New Farkles for Natasha

My motorcycles have always had a tachometer, it's good to know at what RPMs your motorcycle engine seems to be happiest at. On my R80, she cruises nice and smooth at 4000 RPM, below 3000 RPM in third gear or above, she's not happy.

I also needed, with the Total Loss Electrical System (TLES) on Natasha, I needed a way to track the hours the engine has been on to establish a baseline/history of how long the deep cycle battery lasts.

Some searching on the Internet, I ended up on Ebay as usual. I searched for hourmeter and found this:

Here's a link for cheaper but same tachometer on Amazon

The price was right, $20 and $4 shipping I think. A few days later, it was here and it took me all of ten minutes to mount it to my Ural's handlebar:

The 0.0 is the hourmeter when engine is off

Easy to install, hardest was figuring out a way to ziptie it onto the handlebar securely until I come up with a more permanent solution. The white wire goes to a grounding point on the motorcycle, I used one of the mounting bolts on the dead alternator. The other wire you wrap around the nearest spark plug cable. It "senses" the spark I believe and uses the count to calculate your RPMs.

It works as advertised, I am now learning what she does at idle and at speed. Natasha appears to idle at around 900 RPM, and likes to cruise around 4200 RPM apparently. Only drawback? It's not backlit, so you can't see it at night!

No problem, I rigged a $7 flashlight from Ace Hardware with a flexible neck holding the light, I just aim it at the tach and off I go. When the engine is on, you get Tachometer, when it's off you get hourmeter. Two farkles in one!