Question about race bike ignitions

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biknut

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,632
411
83
Dallas
I'm asking this question here because I think a racer will probably know the answer.

This question is about china girl ignitions. Can anyone say from experience that a Jaguar CDI made their race bike go faster than a stock ignition?

I keep reading people say they bought one, and their bike ran better, but I have a friend that has one, and his bike isn't faster than mine, with my stock ignition.

Both our bikes had about the same mods. MM gen 2 heads. Expansion chambers, but two different kinds. I had NT, but he had a DAX carb. We both had 36T sprockets.

Even though I out weigh him, my bike seemed a little faster. This kind of makes me think the Jaguar ignition doesn't do much.
 
Venice Motor Bikes

Venice Motor Bikes

Custom Builder / Dealer/Los Angeles
Mar 20, 2008
7,271
1,810
113
Los Angeles, CA.
I purchased two of the early Jaguar CDIs... I think the first bike may have run smooter with it on?, (it could have been my imagination). That bike was sold & the customer brought it back a month later because it wouldn't start... I replaced the Jag CDI with a stock unit & the bike fired right up & ran great. That was about 1.5 years ago & I still haven't had the customer call back with any new problems.

Both of the CDI boxes had major problems with the soldered wires breaking inside the black box! (I kept re-soldering them every time they broke).

The second CDI went directly onto my white race bike... the bike seemed to run well but wasn't increadably fast. Several months later I decided that I needed to make the bike faster, so I started going through everything on the bike one part at a time... I replaced the Jag CDI with a stock until (just to compare performance); to my suprise the bike was instantly faster with a stock CDI box!?!?
I don't know if I had a couple of bad boxes or if they're just a scam?, but I've never bought another one; (& I don't plan to).

This is just my report of my experience with them.
 
biknut

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,632
411
83
Dallas
I have a fancy ignition on my Sportster. It has 4 different advance curves. None of the different curves changes the maximum power, but they do have an effect on the low end acceleration. It's not enough that's easy to tell from seat of pants. You can only notice the difference by doing a roll on, when side by side with another bike that's close to the same power.

On my china girl, I only use about 2 throttle settings. Idle, and wide open. That was making me think a better advance curve, or any advance curve for that matter, wouldn't make much difference.
 
locell

locell

Member
Jan 16, 2010
215
0
16
mesa
I don't think ignitions really do much, they may make your engine run a little different, which can be interpreted as "smoother" or whatever, but I have not seen any performance gains on Jaguar vs stock CDI's.

The difference between Jaguar and others is just marketing IMHO
 
D

dmb

Active Member
Dec 4, 2010
1,354
3
36
lakewood ca
bad timing can make a engine run slow, hot and sometimes kill it [under boost] but if you stay under certain guide lines they will run fine. back in the day's of mags. points and dial indicator's .002 BTDC bultaco alpina ahh pull the head to time the motor. how lucky we are to have CDI's
 
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