I recently bought a new 2009 Raider-S and love the bike. Rides like a dream. But I've discovered a problem with my speedometer. I'm traveling about 5 to 7 miles slower than the speedometer indicates.

I've tested it running with three different bikes and a car on cruise control. If I'm leading the other bikes and my speedometer reads 70, the other three riders say I'm running at 65. While following the car on cruise control doing 70, I have to run at 75 to keep up with it.

The mechanic at the small Yamaha dealership I go to says it seems to be fine after looking at it, but I'm not inclined to agree after testing it against four other vehicles and arriving at the same conclusion each time.

Has anyone else encountered the same problem? And I'm guessing I should try to take it to a larger dealership with better equipment to get it checked out.

I had the same issue with a Vulcan 900. And I think its fairly common among bikes.

I have an '08 Raider and it reads the same - about 5-7 MPH high (verified with a Garmin GPS). I had a '04 Suzuki Intruder 800 and it had the same issue. I think this is common for a lot of models.

Its done intentionally to avoid legal liability. If you crash you cant say it was because you were going faster than you though and therefore yamaha is liable. Blame the lawyers.

yep - same thing with my '02 Road Star Warrior - I fixed it by putting on a set of Carlini super sweep drag bars which totally obstructed my view of the speedometer.

There are very stiff penalties for any bike imported into the US to have a speedometer that reads below actual speed. Not wanting to pay the fines, Import manufacturers error 8-10% high to be sure. In most cases though, the Odometer is very close to actual.

Seems with a lot wanting to go with a 240 rear instead of the 210, that might be a cure....no?