el barto
Been Around the Block
I've been weighing up whether to go with Pamco or Charlie's Place, a big decider obviously being the Pamco price and the fact that it features electronic advance. ANYWAY, I emailed Charlie to find out why he doesn't feature an electronic advance; below is his response. I figured it might be helpful to others who are weighing up their options. It kind of correlates to something else I read on the subject here about the fact that if the electronic advance fails, the whole system fails.
Years ago when I first started working exclusively on Vintage Hondas (before they were actually Vintage) there was essentially one reliable aftermarket electronic ignition on the market and that was Dynatek. They had two offerings for four cylinder models only. The Dyna S, and the Dyna III. The S used the mechanical advancer, the III had a black box and electronic advance. This was all back in the early 90's. The products had been around since the 80's. My experience using both was that Dyna III's had a tendency to malfunction and burn out in a relatively short period of time. I did not have this problem with the Dyna S. But far more significantly the acceleration, which is the supposed primary advantage of the electronic advance, was not as smooth with the Dyna III as it was with the Dyna S on the older carbureted bikes. Flash forward many years and none of that has changed.
There is a reason most people in amateur vintage racing never use electronic advance ignitions. Under duress you do not want an ignition that might fail for any number of reasons, and you want acceleration that works with the flow of the carbs not against them.
In short I use the mechanical advancer because I get reliably awesome improvement in performance with no mysteries after installation. It also allows me to make the cleanest, most durable, and most reliable electronic ignition on the market.
Food for thought if nothing else!
Years ago when I first started working exclusively on Vintage Hondas (before they were actually Vintage) there was essentially one reliable aftermarket electronic ignition on the market and that was Dynatek. They had two offerings for four cylinder models only. The Dyna S, and the Dyna III. The S used the mechanical advancer, the III had a black box and electronic advance. This was all back in the early 90's. The products had been around since the 80's. My experience using both was that Dyna III's had a tendency to malfunction and burn out in a relatively short period of time. I did not have this problem with the Dyna S. But far more significantly the acceleration, which is the supposed primary advantage of the electronic advance, was not as smooth with the Dyna III as it was with the Dyna S on the older carbureted bikes. Flash forward many years and none of that has changed.
There is a reason most people in amateur vintage racing never use electronic advance ignitions. Under duress you do not want an ignition that might fail for any number of reasons, and you want acceleration that works with the flow of the carbs not against them.
In short I use the mechanical advancer because I get reliably awesome improvement in performance with no mysteries after installation. It also allows me to make the cleanest, most durable, and most reliable electronic ignition on the market.
Food for thought if nothing else!
