A bike rider that comes by the shop uses a cheap gps unit for a speedometer and another was riding in my old Buick and checked the accuracy of my "wind speedometer". Question: what voltage do these things operate on and would they work for extended periods as a speedometer? Have others used them as such? Thank you; Evan
Only if the actual windspeed of the air you were traveling throgh was zero. If you were traveling at a true 30 MPH and had a 5MPH tailwind your "wind speedometer" would register 25 MPH. If you turned around and went the opposite direction (into the wind) at 30 MPH true your "wind speedometer" would register 35 MPH. And if you drove past a bag of hot air like me your "wind speedometer" would probably register off scale.
Gps I read the question to be asking if a GPS works as a speedo in lieu ~ yes it does , most of my Rally Buddies use them for this (cheaters IMO) . That wind vane silly thing is properly called an ' Aerometer ' and I always thought they were junk for the reasons Bill so candidly explained .
i had a problem with my original speedometer. It shows approx -15mph as i really drive. Ok i could remark my display glass but i saw my bicycle in the garage I went to my bicycle shop and bought a speedometer for it. glue a magnetic spot on the inner side of the rear rim and mounted the sender unit on the frame. a long cable connect the sender unit with my display (glued on the aftermarket turn signal switch. the calibration is very easy and you can read it in the manual. (the unit counts the rotation of the wheel). Now the unit shows the exact speed i drive. and its cheaper as you think and installed in 30 minutes. In Germany we can buy it for $30. Volker
Impressive ! THANX Volker ! that picture brings back a LOT of very fond memories.... . I'd heard of but never thought about , Bicycle speedometers . I assume you can easily set it up for Miles or KM ? .
Wow, you guys give me credit for too much sophistication. My "wind speedometer" on my 37 Buick is the left windshield wiper. When I get to 70mph the flow of air off the windshield trim lifts the wiper off the glass. Bill is right on about existing wind conditions, when bucking a head wind it comes up sooner and with a tail wind I'm really flying to lift it. It gets me in the ballpark and then I go by the other traffic; if I'm passing everyone else I slow down and visa-versa. Volker has a great idea and I remember some cars that the speedo cable hooked to the LF spindle. Only tire size change would come into play and gearing wouldn't matter.
Similar to my speed limiter when I ski in Colorado. I wear a gimme cap with a string attached to my ski jacket. When I exceed the "speed of hat" (hat blows off, but is retained by string) it is time to slow down, unless I'm racing my 30 year old jock nephew Patrick. Then I'll go a little faster.
Bycicle Speedometer callibration with car? Hey Volker Does the bycicle speedometer follows the carspeed all the way up until fore instance 80-90 km pr.hour, i mean is it unlimited how much speed you can make and it still does `nt cutout ? If so this solution makes it easy to callibrate the exact speed right with the truck and means no photobox fine or what so ever but only relaxt driving! Thanks Martinius.
the bicycle speedo works fine till 150kmh or 95 mph. I try it with my Audi and it works great. Unprecise is it if the cable from the Display to the magnetic unit is too long. but 10 meters is OK and i think your truck is'nt long enough for this cable length It works very easy. On the rear rim you have a permanet magnet (glued with heavy material) and a electronic part named "hall generator". The hall generator take the magnetic field from the magnet and close a contact. The Display electronic counts the electric impulse and calculate the speed of rotation. To calibrate you must feed in the circumference of your wheel. And you can feed in every measurement (inches or mm) therefore you can use this with every wheel diameter
I like this idea Volker - You have come up with a great and easy speedo solution. Thanks. My gauge seems to run about 15mph under at highway speeds, but this could keep me from getting a ticket speeding through the hood.
Rotation I would like to refer you all back to my recent post regarding taking the earths rotation into account when calculating speed, unless travelling north south and vice versa
GPS and tach I have always had issues with my speed-o-meter so I use my tach. I used a hand held GPS unit several years ago and read my speed and rpms. I know how slow I am going by reading my tach. I really like the bicycle rig. Pure genius! Jim
