125-200cc 2012 WR125 Ignition Prices

Walt, make sure to notify me when you gather in Central California. My wife, sister, and myself would love to ride with other Husky owners. Although my sister is on a Honda CRF 150R (only bike that works for her).

JS

Darin,

We have about 3' in the mtns right now. In the valley it keeps raining/snowing off and on so we are down to about an inch on the ground right now with a nice layer of ice underneath.

JS,

Will do. I would love to meet up with you and the other folks there for a ride or two.

I have finally gotten a chance to run all three ignitions back to back to back. The snow and ice finally melted on the valley floor(the golfers are out). I am using my 165 top end with the custom forged piston initially.

CR ignition: Pulls hard from idle through peak revs with instant throttle response(no FWW). Will spin the rear with the flick of a wrist in any gear.

Ducati WR ignition: Power delivery is virtually identical to the cr ignition but with the feel of a large FWW. With the 165 you have to be in 5th/6th to really notice the flywheel weight effect. That effect is most noticeable on the bottom thru the mid and once it hits the pipe~6000rpm there is very little to seperate the feel from the CR ignition.

Old analog WR ignition: Actually feels like it has bit more off idle torque but from then until the early mid is pretty much the same as the Ducati with a little more FWW. Then comes the just before you hit the pipe soft spot that we are all so familiar with. With the 165 this isn't really an issue anywhere until you get to 5th/6th and then it is evident as well as the feel of significant FWW below the pipe. It will pull through this area OK but if you are on any kind of a climb you are going to need to shift down a gear to get on the pipe and then shift up. With a 144 it is probably two gears but I will know more when I change top ends.

My gearing for this test with the 165 is: 14x49 with a 120-90 x 18 rear. When I go to the 144 I will gear it down to 12 x 49 to try and mimic the 13x52 gearing that most of you are running although my rear is probably to big for the 144.

One thing that surprised me was that all three ignitions peaked out in 6th at within 1 mph of each other.

Also these tests are done with the stock governor spring and a stiffer taller inner spring to raise the power valve opening rpm. I have mated up a FMF Fatty pipe for an 04 Ktm 200 sx that makes the 165 a rippppper. I also installed a new plug as some of you know my 165 ran like crap for the first couple of days in Bend due to a lead fouling plug. I run a combination of leaded and unleaded fuels for a 100 octane level for the high compression I am running in both my top ends.

I should have the same test with the 144 top end by Friday if the snow will hold off.

Once again we all need to thank Bill and Bryon at Bill's Motorcycles Plus for allowing me to use a new Ducati ignition to do this comparison.

Great write up Walt! Big thanx to you for putting all the work into switching everything out. Thanx BMP!

Sounds like I need the CR ignition.

So the Ducati ignition got rid of the flat spot? I'm sold. Thanks for testing it!

The Ducati ignition did not have the old WR flat spot. It does have the same type of flywheel effect as the old WR ignition but slightly less. You need to remember that the 165 eliminates a lot of the effect so I would wait until I install the 144 top end before you pony up for the Ducati ignition on this comparison alone. Lets get to an apples to apples comparison.

We really need to chip in and get Walt a dyno...

It is the only way to make all that testing time even better.

Later,

I would love a dyno. I have access to one but it is 1.5 hours away and I have to drive through Missoula to get there........sucks.

I may have missed it, but what is the price of the Ducati ignition?

I don't think there is a part number available to check the price yet. My guess is it isn't going to be cheap. My feel just comparing parts is that it will be more than the equivalent CR parts. It is just a quality piece from my inspection.

Walt,
Sounds like the ducati ignition would be like a Cr ignition with a 6oz Fww . True or false ??

what about the KTM setup? Its cheap? And supposedly runs hard. I have a ktm stator you can try out if you want walt.

Tim,

I would say the Ducati ignition is more like the CR with a 10-12 oz FWW. Even though that would be a bit more total weight the flyweel is larger in diameter so takes more inertia to get it started/stopped. I have run the CR with a 6oz FWW and it isn't nearly as noticeable.

Ben,

I have tried the Ktm cdi back to back with the Husky CR and you can't tell the difference between them with the seat of your pants. Maybe on a dyno but it would be miniscule. The Ktm stator isn't going to influence the way it runs one way or the other as they produce pretty much identical voltage values to the cdi(the husky produces ever so slightly more voltage).

I have too much time on my hands in the winter.

cool, thanks for the info walt. Thing is,used ebay KTM stators are available, unlike husky. So bolt a KTM stator to your backing plate, source a used KTM CDI, and you are dialed... Right?

Ben,

That is what I did. I think I paid $50 for the complete set. You have to rotate the stator 180 degrees to the positioning pick-up on the Husky stator plate. The WR backing plate is very different from the CR plate so if you are making that conversion you will have to source a Husky cr backing plate. Currently there is a complete ignition from a 150 sx on fleabay for ~$150.

With crappy weather in my near future(Friday), I took advantage of a decent pre-family Thanksgiving morning to run all the ignitions with the 144 top end. My impression after digesting all the runs is you can pretty much just re-read my apraisal from above. With the 144 the FWW of both WR ignitions is more evident and they struggle more to deal with it off the pipe than the 165 does. With that said the Ducati WR ignition did not exhibit the soft spot(bog) below the power valves opening that the old WR ignition does. It just pulls smoothly if a bit slowly in higher gears through that part of the power band. Once on the pipe all three pull very similar curves with the FWW a bit more evident in spool up speeds for the WR's when on the pipe. The CR ignition still rules and is more of a difference maker with the smaller capacity. Instant power through out the power band if a bit soft on the bottom/mid compared to the 165. The 144 easily spins higher and makes power well above the point the 165 signs off. By my tach that is 1-1.5K rpm higher.

What's the bottom line? If you have to have the WR ignition then it "might" be worthwhile to install the Ducati ignition depending on price point. If you have the 2012 WR ignition with the stock 125 then you are going to be subject to the WR FWW below the pipe. Installing the 150 kit when available will definitely help this at least as much as going from the 144 to 165 did in my runs. It was a significant difference. I still think the best alternative to those with the old WR ignition who don't want to deal with that soft spot is to convert to a CR ignition and have it wired for lights. I think getting the jetting right with either of the WR ignitions is paramount to overcoming the extra FWW below the pipe. My jetting for this comparison was spot on for the 165 and was still good for the CR and Ducati ignitions with the 144 but I had to do some adjusting with the old WR ignition to get it right.

I must elaborate that with the jetting right all three configurations were very rideable as both 144's and 165's. I had to work to make the soft areas of either WR ignition an issue with the 144 and with the 165 it just isn't that much of a problem(how often are you trying to accelerate hard in 6th at 20mph). My high compression 144 definitely makes more bottom/mid than the stock 144 so it is a little more resilliant to the FWW and minor jetting issues. Down side of that is having to run some type of non-pump fuel to avoid detonation. Overall I really like the Ducati ignition and if the price is right then I will consider buying it for my 165. The FWW is actually a help in the really tight, loose and steep stuff added to being able to run some serious lights, etc off the stator output.

I am sure that I have over looked something in my post dinner engorged/inebriated state so ask any questions you have and I will tell you what I know, limited as that is.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you Walt and BMP for providing the parts and time it took to complete these test. I have the 08 CR (Walt 144) but really appreciate what you guys do to help make the WR owners bikes run as well as they can. Walt with recent snows and ice you are a real trooper to be testing in those conditions; melted snow aside! Thanks again guys.