Well, it cost less than $5 on eBay including shipping from Hong Kong so I didn't expect much. But it does work and it's even solar powered! I used a bit of electrical tape to mount the sensor to the front right fork and a drop of Gorilla glue to keep the magnet in place on the rotor. After a few trial runs down the street with my GPS giving the accurate speed the bike computer is configured to give me my true speed. With the Suzuki speedo showing 50mph, I can look at my $5 eBay bike computer and see that I'm really only going just over 40mph.

It's clamped on the handle bars on the right side and I can easily see the true speed while riding. I wonder why Suzuki sends these Bandits out of the factory with the speedometr so far off. My $5 fix gives me a second clock, another trip meter, a high speed memory function and average speed function as well.

In the end though, I think I'll cough up the $115 for the SpeedHealer. For now this works and I didn't have to drill any holes or spend much $$$.

Below is a photo of the sensor and if you look on the rotor, you can see the small magnet from an old pair of headphones. It sticks to the rotor but if you're going fast these can come off. A drop of glue holds it on. When it's time to remove it, a tap with a hammer should do the trick just fine.

One other option is the MainNav MG950DM, mini-GPS. These can be had for under $100 w/shipping on eBay. This small GPS shows your speed along with other bits of information like elevation and it will log your route so you can download it to your computer later.

This unit has no moving parts and even though it comes with a bike mounting kit, you could just leave it in your pocket if all you wanted was a track of your trek.

Of course, I already have a Magellen GPS that does all of this but it doesn't come in such a tiny package or have the rechargeable Lithium battery.

I'm not a crotch rocket speeder. So when I looked at my speedometer and it said 80mph, and when I looked at the rest of the traffic all traveling at the same pace, I knew something was wrong. No way was I going 80mph! The Bandit has a reputation for fast speedometers and there are even kits (Speedohealers) you can get to recalibrate the speedometer. They cost about $115. There have to be better solutions...

How bad was the problem? I put on my Garmin Nuvi motorcycle mount I bought on eBay for $3.29 and popped on my Nuvi. Heading down the street at an indicated 60mph on the speeodometer, my GPS showed I was going 52mph. That's a 13%+ error.

Before spending more than $100 to fix this, I thought I'd try something I've done before on other motorcycles. I'm installing a bicycle computer. They cost next to nothing now on eBay (I paid less than $8 with shipping) and they provide lots of features.

I spent today installing the top case and mirror extenders. The top case is a Bestem 929, large enough to hold two helmets. For $70, this seemed like the best deal out there and it even has an extra brake light. It looks huge in this photo but that's due to the wide-angle setting on the camera.

To mount it I had to buy a rack. I could have gotten a smaller, non-oem rack but I liked the way the Suzuki rack was built. It attaches to the passenger peg brackets and passenger grab rail mount.

The standard mounting holes and even the latching catches were almost the same as those supplied by Bestem on their mounting plate. In the photo comparing the two different catch posts, you can see that the Suzuki post is slanted back and the Bestem is not. This kept the Suzuki post from working. The top case latch did not engage it because of the different shape. Had they been the same shape, I could have used the top case with the Suzuki rack without having to install the extra plate from Bestem. One would think that designers would get together on this stuff.

I used the Bestem supplied mounting plate and attached it to my Suzuki rack. I didn't want to use the metal straps that came with the plate so I got some nice rubber grommets and through-bolted it in place. The grommets will keep things from rattling and shaking loose.

The mirror extenders are machined out of aluminum and came with stainless bolts to secure them. They put the mirrors out farther and will provide me with a view of something other than my armpits.

I got my new Bell Apex Ripper helmet today. I paid just $50 plus shipping from LeatherUP.com. The only size they had at this price was XXL. These are available on eBay for $90 - $200 depending on the size and if they are the current year model. Here's the Apex review from webBikeWorld.

In trying on the Bell and several others at local moto shops all of the helmets seemed VERY tight when I was trying on anything close to my hat size. I know helmets are supposed to be snug but my face felt like it was in a vice.

There are different head shapes and different helmets for each. My head is round and the Shoei RF1000 and the Bell Apex both fit well but only in the XXL size. There are only two actual helmet sizes made by Bell in this model so if I ever want to downsize I can install the XL padding kit, available from the theBellStore.com for $30. For now, I'm VERY happy to find a good deal on a great helmet that fits very well. Even at the XXL size, the Apex is a much tighter fit than my LARGE sized Bell ProStar. After many miles, it really was time for a new helmet.