Got the
Bonneville Performance Oil Pressure Guage and installed it yesterday. The guage itself and the hardware included are of excellent quality and befitting a place on the beautiful bike parked in my garage. The install was a little of a pita for me cause I could not get the 16mm nut off that held the oil feeder pipe on the case and the rear of the motor. It is aluminum and due to it's position I had to first remove the cam chain tensioner complete assembly to get a wrench on it. Of course the soft aluminum bolt head soon became a gouged up round aluminum shaft with sharp shards protruding everywhere. Of course this led to quite a bit of blood all over my motor and the surrounding area. That's ok, it's fresh oil so it acted as an antiseptic. My dad used to say, "It ain't a job till ya bleed on it." I guess this was a job then. I finally managed to get the bolt out and the install took about 10 minutes after that. I followed the pdf directions on Bill's site and it was breeze. But beware that if you do one and you do have to take the cam chain tensioner assembly off, be sure to follow the manual directions to reset the ratchet prawl first when you reinstall the assembly. Once you remove the tensioner spring, you MUST remove the prawl and reset the ratchet.! Not doing this can lead to having the cam chain too tight and cause premature wear of the chain and the tensioner guide blades.
Ok, the actual review: I fired the bike up and the guage went instantly to 50psi at idle. I revved the motor and the pressure follows the rpms and went up to about 80-90psi as I revved it. It is an almost instantaneous response with increasing/decreasing rpms and the psi readings. I took it out for about a 25 mile test ride and it seems to work just fine. While cruising or under hard accelleration the pressure gets up to about 90psi and stays pretty mush there, dropping down as I decellerate.
I like it, it's very nicely made and works great.
The only thing I figured I would rather have now is guages up where I can actually see them when I'm riding. How hard would it be to make a pressure/temp combo set that works with electrics instead so we can have the guages up on the handlebars or next to the speedo somehow? Just a thought.
They work well, both guages, but they are kind of out of the way to be looking at while riding, not the best situation at all.
But, two thumbs up for both Brent's temp guage and bill Gately's pressure guage. Thanks for the great products guys! Keep em coming.
