Pazon Ignition

There have been a number of posts on this site regarding the quality and reliability of the Tri-spark Classic Twin ignition. Customer support seems first rate, too. I was actually very close to purchasing a Pazon Smart Fire, as it has the added safety feature of a prgrammable rev limiter. Perhaps not a real necessity, I still find it a useful pease of mind on those spirited rides on my favorite roads after a missed shift. Peter Williams I am not. While I haven't read anything negative about the Pazon on this site, it does appear that most comments are in favor of the Tri-Spark unit. Perhaps this is due to the greatly improved situation regarding kick back on start-up. My question is this; Is the Pazon as effective at reducing/eliminating kick-back? Does the unit match up to the Tri-Spark in other areas?

Thanks for your comments!

I've only used the Pazon on my race bikes....I had a different advance curve programmed on to one of them....I can highly recommend them for reliability, ease of install and set up....the LED is light years (no pun intended ahead of the boyer, and it has the added advantage of being able to run at a lower voltage too....ideal in a total loss system. I've never tried them on a road bike (I don't have one!) Starting is now a 3 step affair rather than sweating and pushing around the paddock!

Similarly, I am interested in anyone's experience with Pazon or Tri-Spark with a Mk3 and working starter. I know there are a lot of claims that these ignitions work at low starting voltage, but any real world experience?

I have experience with both Boyer and RITA systems with the electric starter, and agree with Dave Comeau that the Boyer can be a problem if you don't have enough capacity and voltage. Also, I can attest that the RITA is much easier to start than the Boyer with less than ideal battery system. However, I'd like to hear first hand experience with the newer systems and the electric starter. I have collected some RITA's and parts, but these are probably the last I'll see.

I swapped a Boyer MkIII for the budget-minded Pazon Surefire and was pretty damn impressed. It starts easier, plugs stay cleaner, rev's more freely and idles better.

It also has a low-rpm retard feature than minimizes kickback. It rarely bites me - where the boyer did it quite often.

Ron L said:

Similarly, I am interested in anyone's experience with Pazon or Tri-Spark with a Mk3 and working starter. I know there are a lot of claims that these ignitions work at low starting voltage, but any real world experience?

I have experience with both Boyer and RITA systems with the electric starter, and agree with Dave Comeau that the Boyer can be a problem if you don't have enough capacity and voltage. Also, I can attest that the RITA is much easier to start than the Boyer with less than ideal battery system. However, I'd like to hear first hand experience with the newer systems and the electric starter. I have collected some RITA's and parts, but these are probably the last I'll see.

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Ron, I'll be installing a Pazon Sure Fire on my MKIII within the next few weeks so I can report back then. The old Boyer MKIII ignition I had worked great for the first week I owned the bike then it took a dump on me. It would take 20 minutes to start that thing then I had enough and tore the whole bike apart. I recall kickback being a real bitch and idle slowly turned erratic before the Boyer died.

I've got all the proper upgraded cables and a new CNW starter so I'm hoping evrything should work out great. I'll report back when I fire the thing up.

Thanks to advice here I've just tried the Tri Spark. So far I'm thrilled, no kickback at all, and the last seven times I've started the bike it has been a one kick affair.
I changed the carbs to Kehin copies just before and I'm learning the starting drill is to open the enrichment knobs and give the bike no throttle.
One kick through with the ignition off and then boot it is rewarded by a steady pom pom pom.
I've never tried the Rita as it came along after I had my old points system well sorted and the Pazon was my other possible choice. I do like the idea of the rev limiter but I decided age has probably done that for me.

I'm still using the old systems. My 750 which I haven't run for years has a RITA and I had no problems with it.

The Boyer is a problem if the battery is misbehaving (and even newish ones can do that). I really do think that most problems stem from this. Provided battery and all cables are in order, I can't fault it so I suspect that the newer systems are perhaps better at dealing with / masking other faults.

Mine starts first kick from cold and generally when warm. The only exception really is if I'm astride it and not confident of my footing. Plugs are always clean and dry. I've never cleaned a plug in a Commando. It ticks over after a minute or two. I couldn't really ask for more in that regard.

My reservation about the Tri-Spark is simply that the amplifier in the timing cover must be shaken and stirred in a way that will surely test its mechanical properties. The manufacture and testing does seem to be on a fairly small scale compared with the millions of development miles that we've all put on the earlier systems.

I'm going to sit this one out for a year or two.

I'm sure a Boyer, Tri-Spark or Pazon will easily run a kick-start Commando. To me it's simply a price point on those. It's when you push that starter button that things get interesting. I ran a Boyer in a Mk3 with a huge battery for a while with pretty good results. When I switched out to a RITA, the life expectancy of the sprag clutch increased dramatically.

Now that RITA's are hard to find I'd like to know the what the best option is for a Mk3. For me going back to points and ATD is not an option.

I envy your electric starter. I bet the occasional kickback does not help that at all. I've known folks to toast a Goldwing starter when the bike was out of tune.
So far I'm really happy with the Tri Spark but I'm not quite done my work on the starting system. I'm not too worried about the electronics surviving as they are packaged quite nicely and I've seen similar survive hot environments.

I envy your electric starter.

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Only one out of the five Commandos currently in the stable has an electric leg.

If you have priced the cost of a sprag clutch lately ($170-$175), the cost of the ignition system looks a lot less expensive.

I got the Tri Spark out of concern for my own leg. These days my body is the most expensive thing I have to keep going.

As far as the pazon ignition is concerned I fitted the normal analogue version to replace the boyer unit after it low voltage fully advanced while I was using the electric starter, causing a kick back that destroyed the sprag clutch.
On a purely subjective point when I unpacked the unit I was very impressed with the quality of the build, obviously I couldn’t see inside the control module but the wiring was all very neat and of good quality with good sealing where the wires enter the module.
The kit also came with proper solder type connectors and insulated sleeves rather than the horrible crimp type that boyer supply.
Fitting was straight forward and after I had set the timing statically I started the engine on the kick-starter, it started first kick from cold, something it had never done before.
I then set the timing dynamically.
Without making any other adjustments the idle was much smoother and the pick up from low revs was much cleaner.

To be fair to boyer, it’s possible it was failing anyway, it was fitted to my bike when I brought it so I’ve no idea how old it was.
The pazon unit is also physically much smaller than the boyer, pazon recommend fitting it where there is some air flow so I fitted mine on the front down tube on the frame, just below the head stock.
I’ve never had any problem with the pazon unit advancing when I have used the electric starter, within reason it doesn’t seem to be affected by voltage drop at all, in fact one person selling the pazon analogue units claims it’s stable down to eight volts (see link)
http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/goffypazon.htm
The unit has now been fitted to my bike for around two years and I am 100% happy with it and would recommend it to anybody, I feel that it is far superior to the boyer.
I would like to add that I have no connection with pazon other than being a very satisfied customer.
If it’s not already too late I hope that my experience is of some help to you.

Best wishes and safe riding