Vintage Mechanical Speedometers

msrfan · Jun 15, 2014

Anyone building a classic or replica bike may consider vintage accessories. I already see antique lamps horns and even motors, but very few Speedometers. New electronic speedos are cool and accurate, but will never have the look some of us are after. Even if it doesn't work, it looks great on a bicycle. There's one brand that stands out over the rest, and that's Stewart Warner. Making warning instruments and gauges for a over a hundred years, maintaining the highest quality. There's still speedo repair shops nationwide that recognize and have parts for this brand.
I have a modest collection and would like to share info about them.

I'll start with my favorite models. These have a resettable trip meter. Great for runs up to 99 miles. A metal case with a chrome bezel make these really bulletproof and attractive. The cables usually found on these can be mounted on the right or left side depending on your brake configuration. For example, if you have a drum brake with the backing plate on the right, you will have to mount your cable drive on the left.

The cable gear is driven by a sprocket wheel mounted onto your spokes or the turning part of a drum brake

msrfan · Jun 15, 2014

Stewart Warner made a variety of metal case speedos over the years.

Here's a NOS Whizzer kit.

These are a bit smaller with no reset function.

msrfan · Jun 15, 2014

Now, my next favorite are the plastic models.

This one made for Sears has a lower scale indicating safe or dangerous speeds.

The Cadet face is one of the most common.

Some indicate RPMs.

msrfan · Jun 15, 2014

Others show MPH and KPH.

Here's one that indicates wheel size.

This is what's inside.

msrfan · Jun 15, 2014

Most of the plastic models use these cables and drives and all go on the left side of the wheel.

By drilling out the 6 rivets, you can disassemble, clean, lube and flip the components over, reassemble with #3 X 3/16'' machine screws to use on the right side.

The large discs are mounted to the drive unit and the slotted rings are for the older drives and mount on the wheel,

msrfan · Jun 15, 2014

S W also made drives that ride on the tire.

Here's some other brands you may encounter.

You find these speedos at the usual places, ebay, swap meets, etc. Occasionally a NOS will pop up on ebay.

I hope you all enjoyed my collection and I expect to be outbid on speedos from now on (because I have enough).

msrfan · Jun 15, 2014

You guys that want to fab up a gear drive that duplicates old mototcycles, like Henderson etc, just make it with a ratio of 2.6:1 and you'll be in the ballpark for accuracy. Use one of the old Stewart Warner metal speedos, mount it on the backbone for a cool look.

turnofftheradio · Jun 16, 2014

I love my gps speedo, but I like the look of the old ones. My mechanical cheap-o one did not fit my drum brake after swap. You're saying that the larger ones DO fit over a drum on the non-cable side? mine was a dinky plastic one with a short "arm". Have you ever had one fail and kill a wheel?

msrfan · Jun 16, 2014

turnofftheradio said:
I love my gps speedo, but I like the look of the old ones. My mechanical cheap-o one did not fit my drum brake after swap. You're saying that the larger ones DO fit over a drum on the non-cable side? mine was a dinky plastic one with a short "arm". Have you ever had one fail and kill a wheel?

The cable drives differ greatly. If you use the old style drive with the exposed fiber gear, you will need to mount the slotted drive ring onto your drum by drilling three little holes and using pop rivets or screws. Then the driven gear mounts onto the axle.

By using the later 1-piece drive cable, you only need to mount it to the axle and drill 1 or 2 holes in your drum. If the arm is too short, you may be able to attach an extension to it that reaches the spokes if you don't want to drill your drum.

I've never had one kill a wheel. I had one fail before and it just stripped the fiber gear inside. I've seen the inner cable break and the speedo stopped. Now that I've opened them up and seen how they work, I realize how important cleaning and lubing is. A few drops of 3 in 1 oil down the top of the cable works it's way sown to the drive and keeps it working nicely.

If you purchase a used vintage unit, be sure it turns easily and then just lube it up. If it turns hard or not at all some penetrating oil may free it up.
Remember it's only as good as your installation. Using various size washers that don't interfere with the turning parts and space it out enough so when you tighten the axle nut, it doesn't squish the drive.

Hope this answers your question.

msrfan · Jun 16, 2014

OOPS! After trying left and right drive cables I realized if you use them on the side they were not intended, they turn the speedo in the wrong direction. DUH! So when purchasing a speedometer, make sure you get the correct cable.

These are for the left side only.

Ant these are for the right side only.

Sorry for that "Senior Moment".

Gbrebes · Jun 16, 2014

Hey msrfan,

Thank you very much for this informative and picture laden post. Man, you have a serious collection there. I own one of the sears speedos, two of the blue face cadets, and one if the black face resettable cadets. I really love the look of the black face.

Unfortunately, I killed every last one of those beautiful instruments. It seems that they are designed for regular use between 5mph-20mph, with short bursts into the 30mph-40mph range. In my neck of the woods, I need to keep up with the flow of traffic in order to feel "seen" and safe, so I am regularly in the 30-40mph range and the speedos quickly die. Maybe it was used error, and I did not set them up right.

Since I switched my front hub to a Honda cb100 drum hub with integral speedo gear, I have installed a cb100/s65 speedo, and it has held up so far. The speedo indicator arm has much less bounce than the bike speedos.

But I still miss those black face cadet graphics, it looked so much cooler. I post a pic later.

Thanks again,

Gilbert

msrfan · Jun 16, 2014

Hey Gilbert. what broke on your speedos? The drives, the cables or the head? If they're like mine, all used when I got them, they probably were already worn from no maintenance. They don't like to run dry. I've had a plastic Cadet on my original Briggs bike for over 20 years and a few crashes. It still works great, but I have to admit I don't run 30 or 40 all the time. My Whizzer buddy, Dan, made a ring to remove the chrome bezels on the metal speedos. I may get him to look at it for you. I think we need more input from other members who may have these on their motor bikes. Other riders experiences combined may determine if it's a good idea to run these on motorized bikes that go faster. Thanks for the reply.

mapbike · Jun 17, 2014

I have also had terrible luck with mechanical speedos, I bought one of the Sears NOS just like the red one shown in the pic, it would read correct to about 25mph and then go way off, it died after about to weeks on my bike that will cruise at 42-43 mph, the rough roada I ride and the vibes in the bars from th engine kills all of them I've tried real quick, needles come off, needles break, cables and lower gears have always held up fine but the speedo heads just wont take the abus of higher speeds and rough roads in my experience, I've killed 4 nice speedos on one of my bikes and it just makes me sick to know aI ruined them hoping to het one that would work and hold up, im back to the digital ones since they're th only ones that are correct and hold up on my bikes.

Map

mapbike · Jun 17, 2014

I'd love to have a mechanical speedo that would hold up and be accurate, but two cheap one dead and two real nice vintagespeedos dead.... it just seems a shame to me to keep killing the nice old bike stuff like that.

Map

msrfan · Jun 18, 2014

Ok, how about taking the guts out of your vintage speedo and replacing them with an electronic unit and remove the cable core to run the wire down to the pickyp. Perfect, the old look with new technology. The guys that make vintage looking bikes will have the skills to do it. Align the digital readout with the hole in the original face to keep the cool look.

mapbike · Jun 18, 2014

Well, that would be nice but honestly I don't want to spend to much on speedometers on my bikes and I'm sure to go that route would be fairly expensive, I have put some nice but inexpensive digital units on my bikes and they work very good, I do like the look of the analog speedometers the best but, guess I'll just have to make do with the little digital ones for now since my bikes aren't to fancy anyway, just ole country boy builds that are reliable as can be on these rough dusty roads that get ridden on the most.

Thanks for the good idea though msrfan, I didn't realize there were any electronic speedometers that we could use on our bikes.

map

msrfan · Jun 18, 2014

No problem, map, thanks for your input. Hopefully someone else may benefit from our discussion.

Gbrebes · Jun 18, 2014

The one speedo I opened up, the spring had broken. I reattached the spring, but it was a little shorter from being broken, and the speedo no longer read the correct speed.

I am very interested in the ring your friend has made to remove the bezels on these speedos. I have just been prying up the folded over edge on the back all the way around the circumference until the bezel can clear the lip of the speedo body. This works, but after re-installation it leaves the bezels a little scratched and lumpy.

I'll have to re-open up the old black face cadet and take a closer look.

Thanks again msrfan for all the helpful information.

Gilbert

silverbear · Jun 19, 2014

Signing on to this thread. I have a few of the mechanical type gathered from donor bikes through the years, but had the impression they would not hold up under speed. Maybe we can modify them so that they will...
SB

mapbike · Jun 19, 2014

msrfan said:
No problem, map, thanks for your input. Hopefully someone else may benefit from our discussion.

Thank you sir for the great suggestions and for the excellent pix of your collection, I really enjoy all the older bike stuff, I ordered that coughin shaped speedometer from Lithuania I found online, Im gonna give it a try and see if my results are better with it than they have been with the others I've tried.

Map

Vintage Mechanical Speedometers

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