Don't know how many times I have thanked the powers that be for the invention of the magneto. Often at night, usually raining. Amazing things. Yes, you can get marginally better and more even timing with a more modern system, but none bar the new-BTH self-generator, expensive as mentioned, gets you home without a battery (and a dynamo that works if you've got far to go). Which a mag alway does, even if you have to hang around till the sky lightens. I'd never change a magneto for anything for normal road use. They are reliable, work for a long time, and are easy to maintain. They are also repairable, to better than new, with modern condenser etc. There was a rare category of motorcylce at the end of the 50s, early 60s, which had the best of both wolds - a mag and an alternator. Triumph T110 springs to mind. Now that's a combination . . . But the only thing Lucas ever made which I trust implicitly is the Magneto, especially the K2F. Getting sentimental now, misty-eyed, must stop . . .
