Ico Odometer

ICO ODOMETER

EVALUATION

Electronic excuse eliminator

IN AN ENDURO, THERE'S NO END TO THE things that can go wrong. Enduros can be lost because of not going fast enough, going too fast, crashing, breaking, even getting lost. But one of the most prevalent reasons for not winning or placing well in an enduro can be the bike's odometer. It seems that odometer readings almost never match up to the mileage claimed by the organizing club.

The people at ICO/Performance Products (Box 1294, Bayou La combe, LA 70445: [504] 882-3107) have taken it upon themselves to attack this odometer problem head-on: the solution they have come up with is the ICO electronic odometer. Although electronic odometers

have been around for a long time, ICO's is perhaps the most serious and sophisticated one yet. The odometer gets its information by counting the number of times a magnet (mounted somewhere on the front wheel) passes a stationary electronic sensor (mounted on an adjacent fork leg). The parts are designed to fit onto a! most any off-road bike, but we found that attaching them to an `86 Honda CR500R took some imagination.

There is very little clearance between the Honda's brake-rotor mount-the recommended location for the mag net-and the fork leg. so we wound up placing the magnet and sensor on the other side of the wheel: but that complicated the routing of the wire that runs between the sensor and the display unit on the handlebar. If the magnet and sensor would have fit on the brake side, the wire simply could have been attached to the brake hose.

Once all the mounting is out of the way. the next step is calibration. which is done by entering the frontwheel-circumference measurement into the display unit. This feature also makes recalibration of the odom eter fairly simple: If your mileage doesn't match the course's, you merely punch-in a different figure for the wheel circumference. A one-inch change in circumference results in a one-tenth-mile difference in the dis tance the odometer registers for every 10 miles traveled.

This isn't quite as easy as calibrat ing a Honda XR-series electronic odometer. But it's a lot better than trying to do the math in your head when you've got riding on your mind.

Another advantage of the ICO odometer is that it can be pre-pro grammed to have automatic resets. This means you never run the risk of forgetting to adjust the odometer at a reset: the reading automatically jumps ahead to the predetermined figure when the bike reaches the ap propriate mileage. There are several other noteworthy

features of the ICO, including the odometer's ability to be converted to a speedometer with the press ofa but ton; it can be made to read in kilome ters as well as miles. Of course, all these features make the odometer so complicated that you have to use it in quite a few enduros before you're able to leave the instruction sheet be hind. In fact, itjust might be too com plicated if your goal is simply to keep track of mileage on trail rides. Indeed, with a retail price of

$159.95, this odometer is targeted strictly at the most serious enduro riders. Todd Cunningham and David Bertram of Team Husky both use these odometers and are quite happy with them. But be forewarned: It just might eliminate your best excuses for not winning enduros.