FAQ & Technical Information

History of Motorcycle Ignitions

Here is a brief history of the development of motorcycle ignition systems.

Unlike cars there have been many systems used on motorcycles. It also gets confusing that over the years terminology for each system has been swapped around and used to describe other systems.

Most motocycles manufactured before the 1980's either used a magneto or were points operated on a 6/12 volt system. By the the late 1970's the first steps were made to use electonics ie. transistors to provide the switching of the coil as opposed to points. These transistorised systems only provided the switching of the coil, and the advancing of the spark was done by the trigger coils mounted to a moving timing plate so that it rotated (advanced) as the revs increased. ie. Mechanically Advanced electronic unit. In the early 1980's, the units started to incorporate the advancing of the spark into their electronic control circuit and the timing plate was fixed ie;Electronically Advanced electronic unit.

Also in the 1970's the CDI (Capacitor Discharge Ignition) was used. These units mainly appeared on single cylinder bikes and operate on a totally different system to the transistorised units.

The last evolution of the electronic unit has been the change to digital control systems which were phased in at the end of the 1980's. Some models went well into the mid 1990's before they changed, so there are no hard and fast rules to use.

There are also variations to the above that have been used, to further confuse matters.