The strongest and brightest thing on a bike is the canvas LCD instrument cluster. The reason why I used the word canvas is because of the vivid range of colors that are present in the cluster screen. Here is a glimpse of how instrument cluster of a modern bike looks like.

Instrument cluster is an important part of an automobile which indicates all that is going on inside the bike as well as the necessary information including speed, rpm, fuel level, gear and so on. Missing any one would make the bike an incomplete and also a non-preferable one. Take fuel gauge for e.g. in absence of which might land a rider in a halt situation and that too in a nowhere zone sometimes where he could be all alone and also in dark. Same is true in the case of speed where in absence of which would make the rider unintentionally go over a specified speed limit and may get a slip or fined. Digital instrument is a cluster of instrumentations which are all digitally displayed. The different lights used to indicate activation or deactivation is displayed by the different but universally accepted lights. The reason behind universal acceptance is easy recognition. When you are cruising on a highway, often you might have come across the different lights used in the cars. When you see bright red light in front of you then you immediately realize that the vehicle in front you has applied brakes and you need to slow down. The same logic is applied when you see two yellow or blue in case of LED headlamps light in front of your vehicle. You easily make out that there is car approaching from the front and you need to stay alert and put more focus on driving. One more condition has to be considered which often has proved to be a root cause of many accidents. People often get confused when they see a single turned-on white light ahead while driving. This light means that the car in the front is trying to reverse and no doubt moving in a reverse direction. There are many other lights too like parking lights etc which you are well aware of why and when it should be turned on and what is required from your side to be done.  

Let me explain you the most common signs or warning lights that are displayed in most instrument clusters in a bike.

MAHINDRA MOJO UT300

Before moving further, understand the basics of an electronic speedometer. Electronic speedometer does not use any mechanical way to display the vitals but uses a digital screen to display all of them. Digital does not mean that the device measures it in some electronic manner but the difference is only of the display screen. Mechanical pointer display is used in the usual analog meter which came in old bikes of 90s until early 20^th century.

Neutral gear indicator - This is mostly a green light with an alphabet “N” for neutral gear and is usually turns itself on as soon as the bike is shifted down to neutral. This light plays a crucial role when the bike needs to be started. Bike would jump of its point as soon as the self is activated in the bike to turn the ignition on. Also when the bike is in motion and the rider shifts in between 1^st gear and 2^nd gear then the bike may shift to neutral gear and the bike may undergo high revving when the rider opens the throttle which may lose the overall balance of the rider on the bike.

High beam indicator – It is often displayed by a blue color bulb adjacent to straight lines in the cluster. This is a part of headlight system in which the rider after turning the high beam on could get a clear far vision of the road. The beam flares and covers an increased area of road in terms of length. It is recommended to be used on highways only.

Turn indicators – There are mostly two separate signs on the cluster. One is for left turn and other one is for right turn. Turn indicators blinks with the blink of indicator lights located on the corners of a vehicle. A rider turns on the signal in order to take a turn and this is also displayed by a blinking sign in the cluster. The direction depends on the turning direction of the bike.

Side stand indicator – This basically is denoted by a red light with a sign saying “SIDE STAND”. The light turns on as soon as the bike is rested on the side stand.

Engine indicator – It is indicated by a flashing yellow light with engine symbol. This turns on when the ECU or engine control unit detects any fault related to engine.

ABS indicator – This is a permanent indicator and turns on with an ABS symbol the moment that particular bike is cranked up. ABS or anti-lock braking system is a safety feature that prevents the wheels from locking at the time of hard braking.

Engine temperature indicator – This indicator turns on by a warning red light with a symbol that looks somewhat like a thermometer on a careful stare. The light warns the rider about the engine temperature which has reached to a dangerous high level or overheated.

Fuel level indicator – This is a mandatory indicator found in all vehicles irrespective of the number of wheels they are driven on. The indicator is in the form of several bars starting from L(low) to F(full) with each bar indicating some specific litres of fuel present in the fuel tank. If the bar is near or equal to F then it means the bike has enough or full fuel respectively in the tank and if it is close or equal to L then it is time for the rider to visit the nearest gas station on the way in case of a bike.  

Total km indicator – This indicator is a set of numbers ranging from 0 – 999999 kms. Km meter works in accordance with rotation of the front wheel. The distance covered by the bike is indicated by total km indicator. This indicator is responsible for sensing how much the bike is ridden.

Trip indicator – This is a younger brother of the above indicator with only four digit number ranging from 0-9999kms. It works in a similar fashion as mentioned above and is used to calculate individual distances when a rider is on a trip from one place to another for record purpose. There is often an option of A, B and C which means the different trips and could be controlled by a small button located near the cluster. The change in trip from A to C could be clearly observed when the button is pressed.

Current gear indicator – This indicator is displayed by numbers 1 – 6 that indicate the corresponding gear the bike currently is in. The number keeps shifting themselves with every shift of gear and depends on whether the rider has shifted up or down. Say for e.g. if the bike is ridden in 3^rd gear then the indicator would show 3 on the cluster. Automatically the indicator would hide 3 and later display 4 when the rider shifts up to 4^th gear and the same process is followed in other gear shifts as well.

RPM limiter indicator – This is an optional display feature and whether it is there in a bike or not depends on the brand. This is a performance feature that is displayed by a small bright warning red light located close to the cluster on the top or to its side. The light starts blinking when the bike is taken too high on the rev or redlined. Redlining an engine causes major damages due to increase in the engine temperature. The light is displayed in a blinking pattern and the rider should immediately shift to the next gear as soon as this light starts blinking. This indicator is a very useful feature in racing bikes where the rider shifts when this light starts blinking. By doing this, the rider is actually using full potential or power of that particular gear which is also termed as perfect shifting. 

Tyre pressure indicator – This is a warning indicator that flashes by a yellow light with a tyre and exclamation mark. The rider need to attend this problem asap as it tells him that there is low pressure in front or rear or in both the tyres. Tyre pressure affects tyre life, mileage, emission etc. to a towering level.

Battery indicator – This indicator is very easy to identify but never to be taken for granted. The indicator turns on by a red light with a battery symbol and means that the battery is short of charge and the bike needs to attend the nearest charging station as early as possible. Nearly all the controls like headlight, taillight, cluster, indicator and the most important one “starter” work on the charge supplied by the battery. The starter won’t work if the battery is fully drained which could make the rider get stuck in a helpless situation.

Speed indicator – Last but the most important one is speed indicator. I think earlier cluster was designed only to display the current speed of the bike and this is the reason it was also known by the name speedometer. It basically does a simple function of showing current speed at which the bike is travelling.  

The display gets enhanced with bigger brands and the type of vehicle. Generally, luxury cars and limousine have wide and best digital instrument clusters.

History

Initially vehicles had only a single meter that included only km, speed and some models had fuel indicators. In those days, speedometer was not called instrument cluster. It was later when the meter included various other details made it a kind of information hub and soon the name was changed to instrument cluster as now everything was getting displayed in one single meter. Display meter was made as standard equipment from 1910 onwards. Charles Babbage was the first person to create a speedometer which was fitted to a locomotive. First bike to have electronic instrument cluster in India was 2003 HERO HONDA KARIZMA. It had total 3 displays with two analog type meters and one digital meter. This digit meter was electronically controlled and displayed fuel levels, trip, total km and time digitally. Then the years witnessed a drastic increase in the installation of electronic instrument clusters in variety of vehicles. The reason was simply accuracy. Digital cluster is more accurate which displays instantaneous values.

2020

Electronic meter works on the principle of eddy current effect.  Electronic meter displays everything on a LCD display or Liquid Crystal Display. Current flowing inside the meter modifies the liquid that is present inside LCD. The modification is in terms of position, transparency which results in making that particular area look dark. This is how numbers and other markings are displayed on a LCD screen. Now almost all automobiles have digital clusters if not fully electronically controlled then to some areas. Parts that are mechanically driven have more wear and tear problems and also have to be serviced regularly in less period of time. Mechanically driven parts are also not that accurate and work as if they are being spoon-fed. This made electronics to enter onto the field of automobile. Today almost everything in a bike is controlled by a chip, ECU or in simple words “its brain”. This makes it a self governing bike. Fitting an ECU in a bike to control any system means making that system independent and no more there is any spoon feeding required. In return, it gives a more accurate readings upto many digits. For e.g. in a normal analog version, the needle pointing a numeral adjacent to it was hard to read the exact number. If the needle pointing in between 20km/h and 25km/h was difficult for the rider to read whether the bike is cruising at 22, 23, 24km/h. Instantaneous reading becomes a very important aspect to calculate the mileage that bike would give and also other important calculations that would be carried out in order to calculate its performance. LCD instrument cluster improves overall instruments by making it more readable and easy interpretable which are not observed in a conventional analog meter. Also, analog meter was hard to read at night time due to its construction and background light. LCD instrument is very bright and crystal clear. LCD meter usually occupy less space and covers more number of instruments digitally in a less display area.

by AutoVogue