vapor on mine and it works pretty well. Fairly cheap too.

http://trailtech.net/adventure_vapor_kits.html

[BeerIsSoAwesome]

I've got a Trailtech Vapor on mine and it works pretty well. Fairly cheap too.

http://trailtech.net/adventure_vapor_kits.html

So I'm interested in updating my somewhat crunched gauges to a Vapor setup, and was wondering two things:

1) what did you do about the mechanical speedo drive on the front hub? Just disconnect the cable and forget about it?

2) Isn't the tach mechanical as well? How does that interface with the digital Vapor?

[utzguy]

1) I took out the speedo drive, so I had to make a spacer.

2) The Vapor uses the spark signal to determine engine speed. You have to get the wire with a resistor in it to work right on the GS. I would have to dig up the paperwork to find the part number. The Trailtech people were very helpful with getting the right parts. I made a plug to block the tach drive hole in the cylinder head, but I think you can get one from one of the later model bikes that have the electronic tach.

I also made LED indicators for the neutral, turn signal, oil, and high beam dash indicators. Trailtech has a housing that has the indicators, but I wanted something a little different than theirs.

[Soloratov]

When I switched mine to digital I just made plugs for the outlets. I may still spin up the wheel spacer but I was feeling pretty lazy at the time. Some rubber caps and a bit of epoxy works well. I went with a Koso, came with everything, plug-n-play. Just add mounting and go.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=63334.msg751392#msg751392