Acewell owners, I need your help.

My project bike is finally coming together, and I need to get some sort of a speedometer to actually work. I mostly need it for the odometer to know where I'm at with my fuel. My stock gauges are in very good shape but I can't seem to come up with a way to drive the KZ speedometer off of the GSXR front wheel gearbox. The GSXR cable fits, but the gear ratio is different, and I can't find a way to change it.

I like the look of the original gauges, but since I can't use the speedo I was thinking of trying to fit an Acewell in the speedo cup on my gauges. According to Acewell's website, their gauge (28XX series) is 64mm diameter which would seem to physically fit inside a KZ gauge cup. Is this diameter the actual largest outside diameter? Do you think that it will be possible to mount the gauge inside a KZ dashboard without it looking like a hack job.

I'm just about ready to ditch my stock dash all together, but I thought that I might give this option a try.

The largest outside diameter of the 28xx series is 70 mm, the height is 60 mm.

Whether it will look like a hack job or not depends on who installs it, I guess.

remove the gauge pod totally..

the holes where the pod mounted to.. just cut a plate to go between those bolt holes.. buy new bolts reusing the rubber bushings.. mount the acewell to that plate

OnkelB wrote:

The largest outside diameter of the 28xx series is 70 mm, the height is 60 mm.

Whether it will look like a hack job or not depends on who installs it, I guess.

Well it would be me doing the install, and I wouldn't put it on there if it didn't look right. My main concern is will everything fit inside the shell of a normal KZ1000 speedo. Sounds like it would dependent on how the Acewell mounts.

Does anyone have a close up image of their Acewell that shows how it is attached?

Ooops, just realized you were probably looking at the Acewell 28xx that comes without a housing (pic below), that one is indeed 64 mm. The measurements I gave you are for the model that comes with a housing (that's the one I have) so please disregard those.

The model without the housing mounts with two bolts coming out of the bottom much like the stock speedo - shouldn't be too hard to modify the stock mounting bracket to accept the Acewell.

Diameter wise the Acewell will fit in the stock speedo cup - as for the height of the Acewell I can't say for sure, but I think it'll work.

And yeah, I know you were going to do the install yourself, was just trying to be clever, from what I've seen of your handiwork so far I have no doubts it'll end up looking good.

I guess that the fork shaped silver part in the lower right of that picture is the supplied mounting bracket? If that is the case, then it may be a winner. Thanks for the info, I'll have to sleep on this one for a bit. From the way you originally put it, I couldn't tell if you were implying that my handiwork was hack or not. I couldn't imagine that anyone would have seen my bike and think that I would actually pay someone to install a gauge. :laugh: Sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake. Thanks for the kind words.

testarossa wrote:

My project bike is finally coming together, and I need to get some sort of a speedometer to actually work. I mostly need it for the odometer to know where I'm at with my fuel. My stock gauges are in very good shape but I can't seem to come up with a way to drive the KZ speedometer off of the GSXR front wheel gearbox. The GSXR cable fits, but the gear ratio is different, and I can't find a way to change it.

I like the look of the original gauges, but since I can't use the speedo I was thinking of trying to fit an Acewell in the speedo cup on my gauges. According to Acewell's website, their gauge (28XX series) is 64mm diameter which would seem to physically fit inside a KZ gauge cup. Is this diameter the actual largest outside diameter? Do you think that it will be possible to mount the gauge inside a KZ dashboard without it looking like a hack job.

I'm just about ready to ditch my stock dash all together, but I thought that I might give this option a try.

Might be worth talking to the guy at zresto to see if he's got a cure for that problelm.......

Also I read somewhere that one of the Katana speedo drives works properly with a KZ speedo....which one I couldn't tell you though. Also don't know if it will work with your wheel...

Good thoughts Larry. I'll give those options a try as well.

testarossa wrote:

I guess that the fork shaped silver part in the lower right of that picture is the supplied mounting bracket?

Correct, it'll mount to the two bolts on the back of the Acewell gauge.

In case you decide to ditch the stock gauge all together, this is what the Acewell 28xx (2802 in this case) with the housing looks like - top pic is the Acewell next to the gauge it replaced on my bike, note the (removable) mounting bracket, bottom pic is my view of the Acewell installed:

i WILL be doing the exact same thing this winter.
i like the look of the stock gauges but feel the need for electronic accuracy.
i put the zx9's speedo cable bottom section on my kz cable bottom (they had dif size bottom ends). this makes the speedo work but it is off by as much as 20 mph.
z1e has speedo cups that clamp onto the bottom of the top half of the stock speedo (for cup replacement).
i thought i could use this method to hold the 2 haves back together, after i separated the speedo's 2 haves, to remove the old guts.
so if u gut the speedo u will just have the shell left. then the acewell could be centered in this shell and clamped back together with the z1e outer shells clamp.
we just have to make a new face ring to go around the acewell and inside the stock shell, to keep it centered.then do the same at the mid section so the outer clamp can squeeze onto something.
does this make any sense at all ?
i thought i would just buy the acewell and make it work 1 way or another.

Thanks again OnkelB. Seems like a doable solution.

Mark, your idea sounds exactly like what I had in mind. I have two sets of those chrome bottom cups and I thought that with that and the upper half of the actual speedo I could encase the Acewell so that it only looks different from the driver's seat. I envisioned that I would probably have to fabricate a bezel of sorts to make up the gap between the OD of the Acewell and the the gauge shell.

I would probably use another style gauge if I were to totally replace my KZ1000 dashboard, but the Acewell seems like a perfect fit inside the KZ speedo shell. I really like the idea of having the original gauges, but I need a working speedo. The local PD's around here don't cut you any slack when it comes to speeding tickets. I have two very active speed traps that I pass through on my usual commute.

I'm going to try and contact Zresto and see if it is possible to re-gear either the drive or the speedo to read correctly. We'll see what they say.

sounds like we have come up with the exact same solution. i am still pondering if i will keep the stock tack since it will be of no use. but it will keep the original appearance, which i like. but if i only had 1 gauge (centered), i think it would still look better if it was in the original kz cup.