mangocrazy wrote: ↑Sat Jan 15, 2022 6:29 pm
I was absolutely delighted when electronic ignition came in and replaced contact breaker points. I hated those damn things with a passion. I well remember fiddling with a screwdriver and fag paper at 6 a.m. needing to get to work in the 70s on my CB77. Lovely bike, but it had not one but TWO sets of points. Trying to get both set correctly was a sore trial of my patience. So no, give me electronic ignition any day of the year/decade/century.
Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: ↑Sat Jan 15, 2022 7:57 pm
I found points easy to set up, but they weren't very reliable, had a set break on an RD400 and condensors died on a GT185 I had (yep I had some shite bikes).
Contact breakers were always a weak point (haha), but the ones on sale now are worse than the old original equipment.
Points were shite. In use the current going through them caused material to be removed from one side and transferred to the other, quickly fucking up the gap. The heel that rode on the cam also wore, throwing clearances out and the drive mechanism also wore and became sloppy over time. Horrible system. Don't see how anyone in their right mind could defend it.
I had a mini, I grew to hate "points" with a passion.
"Of all the stories you told me, which ones were true and which ones weren't?"
"My dear Doctor, they're all true."
"Even the lies?"
"Especially the lies."
Yes they were always a pest, but Lucas ones for Brit cars and bikes got worse in the late 1960s, with quick-wear nylon heels (the Asian replacements available now are even worse). Endurance racers actually used to modify the moving point by fitting the earlier Tufnol rubbing block, so a Norton Commando or Triumph twin could get through a 500 mile race without the points gap closing up.
Anyone who attempts long journeys on an old bike nowadays will probably fit electronic ignition or give up.
I bet you could make 'em work loads better with modern materials and what not. In fact I bet someone does, in some weird application somewhere. There's a niche application for practically everything, I'm sure I read somewhere NASA used to use Whale oil for lubing spacecrafts parts for some reason but it's probably bollox
It'll be 10 times the cost, 10 times the weight and half the performance of an electronic system though
Glow plugs and sparkplugs probably have different thread sizes I bet
I do actually have one points vehicle in my garage, a 1965 Triumph 5TA. It doesn't really work The Bonnie has a little black box, but that bike doesn't really work either.
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 8:25 pm
I bet you could make 'em work loads better with modern materials and what not. In fact I bet someone does, in some weird application somewhere. There's a niche application for practically everything, I'm sure I read somewhere NASA used to use Whale oil for lubing spacecrafts parts for some reason but it's probably bollox
It'll be 10 times the cost, 10 times the weight and half the performance of an electronic system though
Yes they could make good points but most modern replacement points sets are made very badly by a company called Daichi.
NASA could well have used whale oil. Various types have various unique properties.
I had a hybrid points/electronic ignition fitted to my CB77 in the mid 70s. The points acted as the trigger (at very low voltages) and the EI did the the 'real' switching that generated the spark. The theory was good (virtually no pitting on the points) but the actuality was still flawed. It did still use CB points after all.
A few years later I put my money down for the very first iteration of the RD350LC and traded CB points for CDI. And a whole raft of 2T-related fun and games...
mangocrazy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 8:41 pm
I'm surprised that in a discussion of CB points that no-one has yet debated the relative merits of orange, green and blue Rizlas...
The Bonnie has a little black box, but that bike doesn't really work either.
