magnetos

What are the pros and cons of magnetos? Where can you find them or can you just use one for a car or something. I just like the way they look.

mags were used since the points did not produce a hot fire at high rpms, the mag could handle it, now with the elctronic ignitions, they produce a hotter spark and a more contrrolled longer spark.
Just a more reliable system for my buck

BSKZ650 wrote:

mags were used since the points did not produce a hot fire at high rpms, the mag could handle it, now with the elctronic ignitions, they produce a hotter spark and a more contrrolled longer spark.
Just a more reliable system for my buck

Yes . . . and turning the magneto also consumes some of the engine power output, whereas the electronic ignition does not.

And Yes again . . . those mags do look ever so cool!

Good Luck!

good question... i was allways wonderin WTF....

Yep, They do look cooool. I would not like to get caught in the rain through.
It.s tuff to get all the other electronic toys you need to work, and run a mag to.
Some are just not compatible.


DISCLAIMER: i am in no way an expert, at anyting. anything i say is my own opinion and/or observation, and should never be regarded as fact, unless otherwise stated.

The old Brit bikes used to have magnetos ............and as the saying goes "they sure dont make em like that anymore - usually for good reason " :laugh: :laugh:

there was thread that went into this subject in great detail not long ago maybe a month.

Magnetos are generally used on race bikes that have neither a alt/gen nor a battery. Saves weight, power, and makes things simpler (more or less )


Used on street bikes to look cool.

In the day Gerex (sp) and Hunt, offered mags for the Z,and were popular. but w/elect. ign's and Andrew's and Dyna coils offering equal or better spark, faded...

Pretty much every Japanese two stroke dirt bike built from way back used a flywheel-style mag. A lot of the small bore single street tiddlers up to 125cc used the same kind of setup.
The Europeans also had the same setups on their dirt bikes too e.g Husky, CZ, Ossa, Montesa, Bultaco, etc.
Very dependable as long as they were sealed up against moisture. Clean and set the points in the spring and you were good to go for the season.
The larger dirt bikes (>175cc) switched over to electronics starting ~1971 but the small bore stuff stayed with mags for quite awhile. Heck, Honda was still building stuff like the XL75/80 and 100 with flywheel mags in the late '90s. Kept their costs down and were still dependable enough for the average user.