Question for someone with a tach (1500)

I heard that same rumor about the emissions reduction, and perhaps there's some truth to it, but I'll tell you this: The wasted spark system was invented way before the days of smog laws.

It was done so a 2 cylinder bike would be lighter & cheaper because it only needed one coil, one set of points, and one condenser. A four cyl. bike needed only two of each. Of course a car with any number of cylinders had only one of each, but it needed a heavy and expensive distributor to make it work. Notice that modern cars have no distributor, but instead multiple coils like a motorcycle. My V-6 Pontiac happens to have lost spark ignition as well (and I'd forgot all about that) because it's a very accurate and high performance system. Really accurate distributors are really expensive to make. My V-6 Toyota does not have Lost spark. It has a coil for each plug.

Now here's the part where emissions might be an issue involved:

If you trigger the ignition from the cam, like my old Honda 350 twin, you need two points and two condensors, and two coils, because it fires at half engine speed (and was not a "twingle"). If the points were triggered from the crank (which makes it Lost Spark) you not only remove a coil, points, & condenser, but you increase ignition timing accuracy because the cam chain is no longer involved in the timing process.

The only downside? You have to accept the wasted spark, and points adjustment becomes twice as critical. Electronic ignition solved that part by eliminating all those points and condensers (well, except for CDI bikes) and it brought other improvements as well, all of which increased performance and reduced emissions.

BTW, I think I figured out that the Nomad uses Wasted Spark because the ignition is crank triggered, and so naturally endows that capability. Accepting it as such reduces the complexity of the computer program that runs the ignition. Now it seems to me that it would only reduce the complexity slightly, but I could be wrong, or it could be that the programmers were (as in the days of DOS) fighting for every extra available bit and byte because what they had to work with was very restricted in terms of memory and processing speed.

[moenko]

Wow, you got my head spinning now, Cadd, and all I wanted to do is add a tach to the handlebar

[Top Cat]

I have a 2007 , 1600 and i put a tach on it. When I first installed it I was told I needed to use an adapter. i bought one for $20 and installed my new tach. It didn't read properly. Then i was told I didn't need an adapter so I took it off and the tach mow works fine.
Soooooooooo........I am fairly certain you DO NOT need an adapter.

[moenko]

Looks that way, TC! Not that it's a big deal to make one yourself, two diodes and two resistors and you're in business, pennies to make one yourself if you know how LOL. I will probably look at a Cobra when the checking account has recovered from today's withdrawal for the purchase of the 'puppy' - will have her home tomorrow - YEAH!!!!!

Ooooh!

Guess who's not getting any sleep tonight?

[Top Cat]

Originally Posted by moenko

Looks that way, TC! Not that it's a big deal to make one yourself, two diodes and two resistors and you're in business, pennies to make one yourself if you know how LOL. I will probably look at a Cobra when the checking account has recovered from today's withdrawal for the purchase of the 'puppy' - will have her home tomorrow - YEAH!!!!!

Yeah, I took mine apart to see what I wasted my $20 on :(" title="" border="0"/>

[moenko]

LOL, Caddy, actually I'm exhausted from excitement, I think I'll have a good beer and retire soon ;)

TC - if you knew what I have invested in the C50 and what I am letting it go for, you would dfinitely agree that I'm the king of waste

[csguru]

Not sure if it applies or is even in the same ball park but the HD folks say that the Harley's have the dual spark system to create the Harley sound.

http://www.harley-links.com/?p=7

It goes on to say that HD even tried to trademark the sound/design but withdrew after 6 unsuccessful years.

So maybe Mawkaw was going for the "sound"...

/shrug

[redeye]

Originally Posted by caddmannq

(That was back in the day when adding machines, calculators, and cash registers all had a physical crank you had to work. ;) )

HOW OLD ARE YOU??

Originally Posted by Redeye

HOW OLD ARE YOU??

Not as old as the mathematician that coined the phrase "turn the crank".

Originally Posted by csguru

Not sure if it applies or is even in the same ball park but the HD folks say that the Harley's have the dual spark system to create the Harley sound.

http://www.harley-links.com/?p=7

It goes on to say that HD even tried to trademark the sound/design but withdrew after 6 unsuccessful years.

So maybe Mawkaw was going for the "sound"...

/shrug

"Wasted Spark" ignition actually has nothing to do with how a Harley sounds.

It's strictly based on the 45^o angle between cylinders, the fact that it's a 4-stroke engine, the bore is slightly smaller than the stroke, plus the two-valve heads with large valves.

The firing sequence discussed in the article would be identical for the 45^o engine regardless of which ignition type they used. 45-315-405.

The Nomad sounds a little different because its firing sequence is 50-310-410 because it's a 50^o engine, plus the bore is slightly larger than the stroke, and it has 4 smaller valves per cylinder.