Road Glide banner

Odometer verification

9K views 25 replies 13 participants last post by  skratch 
#1 ·
So... Im buying an 2009 RG from a private party through the HD Dealer, and I'm trying to figure out if the Odometer has been swapped out, or whatever.

I bought a 2001 Springer from a Dealer years ago and learned that the speedo was swapped out and now the 40k I thought were on the bike are nothing but a guess at this point.

How can I verify?

The bike is 2 owner, 10100 miles, metal, and paint look great, the tire is worn on the back, front fine.

Vehicle history report returns fine..

Thoughts?

Wanna be Roadglider.. :)
 
#2 ·
It's a 2009. I would think the average rider would put that many miles on that bike. The likes of most of us, that would be a summer trip. Have them check compression and look to see if the front tire is OEM. That should tell you all you need to know.
 
#5 ·
The front tire won't really tell you anything because the tire could be changed at a HD dealer and the replacement tire is the same as a OEM tire.
 
#6 ·
If the odd o meter has been swapped out , the dealer should have verified the mileage on the old one prior to the order for the new one , and that mileage should have been entered on to the new unit .. That does not stop someone from disconnecting the old one either .. I know one person who does it on every bike ..
 
#11 ·
Mileage checks out, no fault codes, bike looks good. How does it run, sound and ride? All checks out and it's what you want, have them put tires on it as part of your deal and buy it. I know guys that have bikes older than this one with less miles. I think it's criminal to have a bike and not ride it but to each his or her own. My 2 cents
 
#10 ·
Swaping the speedo will not change the millage on the motor cycle since the ecm will send the millage to the speedometer that is the way I understand this maybe I'm wrong.

Envoyé de mon Nexus 5 en utilisant Tapatalk
 
#12 ·
Swaping the speedo will not change the millage on the motor cycle since the ecm will send the millage to the speedometer that is the way I understand this maybe I'm wrong.

The ECM does not send the mileage to the odometer. If you have 3200 miles on the ECM, and you change your odometer to one that has 1000 miles, the mileage on the odometer will start going up from 1000. But it won't "catch up". They will always be off from each other.

If you want the miles to match from the ECM, you have to order a NEW speedometer, and have the Harley FACTORY match it. The dealer can't do it, only the factory. That keeps dealers honest.
 
#15 ·
there's a lot of 'guesswork' with speedometers. the ecm does store mileage in it, but it does not send that mileage to the speedometer.

i just recently replaced the gauges on my wife's bike with a full set of cvo gauges. when i ordered them, i had to have a mileage number for them to 'reinstate' on the odometer. or i could have left it at zero. when the new gauge came in, it was set to the requested mileage, and had a sticker on the back of it that basically said it was a replacement speedo.

when doing the replacement, the odometer will lock to the ecm after 31 miles. so for the first 31 miles, the display is 'different'. it counts backwards, all the functions aren't available, etc. but after it locks, all is good.

now concerning locking. from what i understand, and have been told by others, is that if you try to swap a speedo after it has been locked, your display will read 'vin err' and not work properly. i didn't want any problems, so i elected to go with all new gauges instead of a used set. besides, from pcpain, the new set was not much more than folks were asking for a used set, and if i had to buy a new speedo, it would have bumped the cost higher than new.

of course, this is all concerning newer, (ish?) gauges. i'm sure if you go back far enough, this won't apply.

that was just general info, and my experience. i guess the big takeaway would be that if you were looking at a used bike, and had concerns that the mileage was incorrect due to speedo swap, then you could always pop the 2 screws out of the instrument cluster and look at the back of the speedo for a 'mileage reinstated' sticker......
 
#19 ·
just to close the loop on this thread..

I found the dealership that serviced the bike over the 10k, there were 5 records

2009 - Sale
2009 - Stage I at Sale - 5mi
2011 - Oil, Bars, Cables - 4000mi
2012 - Oil, Service - 5300mi
2013 - Front tire, Paint fix - 6400mi

Then sold to the owner who I bought it from.. Who said he didn't ride it or like the style. (Was a metrix guy) Kept it until listed for sale in 11/2015.

Generally the story checks out.

I bought it, Thursday
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top