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Switching from MPH to KPH
- Thread starter jluff
- Start date
52184
GTRider
If yours is a Canadian bike you can do that. If it’s a US bike you can’t—BMW has for some reason disabled that capability for bikes sold in the US.
Best,
DeVern
It's a practice employed by some car makers too, to discourage Canadians from importing vehicles from the US whwre yhey can be had for lower prices into Canada, by making it very costly or impossible to comply with Canadian regulations.
52184
GTRider
Which car makers, so I know which ones to avoid?
I have two FCA vehicles in my garage and both can be switched by a button press or two, as could the Accord we sold a few years ago. Both countries drive on the RH side and I think with the exception of some heavy-duty or special-use vehicles all cars and light trucks sold in the US are 50-state compliant with EPA, DOT, etc so I’m curious what Canadian regs a US vehicle would not meet.
Best,
DeVern
Virtually none of them. I know a few folks who have purchased US-sourced motorcycles and cars (including my wife when she moved here and brought her car with her). No issues at all. There was a mod she had to do but it was so minor I've forgotten what it was.
There is no requirement that speedometers/odometer register in metric measurement. It's only a requirement that, when driving, one abides by the metric speed limit - which I do about 40% of the time. 100% of the time in school zones.
In BC there's even a healthy market for Japanese imports from Japan. These are right hand drive vehicles. Legal for use in Canada. I don't agree with it but there's nothing against the law about it.
Honda/Acura is one example. We brought our two Canadian purchased cars with us when moved to the US. Easy peasy to import the Jag. A couple buttons flipped everything to miles/Fahrenheit. The Acura, despite having a full digital dash had no such buttons. Acura/Honda cannot reprogram the the cluster to change UOM and cannot sell a new cluster having different UOM. As such it could not officially be imported. An inattentive State DMV clerk did register the car in our State, but it cannot legally be sold in the US with an odometer showing in Km.
Sorry, I was not intending to take the topic off road.
Sorry, I was not intending to take the topic off road.
MCMXCIVRS
More toys than space
Daytime headlights is the biggest difference aside from the metric instruments. I'm not so sure there is any actual regulations in place to ensure the cars are built to make them unable to be imported. Mostly the regulations ban importing newer vehicles to keep markets and such separate and protected. After a certain age, vehicles can be imported without much limit so long as you jump through all the right hoops.
FWIW, the used truck market here was very hot several years back as most were going south of the border for close to or more than new prices here. If you wanted a used truck, it was near impossible to find one.
For a 20 year old bike, it should be straightforward. Paperwork and some fees.
For newer vehicles, you need to make sure the make, model, year is even admissible on the importing country website. There are plenty of NA made vehicles that are inadvisable into the other country. You also need to show proof of emissions and safety compliance and deal with any other regulatory requirements. Vehicles typically have the emissions and compliance stickers only for the country they were originally to be sold in. Some NA brands do have the stickers for both Canada and the US. In absence of the stickers, you have to get a letter from the manufacturer confirming compliance for the country it is being imported to, without which it is generally a non-starter as the conversion costs can be prohibitive, if even possible - and usually have to be done at special government certified conversion shops. Using my example above, Jag provided the letter with ease. It was like pulling hens teeth to get the compliance letter for the Acura. And even with the compliance stickers or letters, you may still still have conversion costs for things like lights odometer, etc to meet local regulations. In the case of the Jag, I flipped a couple dash switches myself and was good. For the Acura, they made it impossible as they really wanted to protect selling territories at all cost.
globalrider
Alps Adventurer
Can it not be done with software using the MotoScan? I used that one to change from 12H time to 24H time on my 2016 R1200 GSA.
bigjohnsd
'21 R1250 GS Adv
Not that I can find using Motoscan Ultimate - as a result, I set my GPS to read in KM and use it as my speedometer when in Canada and/or Mexico.
crustybeemer
Member
As bigjohnsd stated- just use your GPS set to MPH/KMH, whatever you need! I set mine up waiting in the customs line!
Approximation also works and easy to memorize.....
30mph = 50 km/h
40mph = 60 km/h
50mph = 80 km/h
60mph = 100 km/h
70mph = 110 km/h
100mph = 160 km/h
(For those anal retentive types...yes, I know these aren't dead accurate
)
Shortly after we bought our '76 Volvo, Canada made the switch to metric. Volvo offered a new kilometre speedometer decal for $5.00 that was placed over the existing speedometer (odometer remained in miles). Unfortunately this option does not seem to be available for vehicles imported into countries which have different speed units.
At the time, auto parts stores were also selling individual stickers which you pasted onto your speedo (NOT the swimming trunks!) at the appropriate place. Considering that was 45 years ago I doubt they're currently available.
Caution, thread derail ahead!......
It would be nice if the US joined the rest of the world and went metric.
