PR: Proprietary Items Electronic Speedos?

Cyborg

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Which “Smiths” instrument do you have? The one that looks like the old 3” Smiths chronometric with the screw on bezel that came from Puka or is yours from Caerbont? Can you post a photo?
 

Sakura

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Non-VOC Member
I don't understand why there's this water ingress problem. The original chronometric is not a truly sealed case but I have never had water ingress. The bezel has a fine thread and is sealed with a rubber ring between ring and glass. Surely this can't be difficult to replicate?
 

Cyborg

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VOC Member
For what it’s worth, the tachometer that I purchased from CAI (the 82mm one) is listed on their site as waterproof to IP67, which according to Wikipedia means as long as the ditch doesn’t contain more than a meter of water and I haul it back out within 30 minutes, it’s all good. It has a crimped on bezel, so if the speedo in post 53 is from CAI, then they have changed from a screw on bezel to the crimped on one.
 

fitzer

New Forum User
Non-VOC Member
I've been stalking this forum for a while...picking up tips on this and that...
For what its worth... I had a chat with Patrick from Puca at a classic maserati meet in the spring, his company had just fitted some very nice instruments to a friends replica racer. The long and short of it seems to be that he brought the idea of the electronic MC instruments to CAI in 2012, they went with the idea, CAI built them and Puca did the designs and acted as the sole agent ...also acting in PR/marketing capacity for bike product for CAI so it seems the association was quite close...and then CAI got bought out by its production manager, there seemed to be a difference in opinion on how accurate the replica gauges should look and they went their separate ways. He told me Puca still use CAI mechanisms but pretty much everything else is done in house.
Can't speak for the quality other than look of them which is really good....don't really know what the bloke is like either but I've meet quite a few numpties in the press/photo game and he seemed level headed and very switched on.....
some of you say you couldn't get an answer from Puca? the guys do answer their mails ....well so far to me they have...are you using the right address? (smiths@puca.co)
 

BigEd

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VOC Member
VOC Forum Moderator
A friend in the AJS & Matchless Club is on his 3rd electronic speedometer and this one has a faulty trip. Maybe he is just unlucky, he is certainly fed up. He said they are "Smiths" but I don't know who makes them.
 

Spqreddie

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
I spoke at the phone with Patrick from Puca this morning. and i have ordered my two 3 inches instruments.
He said he will built them and send me a pictures for acceptance before shipping. he said it will take 10 or 15 days for my special order.
As well i can not say anything yet regarding quality as is the first time i am dealing with them, but as soon as the instruments received i will update you all here.

I have informed him that we are discussing his product here and told him to consider registering here on the forum to follow the discussions and answer to the queries. not sure he will do.
 

Monkeypants

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
The tach at bottom was supplied by Tom Kullen in the US.
Prior to that I waited for a year or so for stock to reappear at the Spares Co., no luck.
It worked perfectly for two weeks then went haywire.
Tom Kullen was certain that the issue was with my installation, so much testing and checking went on. It did seem likely that the problem was self-inflicted, so I temporarily mounted the instrument on my other Rapide as a check. That bike has a totally different style of ignition, D type distributor. Great care was taken with the temp installation, but the problem persisted.

Finally, I was contacted by another Vincent owner in Australia who had the same tach and the same problem. Tom said that these two problematic instruments were the only ones he had seen after a large number of sales. He was doubtful that there was anything wrong with the instruments, he still felt that something amiss with the installations was creating these problems. He also stressed that there were no new units available to exchange with, so we would be best to figure out a way to get my unit working somehow.
I still don't quite understand how that situation could occur.
Shouldn't a manufacturer always have a few spares on hand?
Or the facility to provide one after a short wait?

Anyway, Tom figured that if something had happened to the instruments, that must be due to the some unique situation with the Vincent ignition.
The problem with that theory is that while the Australian owner's bike has a stock mag, stock Vincent ignitions aren't really much different from other magneto equipped bikes of that era. Also, my 47 Rapide has a converted Norton twin point twin coil setup. The 49 has a D distributor as mentioned, so we were seeing the same problem with 3 bikes, all with different ignitions.
After exhausting the possibilities of improper installation, it did not seem likely that it was a Vincent problem, things were instead pointing at a Smith's Electronic instrument problem. The Rapide owner in Oz had also done a ton of time consuming troubleshooting . He came to the same conclusion.
Eventually we both sent our instruments back to Tom and he forwarded them to Smith's in the UK.
In due course they were repaired and sent back. Apparently both suffered burned out diodes.
A small resistor was added to the wiring on reinstall.
So full marks to Tom and Smith's for eventually doing the right thing regarding warranty and repair.
After spending days on all the troubleshooting, there was in no hurry to reinstall the thing and suck up more days, should it fail to work properly. Afterall, I purchased it in July 2014, had trouble 2 weeks later and struggled with the troubleshooting on and off for over a year before Puca agreed to take the tach back for a look. By the time it arrived in a repaired state I had owned it for a year and a half, out of which it worked properly for a total of two weeks.
So I left the repaired unit in a box for about a year until I finally got up the interest to reinstall it.

So far so good.
I think it looks just fine with the original Smith's 5" beside it. I'm not a stickler for original details anyway and this bike is the kind that gets low murmurs of disapproval when inspected by the conkers crowd.
80mm case. Puca/Smith
IMG_20190521_092937.jpg


Glen
 
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Cyborg

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
some of you say you couldn't get an answer from Puca? the guys do answer their mails ....well so far to me they have...are you using the right address? (smiths@puca.co)

Can't speak for anyone else, but I used the correct email address for Puka. I suppose if I pursued it, an answer would have been forthcoming eventually. However... given the fact that he told VOC spares that "one was coming" for an entire year and then ultimately said it no it wasn't, led me to believe I was flogging a dead horse. No matter what transpired, I don't think there is a valid excuse for a years worth of empty promises. Quality or no quality.
 
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Cyborg

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
As for getting a matching set, (because of the situation), the fellow from CAI gave me a break on the price, so a speedo is on its way. For the Mongrel Comet, it doesn't matter that they are slightly larger plus the fact that both Puka and CAI speedos come with a digital odometer makes the difference in size a moot point for my situation.
 
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