Wallrat Posted December 19, 2003 Report Share Posted December 19, 2003 My wife surprised me today with a Trailtech ATV computer as an early xmas present. So this evening I spent my shift at work installing the beast. First off if you've never heard of this product its a small waterproof computer that uses a magnetic sensor to give you your current/avg./max speed, odometer, tripometer, time riding, time on the machine, and also has programable maintence and lubrication reminders. Also you can edit the odometer/hours so that you don't lose all your information when its time to replace the battery. All this for about $75. Packaging: Box arrived well packaged with the parts nicely seperated in baggies and the computer itself protected in foam. Two sets of instructions were included - one for installation and the other for the computer. Installation: First step was to jack up the front end and remove either of the front wheels. Two options are available for mounting the magnet. Either you can epoxy an included magnet into one of the holes in your disc brake or you can do what I did and replace one of the disc brake bolts with their magnetic head bolt. Its nice that they include both magnets in one package. Instructions were very complete up to this point even suggesting that I heat the old bolt before trying to remove it. A dab of loctite later and I was ready to mount the sensor. Two options were available here. For those with disc guards you can just drill out one of the holes in the guard and install the sensor. For the other method the instructions were semi-vague. They included a halfmoon shaped bracket in the kit that I should bolt to the spindle. A picture was shown of a raptor and a 400z but that didn't help much. The instructions stated that banshee owners will have to hammer the bracket a bit to get it to fit to the bolt holes but included no pictures. Well I dunno about other years of banshees, but on my '87 there are only 2 bolts in that area - the ones that hold the brake caliper on. Unfortunately the shape of the caliper makes it impossible to get a fit with the supplied bracket without hammering the snot out it. Not only was the bracket about 2 inches too wide, the caliper has a ridge that must be cleared to get the sensor in the right area. So after some serious hammering in a vise followed by some major tweaking with pliers, I managed to get the bolt holes to line up. I used a drill press to increase the size of the holes in the bracket and bolted it in place. At this point I hammered the bracket even more to get it to curve up over the caliper, around the spindle and back out towards the disc at the rear of the spindle - whew! After all that hammering the bolt hole in the bracket that the sensor is supposed to go through was egg shaped. I drilled it out and installed the sensor with some loctite. All that's left is to run the wire and mount the computer. The computer comes with two mounting types, flat mount or handlebar mount. In addition trailtech makes some billet bar clamps designed to mount the computer to (not included). I opted for the handlebar mount. Mounting the computer was straighforward. A few screws later and I had my computer sitting just next to my twist throttle. The handlebar mount is plastic, meaning that it will hopefully break before the computer gets torn off in the event of a rollover. The zip ties included are really small, only long enough to attach the sensor wire to the brake line. I used a few longer zip ties to attach the cable to the frame in an attempt to avoid the radiator. Calibration: Suprisingly easy step here. Take a pen and draw a line at the bottom of your sidewall. Draw a line adjacent to that line on the ground. Hop on and roll forward until the tire mark has travelled around once and is back next to the ground. Draw a line on the ground and measure the distance between the two lines drawn on the ground. The instructions include the information on how to convert this measurement to millimeters. Input the measurement on the computer with a few buttons and its done. An alternative and more accurate method involves riding a known distance and then using the included formula to adjust to the correct wheel travel. Riding: Ok it was 1am and I didn't want to really lay it on and wake up the neighbors. But I did putt around a bit and it seems to work fairly well. I'll have to see how much it bounces around out on the trail. Conclusion: The easy to use computer functions and oversized buttons were a treat to play with. Installation was easy except for that stupid bracket and the lousy instructions concerning that part. I'd like to see a bracket that's actually made for banshees and maybe even have a kit offered for my year of spindle design (assuming that this was just something to do with the older design). Rating: Packaging: A Installation: D- Ease of use: B Overall: B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frocashmoney24 Posted December 19, 2003 Report Share Posted December 19, 2003 thank god someone finally did a review about this, i was wondering about them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SICK BOY Posted December 19, 2003 Report Share Posted December 19, 2003 I've had mine for about a year and I love it.I can't belive how right on the speed is when you have it programed right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenr74 Posted December 19, 2003 Report Share Posted December 19, 2003 I had one of these on my Warrior and loved it. I took it off when I got my Shee but haven't installed it yet. After reading this though I'm not so sure I want to mess with all that installation crap. On the Warrior it took about 10 minutes to install the whole thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SICK BOY Posted December 19, 2003 Report Share Posted December 19, 2003 I didn't think it was hard at all.Really the hardest part is removing one of the stock rotor bolts,and with a little heat that wasn't really that tough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Duece Posted December 19, 2003 Report Share Posted December 19, 2003 Nice review Rat, very informative, thanks........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erbilabuc Posted December 19, 2003 Report Share Posted December 19, 2003 If any of you guys want one Ill sell you mine for 60$ shipped. Installed it but never used it. Havent been able to program it and I really have no use for it. I took it on a trade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallrat Posted December 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2003 It wasn't terribly difficult to install. I'm thinking it may have just been an 87 thing. I gave it low marks given that I think some people would have just said, "it doesn't fit" and not wanted to continue. I think I spent about an hour on the whole installation, 50 minutes of which was tweaking that bracket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erbilabuc Posted December 21, 2003 Report Share Posted December 21, 2003 I didnt use the bracket because it wouldnt allow the magnet to clear. I just went straight to the dust cover and yes installation is so general it seems hard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
got1banshee Posted December 21, 2003 Report Share Posted December 21, 2003 Can we see pictures of your dust cover? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BansheeRider576 Posted December 22, 2003 Report Share Posted December 22, 2003 I Bought one of those trailtech speedometers... i cost me 90 dollars... i was a little unsure about ding it cuz it was digital and had no warranty.. Hooking it up was no problem for me but i was pissed when it didn't work once i had everything back together. First probelm i had with it was the cable had a defect and wasn't reading the magnet... I fixed that tho and it worked.. TOO BAD IT ONLY WORKED FOR ABOUT 2 WEEKS.... when i first was using it i found the speedometer to be slow at reading speed and not up to pace with the speed of my quad... Then i als found that it desn't like to work in the cold it is even slower then.. And to top it off sometimes the spedometer wood go crazy and say i was going 100 and su miles an hour when i was putting around in first gear an i had everything programed right... This was on and off for a week then it finally stopped working altogether.. The place i got it from won't tak it back.. so basically i wasted m time and 90 dollars on this piece that doesn't even work.... I will never buy anything electroic or digital fo my quad again... THIS WAS BY FAR MY WORST BUY EVER... i wouldn't recommend this speedometer to anyone..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallrat Posted December 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2003 After reading his post, I have to say that I'm not terribly surprised that BansheeRider had a problem. As for mine I moved the mounting so that its near my handlebar clamp and got a chance to really ride with it today. Works excellent! Easy to read even while flying through tight trails. There is a slight delay in the speed update but if you maintain a certain speed for more than a second or two then you'll get an accurate reading. I compared it to my GPS and it seemed right on with its reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgamla Posted December 28, 2003 Report Share Posted December 28, 2003 I have had mine for a few months now and love it. Mine is on an 89 and I also had some issues with installation however I just chose to drill a hole in the dust cover and mount the sensor with two nuts clamping it on. One bad thing is that it accumulates miles which allows you to compute the dollars per mile it costs to run a banshee. Don't do the math cuz it can be scary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nighty Posted December 30, 2003 Report Share Posted December 30, 2003 1 minor disadvantage: When riding in the dark the REALLY AWESOME looking backlight does not stay lit :( when you press the button. But i heared trailtech is working on a new computer which WILL support this!!! This is also interresting for all who are trying to get there banshee street legal. Since you will not need a dashboard light with the comming model. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimateduner Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 I bought around thanksgiving at the dunes. I guess they gave me the wrong parts or instructions because it took us at least 3 hours to put it on. Good thing it was worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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