ignition wires

[Motorhobo]

I, of course, wholeheartedly apologise to the entire forum.

What for? It's Zampano's fault...he started the whole thing.

Zampano! Stop being an agitator!

[Zampano]

I, of course, wholeheartedly apologise to the entire forum.

What for? It's Zampano's fault...he started the whole thing.

Zampano! Stop being an agitator!

I can't help it.. I'm 1/2 sicilian.  And the other calabrese half ain't much better...

Now, about those fuckos over at Bosch­®...   

would you trust this guy? He looks like an old west snake oil salesman



I will say that Realm appears to be a more than decent operation and from what I can tell are putting out solid products at reasonable prices. They are not trying to sell garbage stamped out in china, so I don't want to denigrate beachcomber's stance. It is his product and he should be standing by it. The Beachcombers also being a horrendous television offering from Canada which is good for a laugh.

If I had a few more bucks and they were here in the US so I could take a look, I would definitely consider them. From the pictures I am assuming they are a higher quality than what I bought. The shock is also well priced, although I can't speak to its performance.

All that aside, I received my set from EME ($65 shipped. Ordered friday after midnight (drunk) and on the bike monday afternoon). The ends appear solid and the wire itself seems of decent quality. No more evidence of arc and the bike does run better. Backfiring has finally ceased, which is nice because I've developed an unconscious habit of expecting it on deceleration and manipulating the throttle accordingly.

One step closer towards smoothness.

I had my throttle bodies synched while at the dealer last year and have since corrected a vacuum leak and had the injectors rebuilt. I'll see if the stealer will resynch for a few bucks :hehehe. I have used my homemade device but if anyone near san diego has a carbtune we can split a 4 pack of west coast ipa.

After replacing the leads I had the thought that I could have possibly wrapped the hell out of mine with very high quality professional electrical tape. Electricity likes the path of least resistance.

Final thought. The leads on my K75 are arranged in order from left to right from plug to coil. Two of the leads are the proper length for this and the third is too long to be placed far left or far right. When I got the bike back from the dealer the longest lead was connected to the rightmost plug and curved around before heading to the coil. I could not reconfigure a more logical setup and am curious why they didn't just make the 3rd lead line up like the other 2. Am I missing something? I am assuming the dealer put them back on properly. However, they never thought to check for arc, when backfiring was one of the issues.

[Motorhobo]

I don't understand the reasoning behind having that one wire wrap around like that instead of just having them all be measured to reach their respective coil directly but that's the way the original OEM wires were configured, too. So lose no sleep over that one.

Everybody seems to vouch for Realm's quality. I admit having their rep issue a snooty, collective snub to everyone here makes me disinclined to go out of my way to procure any of their products from the EU. Not as long as there are good products with reputable people standing behind them available in the US. But that's just me.

Btw if you're talking about taping up the OEM wires, I don't think that would work. They have those big brass honkers on the end which aren't removable, and they arc from beneath those shields so there's really no place to put the tape. Plus they're not resistive whatever that means. If it were possible I'm sure someone would have done it by now.

I didn't know Bosch was Amish.

[beachcomber]

OK - I had vowed NOT to take up the issue, I have better things to do with my life ...... however long story short [ check out the full story if interested on K11OG and Flying Brick forums ].

I have been retired from my own business of designing and manufacturing replica Sports cars since 2002.
I still maintain industry relationships - especially with Realm, who used to make my GRP bodies.

After retirement I got back into bikes and specifically Kays. When I needed some quality products at a price my pension could afford - I approached Realm to see if they would liaise in developing various parts as I knew they had the expertise / clout to do it. If anyone doubts my genuine interest [ as opposed to commercial interest ] in Kays and the related forums, just go back  6-7 years and read my various postings about my own Kay projects.

I RECIEVED /STILL RECIEVE NOTHING BY WAY OF ANY PAYMENTS FROM REALM. OK,yes, I did get to keep the prototype shocker and leads for my part in their development.

As a lifelong biker, I thought it would be a reasonable gesture to get Realm to offer those items at a discount to my biking buddies.

I DID NOT APPROACH  THIS FORUM RE:RAM PRODUCTS ................ I was contacted over on the K11OG forum and INVITED to offer a group buy here. In fact, I didn't know of the existence of this forum and was pleased to find some other like minded souls.

That in turn seems to have created a hostile reaction, which quite frankly I can do without.

In the grand scheme of things, precisely HOW many additional units will be sold through any Kay forum outlet group buy ? 10 - 20 ? Out of 500 - 750 per annum - let's not get too excited about the commercial possibilities.

IF cynical commercialism was the driving factor, I'd probably target the Honda or Yamaha forums.

Just one final thought re: the VAT - no matter how much you collect from a customer [ seen the Curry's ads "we pay your VAT "  DFS -"No VAT" ] - you still pay customs and excise 20% of the total amount you collected from the customer.

PDG - let's agree to disagree - I'm quite happy to tell you more about how I intend to fit a blower.

Zampano / MH . re: the OEM wires and the loop required to make the parts bin too long enough #3 lead fit - check out the arcing on that particular lead where it's doubled over [ not to mention cracking of the outer ]. Also check around as to how many times it's the #3 lead that fails first. Same deal on the 100 /1100 - leads wrapped back on themselves.

The US "distributor" was given free shox for his race bike, before he even indicated he wanted to become a dealer / rep. His was a relatively small operation at the time and funding did not allow for viable shock levels to be maintained.

So, I am neither representative nor do I recieve ANY payment from your purchases - just quite happy to put something back after a lifelong flirtation with bikes.

10% forum discount still obtains for group / individual purchases.

Now then, I'll get back to "Projekts" ..... much more interesting.

[Motorhobo]

Thanks for clearing the air -- all makes sense to me. Hopefully no hard feelings and I hope you can understand how things could have been misconstrued. Speaking for myself, your experience and participation in this forum is highly valued, so I hope you hang around.

I'm still interested in the shock buy but I don't thing I can swing it financially this time around. Maybe next year.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

[pdg]

Well...... Rather than disagree, I would truly like nothing better than to be able to agree with you.

I apparently misconstrued your use of the term "we" when refering to Realm as meaning you had something to do with the company, especially given the fact that you seemed to able to make discount availability decisions. If it means "we" as in you supplied them with (whatever level of) specification and they authorised you to pass on limited discounts then fine, I can deal with that.

I expanded on the VAT issue because you seemed to want to use it to 'blame' me for an increased price for UK customers, the whole "we pay your VAT" thing has been around for as long as VAT itself has - I'd really like to think there are very few people who think VAT isn't getting paid (maybe I'm too hopefull on that particular point).

I would also have liked to have thought that my (apparently argumentatively worded) request for evidence to back up claims would have been better received and maybe even answered. If there is anywhere that this information is available, I would still be interested in that.

I do repeat one point though -- the products in question may well be of very high quality. In fact, they may well be the best that is available -- But, I don't know and I couldn't make a decision either way without A: Being supplied with relevant test results, B: Buying them and finding out for myself, or C: Finding some way of being able to inspect them. As it seems there is very little danger of any of those happening in the foreseeable future, I would have to leave it right there.

One last thing on a tangent of this subject - you did mention whether I recommend you put normal leads on a comp altered engine. From an academic standpoint it would be very interesting to see the results, to be able to see exactly what difference it makes. Please let me know if you decide to do it.

tl;dr - Realm/RAM parts might be great and worth every penny, they might not.

[beachcomber]

OK all friends now . just a little housekeeping.

Yes I use the royal we with Realm as I've been a lifelong business associate and friend with the owner. I am well known on other forums, and sometimes forget, I have to explain my motives.

The best tests I can suggest you check out for the products is in the real world - ie the 100's of customers hereabouts on various Kay and Virago forums - going back over 6-7 years. Plenty of independant unsolicited testimonials.

Both the shox and leads were tested back to back [ track day tested ] with similar commercially available  quality products to give us a yardstick to aim for - we are happy we reached the desired standards.

Feel and touch ?? Go along to the Stafford Classic Bike show in October where all the RAM products will be on display along with maybe the new "Spirit of Brooklands" Virago Cafe Racer.

As to the Comp Altered [ 2 actually ] - the first was a Chevy 454ci blown injected altered running on Methanol. This was in the early 70's when 8mm leads were "the business".

The last one was a 502ci Ford with 3 stage Nitrous Oxide assist. Initially fitted with 8mm leads, but they couldn't cope when the 2nd and 3rd stage Nitrous was operated. So, it was dig deep in the pockets for some 10MM versions - which did the job.

The First Comp Altered in Custom Car 1974 [?]





The 502ci Ford Altered.