[Dale Allard]

I’ve been told the odometer and speedometer readings on Honda motorcycles, including the Goldwing are not a true representative of speed or mileage. Is this true? If so what is an approximate percentage of error for each? Am I driving faster or slower than my speedometer says? Thanks

 

[lyle doverspike]

Depends on what year you are talking about!

 

[carolinarider10]

What he said.

My 2015 is spot on according to my GPS (well as close as I can read it).

 

[Tonik]

Many Japanese bikes read high on speed by 3 to 5 percent....but amazingly the odometers are accurate. Kawasaki is probably the worst.

However my 2018 GW is spot on until you get over 95 or so...at that point it starts to read a little high.

And to reiterate, I said many, not all. So you have to check them with your phone.

 

[Steve F]

I used a SPEEDOHEALER to make speed corrections on my '03. It's spot-on now...... at least as far as the speed is concerned, but the odometer is not right, and registers fewer miles than actually ridden. It's one or the other I guess.

 

[SuperAirIan]

I also use a Speedohealer on my 2008.

Before HealTech: Speed read 6.4% too high and Odo read 3.0% too high.

After my adjustments with HealTech: Speed reads 0.0% variance to GPS. Odo now reads 3.4% too low.

 

[Pigeon Roost]

My 2002 needed just a tad over 8% correction (negative factor) to be spot on with new original sized tires.

Somewhere in mid production years Honda was forced to have accurate speedo readings with original sized tires. The oddity was/is that the odo error was different than the speedo error. Not sure if they corrected that or not on the pre-2018 models.

prs

 

[jettawreck]

It is/was quite common for vehicle speedometers to read faster than you are actually going and the odometer to be very close to actual. All my MklV generation VWs have been this way and not so much a percentage error, more of a 3-4 mph error at most anything over speed worth measuring. Yet the odometer is close to spot on. (Honda auto or some other makers were sued because of odometers that recorded more miles than driven from owner(s) claiming they were cheated on warrantee running out and depreciation sooner). My old Suburban is equally optimistic about the speed it's indicating vs actual.
My '01 Wing (with the current E4 tires on it) reads about 3.5 mph fast at normal cruising speed according to the Garmin. At indicated 65 mph I'm actually going 61-62 mph. Easy to live with. Miles recorded on the odometer seem relatively close to mile markers. Haven't tested it over a long distance trip with the gps so I'm speculating on that.