harleyKmodel

I have found a speedo that says "special" on the back in red lettering.
any idea what is special about this one?

Thank you, Peter

Just a guess #1 - Harley may have requested some "specials" be made for racing events, particularly trials, where you had to complete legs of the event within certain min/max times. Instead of the expensive "enduro" equipment, these could be used with standard bikes. Larger diameter tires for dirt would make the bike go faster than the stock speedometer said, and the trials rider might break the minimum time.

Stewart-Warner calibrated civilian and police speedometers a little differently - at least on big twins. Civilian speedometers were calibrated to read a little faster than actual (so the driver thinks he's going 60 when he's really going 58), and police models a little slower (so the cop thinks you're going 58 when you're really going 60). If they did this on civilian K/XL models, for trials, the rider might break the maximum time.

Just a guess #2 - these were ordered for a limited number of police sales. Big twins had visually different civilian/Police units, but K/XLs didn't. So these might have been ordered with police calibration as above, or perhaps just to tighter tolerances.

Maybe these were for the Eindhoven police, although I suspect those would have been KPH.

Your guess is as good as mine!
Dave

As a side note, the "enduro" speedometer was a large BT type unit but rotated counterclockwise to make it work since it drove off the rear wheel. Different gears were available for tire size adjustments.
I've never seen a KH series speedo marked "special", but most are so distressed on the housing I may have never noticed.

Rubone wrote:As a side note, the "enduro" speedometer was a large BT type unit but rotated counterclockwise to make it work since it drove off the rear wheel. Different gears were available for tire size adjustments.

Take a look at a dyslexic speedometer.

Here it is mounted

Added 2 more pictures , this one is km/h front and back.

Hey Dutch, Thank you for the pic. Could you show a little more of the second pic as I am looking at the mounting bracket and how it mounts. If I can't locate a bracket I will try to fabricate one. I am trying to mount the speedometer on a 1957 Sportster. Also looking for the rubber for the top of speedo. Thanks again, roadbum.

Ralph Dollarhite 703-472-6886 [email protected] is an expert on Stewart-Warner speedometers. He does repairs, makes speedo cables, and anything to do with S-W speedos.

Contact him to find out under what conditions S-W might make a "Special" speedometer of this vintage. AND LET US KNOW what you find out!

Its very well possible its a dutch police or militairy police speedo.
The area I have picked it up is near Eindhoven.
Dutch Militairy police also used KH models , see the picture

dutch kh wrote:Its very well possible its a dutch police or militairy police speedo.
The area I have picked it up is near Eindhoven.
Dutch Militairy police also used KH models , see the picture

Good possibility as all Police units had a finer calibration requirement than civilian units.