Speedo dial colour changes

[Laverda Dave]

Back in the very distant past, the very late 70's to be exact, I remember seeing a couple new old stock 400/4's in the Speedway of Acton showroom. This must have been 1978 or 79 as I had just started work at Acton Train Overhaul Works and I would wander up to the showroom at lunchtimes.
What made these two bikes different were the speedo's, as well the normal white numbers on a very dark green background they also had a lighter green band indicating KPH. I remember asking how much the bikes were as I knew they had been out of production for a couple of years by then. I knew I couldn't afford one as I was only on £48/week and I had just bought a Bell Moto 111 helmet from the shop for my speedway racing but I asked anyway. They were £900 each and I was told they were unsold stock brought back from Italy (Speedway of Acton was about 1 mile from Honda UK in Power Road, Chiswick so the story could be feasible I guess).
My question is, Were these dual reading speedo's ever fitted to UK 400/4's because I have never seen one in the wild? If they were does anyone know from what frame number they were fitted? My rat bike is August 1977 so is late in the production run although that is the date of registration and not the actual build date of the bike itself (are records kept of actual build dates as they are for old Brit bikes?). The speedo fitted on my resto bike is the 'normal' UK type however I learnt a couple of weeks ago from the PO that he had an off on it and it had a new front mudguard and tacho fitted (and I suspect new forks as well as the lowers do not match the rest of the bike in terms of wear and tear). The replacement tacho appears to be from a G5 or similar as two of the idiot lights are in the tacho face. I'd be interested to know if the speedo has been replaced as well as the PO cannot remember and if the correct one should in fact be a dual reading type?

[Nurse Julie]

Do you mean like this Dave?

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[Laverda Dave]

That's it Julie. Why did I think it was a light green band.............I know, AGE

[Nurse Julie]

That's it Julie. Why did I think it was a light green band.............I know, AGE

Yes, let's blame it on age Dave 😂😂😂😂

[Nurse Julie]

That's it Julie. Why did I think it was a light green band.............I know, AGE

Yes, let's blame it on age Dave 😂😂😂😂

No, it's not your age Dave as I've also found them in green 😁😁😁

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[teenybop1]

Do you mean like this Dave?

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Lol I've seen that speedo before,, it  had a different needle than the tacho, just something else added to the growing list, unfortunately. :-)

[teenybop1]

Something else ticked off the list.

[Nurse Julie]

Do you mean like this Dave?

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Lol I've seen that speedo before,, it  had a different needle than the tacho, just something else added to the growing list, unfortunately. :-)

😂 😂 😂 😂 😂

[Laverda Dave]

That's a good pic Julie, inspiration to get the rat bike looking just like that🙂. The Speedo also reads up to 120mph, living proof the yellow ones are the fastest😁.
Do you know when the Big H changed the faces to this style?

[Nurse Julie]

That's a good pic Julie, inspiration to get the rat bike looking just like that🙂. The Speedo also reads up to 120mph, living proof the yellow ones are the fastest😁.
Do you know when the Big H changed the faces to this style?

Absolutely no idea Dave. Mine was a 77 build F2 and didn't have the blue/ green numbers at all. It was probably Honda just using up spares they had in the cupboard as they were near the end of production anyway.

[Bryanj]

Either that or the US legal numpties insisting on something else that wasnt needed!

[Oddjob]

TBH I think the addition of the extra information like the KPH ring inside the MPH ring was more to do with responding to customer comments, it's very useful to have that sort of thing when you're touring in countries that use a different speed measuring system than your own country, like us touring on the continent, nothing worse than mentally trying to convert MPH to KPH whilst also concentrating on the road. Most bikes seem to have gotten that feature after 77 or so.

Plus, TBH I kinda like it on the dial face, fills it out and makes it look posher for some reason.

[Bryanj]

Did you ever work on a urinal, sorry ural, Ken? They had a clear sticker on the outside of the glass for mph

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

KENT400 here offerred me choices for the speedometer faces on my 400 in the end I went for the extra inner kph markings.

[teenybop1]

I've just found the old /original speedo from my 400 four in a box of bits, no inner KPH markings. It's a 1977 reg bike.