2 Spyders/2 Odometers = Way off ???

[arntufun]

I was ryding with Dave in the Adirondacks and we noticed somthing that made us both scratch our heads.
He has a 2011 RT SE and I have a 2008 SM5.

I followed him the whole way and we never strayed from each other. This is where it gets interesting.

Our first fuel up we both reset our trip meters. After over a hundred miles, my Spyder registered 5 more miles on my Spyder than his ???? I said no way, lets try this again.

We both reset our trip meters again and went another 20 miles. Sure enough, my Spyder had 1 more miles on it than his. I cant wrap my head around the reason for this. Can anyone shed some light on this ??? I thought a mile is a mile, no matter what your driving.

This is not good for me if my Spyder is actually putting more miles on her than I'm actually going. Or, I'ts really good for Dave if he is not registering enough miles on his. And no, I did not spin the tire during these trips. If anyone else can ryde with another spyder, please try this and report back if there is a difference like this, or none at all.

[NancysToy]

I have found that Nancy's GS/RS is more optimistic than my RT, too. Both are consistently different than the GPS, but hers always reads higher in both speed and distance. It is apparently a calibration thing. There can be other factors. Tire pressure is one. It affects the rolling diameter of the tire. The rolling diameter is smaller than the measured diameter, due to the flattening of the tire on the bottom, due to the load. This reduces the effective circumference of the tire. Most speedometers are calibrated for the measured tire diameter and resulting circumference, so they think you rolled farther with each revolution than you actually did. The amount of load, and the tire pressure, can change this difference.

[Mr. White]

My 2011 RT is about 1.5% positive compared to my GPS (which I think is accurate). This is both the speedometer and odometer reading. My '02 Wing was 4% positive (so were a couple of my friend's Wings). When I triked it four years later, it was right on. I guess the gearing in my differential corrected the error. I was told Honda intentionally built in the errors to help keep speeds down...don't know that to be the truth. If you don't have a GPS, check your odometer with the Interstate mile markers...

[WackyDan]

When Forest and I were at the pumps filling up at SITA, we noticed the same thing.... at 112.8 miles on my GS trip odo, his RT only registered 108.4 miles.

That is of course a 4.4 mile difference.

[Bob Denman]

Look at it this way... Your fuel mileage is MUCH worse than you feared...

[Spyder Cat]

Thanks for the explanation Scotty. That makes sense.
Vaughn and I have experienced that same type of mileage conflict between the RS & RT
after fueling up at the same time and covering the same roads.

I just assumed it was registering smiles instead of miles

[bluestratos]

My speedo on my RT is off 1 mph from 30 to 70. Below that, the bike matches the GPS exactly likely from rounding up or down. This is between 1 and 2% low. My Suzuki Burgman was 10% off so I had to add 5 mph to 50 so the traffic would not build up behind me.

Since using GPS I have discovered that every vehical I drive or ride is off by at least 1%. But not sure why the odometers are different by so much between the two simular bikes, but there are a few possiblities.

1) The manufacturer made changes over the years

2) Different back tires-my friend just change the factory brand tire on his Burgman to a slightly taller Michelin tire. The tire was close to an 1" taller which increased the distance traveled by about 3" per revolution. He always keeps records on his fuel milage and has improved by almost 3 % and he is now that much closer compared to the GPS. reading now.

3) Air pressure will make a small difference if overinflated.

[bikeguy]

I have not checked the odometer on my 2010 RT but the odometers on every vehicle I've ever checked have been optimistic, some moreso than others. Same is true with the speedometers so long as the vehicle was still in stock configuration. Until recently, the only way I had of checking speedometers was Interstate mieage markers and a stopwatch. Now, I can check with a GPS but still don't have one mounted on the Spyder. My wife hand held a GPS and we checked the RT speedometer at 10 MPH intervals from 50 to 90 MPH (the highways in this part of the world don't have much traffic). Surprisingly, the RT's speedometer was 2 MPH fast at every speed. I expected it to be off more as speed increased but it didn't check out that way. The speedometer on my BMW R1100RT was way more optimistic than the Spyder. In fact, I routinely rode it at an indicated 78 - 80 MPH in 70 MPH speed zones and never got a second look from from a Highway Patrol officer.

Cotton

[Firefly]

I was ryding with Dave in the Adirondacks and we noticed somthing that made us both scratch our heads.
He has a 2011 RT SE and I have a 2008 SM5.

I followed him the whole way and we never strayed from each other. This is where it gets interesting.

Our first fuel up we both reset our trip meters. After over a hundred miles, my Spyder registered 5 more miles on my Spyder than his ???? I said no way, lets try this again.

We both reset our trip meters again and went another 20 miles. Sure enough, my Spyder had 1 more miles on it than his. I cant wrap my head around the reason for this. Can anyone shed some light on this ??? I thought a mile is a mile, no matter what your driving.

This is not good for me if my Spyder is actually putting more miles on her than I'm actually going. Or, I'ts really good for Dave if he is not registering enough miles on his. And no, I did not spin the tire during these trips. If anyone else can ryde with another spyder, please try this and report back if there is a difference like this, or none at all.

Why would it be 'bad' if it's registering more miles??? You'll get to your pin achievements quicker....

Testing it against my HD buds-- I'm always showing about 3% to 4% more miles than they are. You're also that much slower on your speed (70 is really only around 67)-- so it just might save yer butt someday from a ticket.... ;-)

Stop crunching numbers and RIDE!

[arntufun]

Some of you might be confused here, and maybe it's my fault with the way I wrote this. I'm not talking MPH here, I'm talking about actual mileage being registered on the Spyder. Both Spyders have the original stock tire with almost the same amount of miles on them. I'll check on the tire pressure. I did have a passenger though, But Holly will be if you call her fat. This might be the cause according to Scotty but I still don't understand what that has to do with it. I can see gas mileage but actual mileage registered ??? But if he says it will, I will believe him because he knows alot more than I do. I like the idea of checking mine against road mile markers. Great idea !!!


Firefly, I don't care about pins, I care about if I'm putting more miles on her when I'm actually not. If I am, this might slightly hurt my trade in value when I trade her in for a 2012 Can Am Spyder RS/SE Arctic Cat Edition (Green and Black). Arctic Cat Edition........... Thats a keeper !!!


I'm not trying to cause any type of argument here or to bash BRP, I'm only trying to understand why or how this happens.
Yes, I love my Spyder and she has been running great !!!

[NancysToy]

Some of you might be confused here, and maybe it's my fault with the way I wrote this. I'm not talking MPH here, I'm talking about actual mileage being registered on the Spyder. Both Spyders have the original stock tire with almost the same amount of miles on them. I'll check on the tire pressure. I did have a passenger though, But Holly will be if you call her fat. This might be the cause according to Scotty but I still don't understand what that has to do with it. I can see gas mileage but actual mileage registered ??? But if he says it will, I will believe him because he knows alot more than I do. I like the idea of checking mine against road mile markers. Great idea !!!


Firefly, I don't care about pins, I care about if I'm putting more miles on her when I'm actually not. If I am, this might slightly hurt my trade in value when I trade her in for a 2012 Can Am Spyder RS/SE Arctic Cat Edition (Green and Black). Arctic Cat Edition........... Thats a keeper !!!


I'm not trying to cause any type of argument here or to bash BRP, I'm only trying to understand why or how this happens.
Yes, I love my Spyder and she has been running great !!!

I understand how you could be confused. This is hard to explain with drawing a diagram. First, let me say that mph and miles traveled are both the result. If the speedo says you are going faster, it will also think you went farther.

Now to try to explain about rolling diameter. If you have a 24" measured diameter tire, the circumference is 6.28 feet. That is how far the bare tire, pumped up to the max, would roll for every revolution. If you put that tire on the Spyder, which adds the Spyder's weight, and load it with a rider, cargo, or passenger, let's say it flattens by about an inch. That gives an effective, or rolling diameter of 22" and a circumference of 5.76 feet. That means for every revolution of the tire, the Spyder's computer thinks you went six inches, or 9%, farther than you actually did. At 70 mph your tire revolves over 60,000 times. That's a lot times that six inches of error!

Don't worry about the trade-in value. All RS Spyders are going to be the same, more or less, so all reflect about the same mileage error. A few hundred miles won't cost you any money. Your wife is gonna fight you about that Arctic Cat Edition Spyder, you know she wants an RT now.

[ARtraveler]

IMHO I believe you are going to find "discrepencies" on pretty much every vehicle you drive when it comes to accurate MPH and distances driven. All due to the many factors mentined above. I am not going to get too excited about a 1% approximate error.

[bjt]

Another factor could be the mileage on the tires. A low mileage tire with full tread depth will give a different odometer / MPH result than a tire thats worn down to the wear bars. Not as dramatic as Scotty's 1 inch difference example but still a factor. IMO, unless you've had your speedomoter / odometer calibrated, most of them probably have some error because their result is nothing more than a calculation based on a few assumptions like tire size and tire pressure.

[Bob Denman]

[QUOTE=arntufun;358799]
this might slightly hurt my trade in value when I trade her in for a 2012 Can Am Spyder RS/SE Arctic Cat Edition (Green and Black). QUOTE]
If you keep calling that an Arctic Cat Edition; Somebody from the Mother ship is gonna show up and explain to you why the makers of Ski Doo snowmobiles would NEVER, EVER make an Arctic Cat anything!

[arntufun]

[QUOTE=Bob Denman;358942]

this might slightly hurt my trade in value when I trade her in for a 2012 Can Am Spyder RS/SE Arctic Cat Edition (Green and Black). QUOTE]
If you keep calling that an Arctic Cat Edition; Somebody from the Mother ship is gonna show up and explain to you why the makers of Ski Doo snowmobiles would NEVER, EVER make an Arctic Cat anything!

I knew that would get you going Bob !!! But admit it Bob, I thought of a great name for it !!! I told that to the BRP girl at the SITA event and she did not find that funny either.

Where is MXZ600, he would love to get in on this topic.

[dave01]

Maybe you guys are using a different oil, or one is using mid grade and the other high test, or one is swaying due to dps issues and the other is going in a straight line, or one has Ride-on and the other doesn't, or .........COME ON guys, there are many more to add.

[johnnyg]

Are first is a 2010 RT-SE5 tire pressure F-28,R-25 she liked it so much we got her a 2011 RS-SE5 tire oressure F-20,R-25 we took them both to Maggie Valley for her frist ride, thats when we saw that hers was putting on more miles then my RT around 4 miles per 100 miles. And she rides in the back all the time, so we ride the same every were. With that said she still loves her RS. this is the first Bike,trike she has ever wanted to ride. I want to thank BRP for this.

[Bob Denman]

[QUOTE=arntufun;358982]

Where is MXZ600, he would love to get in on this topic.

He's already on his way to your house with a horsewhip and pink paint...

[Firefly]

The trade-in value is a moot point since all spyders have this odometer variance so pretty much all will read high. Many of us strive to rack up the miles--- I'll hit 50,000 miles by the end of summer- so 20,000 for the season.

[Radthorne]

Your wife is gonna fight you about that Arctic Cat Edition Spyder, you know she wants an RT now.

If the smile on Holly's face on the back of that RT was any indication, you're absolutely correct.

[CyncySpyder]