Thorspark any good?

[groily]

Yup. To TT's and Musky's point, obviously a shorter and better-supported shaft without a whole lot of chunky redundant bits flying around between maggie bearings in paper insulators is better from the engineering point of view, but if looks and cost are part of the discussion, then to Swarfy's comments I reckon the Tspark thing is a decent option.  I've seen a few high mileage Vincent twins do well on the (more expensive) doubled-up version , as well as some others on the simple £150 kit. The armatures seem to stay where they're meant to, anyway.

I'm biased like I said, and prefer to have mags where I can for all sorts of reasons, but the unit TT shows is nicely made. Probably nicer than the one here, which is from way back I assume.
It wouldn't be beyond the wit of an owner with some tools to replace the mag armature with a one piece tailor-made shaft and fit ball bearings when converting, but it'd be a bit over the top!

As far as the pros and cons of a programmed advance  curve are concerned, I honestly dunno. On the 750 Notrun motor in my P11 I have noticed no performance downside from ditching the Boyer in favour of a mag (on which many Atlas engines run fine of course), and it's given the poor old alternator a bit more freedom to support higher wattage halogen lights. I didn't notice anything very obviously 'better' on the large Oilfield café-racer I had for years, on which I retained the BB system with its programmed advance - but maybe it was a tad smoother at low rpm & large throttle opening. Pretty marginal though, I'd say, though I never ran it with a mag to compare.

Horses for courses I guess, as ever.

[Triton Thrasher]

Yes, the new housing adds £140 to the £85 for the Wassell electronics and about £30 for a dual coil.

Even more expense if you don’t already have a solid pinion and 12V electrics.

Every different approach has advantages, but that lot has been a good system with me. 

I was happy with the magneto until all the new points sets fell to pieces.

[Truckedup]

A friend recently installed a Thorspark on his 500 Velo.. the electronic module keep touching the mag housing killing the ignition. He had to make up an insulating sleeve.
  This magneto replacement housing on my A10 contains a Boyer Micro Power..The coil not fully concealed is just behind the steering neck. The bike has a 12 volt dynamo conversion that works just fine

[Zander]

My latest bike, a 1959 T110 has the Thor system installed.  I rode the bike to a club night, during which I noted that the ammeter was not indicating a charge.I wasn't too fussed as I knew the battery was fully charged and that I would easily get home before flattening the battery.  I should add that Ive done about 100 miles with no problems.   On the way home, lights on, after riding about 2 miles, to say the engine back fired would be an understatement!  The engine died immediately, needless to say in the middle of single lane roadworks.  Once clear of traffic, I shoved it onto a side road and gave it a boot, upon which it started.  Great, I'm on my way again.  Well I was, until I turned the lights on.  Another series of loud detonations ensued, so I gave up, called the breakdown truck and arrived home after midnight.  My conclusion is that the Thor system needs a well charged battery in order to operate, although Thor say it will run all day on a run down battery.  The bike also came with a Boyer Brandsen regulator which I ultimately discovered, only cuts in at high revs so I changed it for a DVR2 unit which supposedly cuts in at low revs.  I've reset the timing using a strobe and will shortly be in a position to try it, but I'm now wary of being depedant upon the battery and charging system for forward motion, even if it does all work ok!  Points, anyone?

[Rex]

I had an RE which came with Thorspark already fitted. All I can say is "it worked", but had I been the original owner I would have spent the money on a mag recon instead.
When you depend on generated power for your ignition (even the minute amount that Thorspark claim) you've lost that inherent get-you-home ability that a mag has.

[Triton Thrasher]

Yes, I wouldn’t class the dynamo as a sufficient charging system for electronic ignition.

[Truckedup]

 I did the 12 volt dynamo conversion with new bearings and new 12 volt armature, field coil and electronic regulator...With a 35 watt halogen H4 headlamp and Boyer ignition it's  14.2 volts at 2000 rpm....With battery alone and lights off, a little better than an hour to get home...Good enough for me...

[groily]

I think you'd have been Ok in daylight Zander, to be fair. But the load killed things well and truly.
I know people with various electronic systems running with dynamos, usually at 12v, and they seem to do OK as Trucked up says, but like TT, I've never thought it was a great idea in principle. The fine-wound '12v' armatures and fields are strictly limited to 60W or they'll likely throw the solder off the comm, so total continuous loads need to be well managed shall we say.  You can actually get more out of the standard windings, subject to tolerating the higher cut-in speed required and using a decent regulator.
Were I to go there on a 'dynamo' bike I'd probably get an Alton I think if I was feeling rich enough, now that they have been improved quite a bit.

The bikes I've had electronic systems on have been alternator models - the Oilfield with a 200W job  supported a 60 Watter - and Oxford 'Hot Hands' 'n all.
With a period Lucas job and zener and separate rectifier on the P11, a 60 Watter wasn't good at low revs with the earlier heavier-current-consuming BB system and an extra tooth here and there to gear her up a bit. A magneto plus an A Reg1 has transformed it. That bike is a '67, and it's obligatory to run with lights on all the time here in France post '65  . . .  I didn't want just a glow-worm on what is (by the very limited standards of our old toys) almost a brisk machine. With not very good brakes by today's yardsticks!

[Truckedup]

I believe the thinner gauge wire armatures throwing soldier is also the quality of the piece ...Common sense says don't install 60 watt halogen bulbs along with electronic ignition...

[Rex]

Yep, it's all a bit of a compromise. I have  new 12V field coil and armature on my A7 plus a DVR2 (not to be confused with the awful VReg2 thing) and it all works very well, though I'm still running an over-hauled Lucas mag.
No fancy Halogen or LEDs required.

[Ewen]

Thanks Swarfy. Those are all  the reasons I liked the sound of Thorspark. The potential downside is reliance on a battery. Have you run a bike of your own with Thorspark?