I've been looking for ways to change the look of the stock speedometer for months and finally figured out a way to relocate it myself. I never liked how high the speedometer looked on the America...it just seemed like it was too much.
This mod will bring the speedo in and lowers it so that it has a much more "tucked in" look and feel. Here's what it looks like now:
Here are the steps I took:
- Remove the speedo - had to remove speedo cable at speedo and unplug electics inside headlight
- Drill two new mounting holes in bracket -- I put the new holes about halfway between the stock holes and the bend.
- Cut-off (dremel) the end of the bracket where the stock holes were located. Essentially cut between the old holes and the new holes.
- Purchased 2 new bolts (Chrome M6 x 1.0p x 40mm)and 2 Chrome Spacers (5/16 x 1"). Note: My local hardware store has good selection of Chrome Metric bits, but had to use standard spacer...works fine.
- Remounted everything.
Here is a picture from the side...a bit challenging to see, but hopefully it shows what I'm talking about.
Clearance is good all around and I think it looks much better.
As you may be able to see, I have Windvest mounts on my handlebars. In order to make my Windvest fit with the new speedo location, I did nothing more than take out the spacers that came with the Windvest. This brings the whole shield back closer to me and looks even better than before. I put a couple of felt pads on the cross member of the Windvest right where it sits against the speedo. You can sort of see in the second picture how the Windvest cross member will now sit in front of the speedo.
All in all this was very simple and easy.
Cheers,
Steven
