Re: Gauge Faces / Speedo Tach Decals
When you say "I need a scan of your gauge face...." Do you mean that the scan is where the increments come from? Or can you calculate that stuff based on the ratios and what-not? I only ask because in order to do the double needle thing you might need a different tach drive and speedo drive paired to inappropriately matched mechanisms, in order to change a 270-320 degree sweep to a sweep of 180 degrees or less, that way you can put the two needle pivots in opposite corners of the face and they sweep toward one another, etc. Maybe they could pass at different elevations like hands on a watch.... I'm just curious. You'd need a scan of the gauge face for a couple different reasons, one would be needing the FONT for the numbers and letters etc, and the another would be to put all of the lines and increments in the proper locations. I do realize, swapping out all of the colours and wondering whether they'd match a paint job vs calculating the lay-out of the whole thing and sweating about people complaining of traffic tickets is like ... a whole other kettle of fish! Ha ha. I mean, I'd be cool about paying a little bit extra for that type of thing. It's just one of those "dream project" things that would make the difference between the bike of my dreams and feeling a tad lack-luster about the whole thing. Not that it depends on "luster". More like patina. Ha ha. What would be really really cool, is if you could make them look all aged. Maybe with some of that wrinkle paint done on the lettering, or with slightly faded colouring, or uneven fading etc.... There was something I saw recently where they had a contest based on this type of thing. Hmmmm.... It was somebody on the speed channel who was making vintage aircraft bezels aha it was these things: http://www.classicinstruments.com/seriesdetail.aspx?SeriesCode=BZ
And they had this page full of old second-hand vintage stuff that's just beautiful. Of course, if a person could reproduce this type of thing they might as well get into the art fraud racket. Ha ha. It's good inspiration at least. Let's see here.... Oh man, their Sky Drive is a pretty ridiculous thing, your speedo run by sattellite good Lard that's techno over-kill. And probably a stupid idea. "Sorry Officer, I guess there must have been some electro-magnetic interference!" ha ha. Oh, here it is!
http://www.classicinstruments.com/index.aspx?documentID=classicboneyard
THIS:
https://www.classicinstruments.com/index.aspx?documentID=boneyarddesotoc
is the type of thing I lust after. See, there's one with four mechanisms in one bezel. Okay, it's more like what I'd want for an alarm clock, whereas on my bike I want something like the 60's Suzuki Hustler 250 two stroke.
But I had a brain fart while I was looking at this thing last time. It turns out, on their contest, they just wanted decals designed. But what I was thinking about, would be this: Okay, picture those gauges they used to have where the dial moved in the back-ground and the needle stayed the same. I've seen it on an old speedo, never could figure out how it was done. But this is a little more elaborate. Anyway, you could have something like a very larg diameter ring spinning in the background only you see a very small portion of that ring, and if the ring that moved were completed it would extend right out into the cab or down through your legs, etc. And this would be accomplished through the use of something like a metal tape measure strip, only it's cut like a conical taper, or in a sense you make that whole ring of numbers but you cut it at one point and roll it up on two conical pins. The pins are set in a fixed carriage, and the tape between them is pulled across a smooth domed surface that keeps it taught. Then, the two pins are geared to run semi-synchronously with a spring tension to keep the tape taught without screwing with elaborate means of keeping the ratios from getting out of whack when one pin is all spooled up and the other isn't, kind of like an audio cassete tape deck drive. If they could whip up something like THAT, and put in all sorts of different classic fonts and designs and the like, hell it would be cool to put in NEW autos. Of course, everybody is all enamoured with liquid crystal bull-shit these days, so it's a bit of a pipe dream. But just think of it, if you DID do it electronically, it would just have two high-end high-speed step-drive motors and a chip to run the thing. That would be techy enough for the auto industry people to think they're competing with the Japanese. Ha ha. A good brain fart though. Next time, I'm gonna read their contest rules before I strain my brain like that. Ha ha.
The main trouble I am gonna have making the gauge I wanna make, is finding the glass and bezel to suit it. So, I've been looking around at semi-vintage clock radios and shit. If I could find one of those old clock radios like I used to have, with the little number plates that flipped over and over, then I'd probably just put THAT on the bike and figure out a way to run IT as my speedometer. Ha ha. But yeah, I need some kind of oval shape, maybe flat on the bottom, a half circle with rounded corners, etc.
-S.