Justifying the investment in the RDD CDI Kit.

[chinoy]

I hear a lot of arguments.
If you have one or heard one put it up and I will try and answer it.
As most of you know. The RDD CDI kit came about due to my RD ownership and my Journey of looking for more power.
But the kit came about from the quest for better lighting for my stock bike.

1. My bike is stock Im told it dosent need a kit.
Or with a stock bike whats the point.

Well it boils down to what you want to do with your bike. Is it a poser bike. Is it there just so that you can tell others you own a RD and to ride it down to the nearest watering hole and have something to talk about. Then keep in on points. Or get a points replacement system.

If on the other hand you own it cause you enjoy owning it and you use it every chance you get and riding it gives you a lot of pleasure then get the kit.

A stock bike is no rocket lets face it.
For a 350cc motor the amount of power the stock bike makes is really quite lame. The CDI really does a good job of picking up the low and mid range. The power hit is more or less the same and then it even allows you to rev out more.

Ok this is getting to long. Short cut version.

Stock Bikes need it cause.
a. It helps pep up the engines performance in particular the low mid and over rev.

b. Better fuel efficiency. If you commute on your RD it can save you 20-30% of your monthly fuel expenditure.

c. More time on the road. No more down time cause the points need setting. The battery need charging the carbon bushes need changing. Just start it and go. No matter what anybody has told you if you use your bike everyday. Then the points setting is not going to remain accurate for more than a week. The minute its out engine efficiency is in the toilet. power is down and your actually hurting the engine.
Fess up how often or when to RD owners with points bother to set their points. Only when they can feel a change in the way the bike is running. By this time its already too late and damage has already been done to the engine. Can you imagine the stresses and strains being put on the engine with a twin cylinder firing at different times.

d. Engine life.: Do you know how much it costs to rebuild an engine. Its not cheap and its getting costlier by the day.
It has been proved beyond a doubt that bikes running on static timing have way way more wear and tear than a bike running on the Digital CDI.
Heat is the number 1 enemy of the air cooled motor and people have already mentioned how the Engine actually runs cooler the harder you push it.

2. Moded Engine.
a. Why would one mod their RD engine ?
For more power,
To make the engine more efficient ?

Well then there is moding that will get you standard performance gains.
And then there is moding that will get you performance gains of a modern two stroke engine.

Moding an RD for more power will always leave you with at best the power of a70s bike. If you want to mod the engine to modern two stroke performance then you need a curve.

When we first started moding the RD. There where many bottle necks we ran into and needed to deal with. There was the carbs, the reeds, the crappy old tech transfers. But most of all what held us back the most was the static timing.
No modern 2 stroke performance engine worth its salt runs a static ignition timing.

The second point in moding is bang for buck. You have head mods, you have porting, you have reeds you have fancy carbs. Nothing gives you the same bang for buck than the CDI kit. And it does away with a lot of the tuning jobs. i.e. you dont even have to bother with MSV, squish, uping the compression. Just dial in the advance and enjoy.

Its funny how most of these things are so obvious yet some people dont get it.

Lastly the issue of money outlay.

My only comment knowing what the kit can do for the bike. Id actually be willing to pay a lot more just to get a kit like this.

You recoup your investment in fuel bills alone. Forget about the better engine life. And money spent in rebuilds.
The only people this wont apply to though are the posers who hardly ride. And to who ownership has little or nothing to do with performance or the buzz factor one can get from owning a RD.
Then yes dont invest in the kit.
Take my word on this two things are going to happen without fail.
1. The price of the kit is going to keep going up
2. The kit is not going to be available for ever.
The kits and bikes running the kit are going to become collectors items just as the Moto Plant and Fesma Ignitions are going for 500-600 Euro now.

Assuming we discontinue the kit. There are parties in Europe and US who have offered us good money for plans to the CDI and they will make the kits.

People have been telling me since 1999 that the RDs are dead.
That RD part sales will decline. Yet this month we have hit our all time high in the number of kits shipped in one month. And the growth / demand just keeps climbing.

Oh one more thing.
The biggest enemy of most systems is the inability to time both engines.
There is going to be an out of sync between both sides. How much depends on your dial gauge.
I got so obsessed with chasing down this difference in timing that I purchased a dial gauge that could measure in microns.
Cause the closer you get to a perfect balance the smoother the engine becomes. Plug on the kit and experience what true smoothness is.

To those with the arguement my RD is fast and Im not runing your kit.
We have a standing offer for Indian customers.

Try our kit for free.
I will install the kit. Do a before and after run on the Dyno.
If it doesn't improve your power output in the low mid and over rev. No charge.
If it does improve your power, reduce your emissions, and runs your engine cooler the harder you push it. You pay for the kit, the dyno time and install charges.
If it doesn't improve the performance of your Bike I will pay you for your time. And revert your bike back to its old setup for free.

I am willing to carry out this bet against not just points but Points, Newtronics, PVL anything you care to come up with.

[chinoy]

Somebody said that who said a tuned RD needs any help in the low speed RPM range. Or it was wrong of me to say that a tuned motor suffers from a weak low end.
Pg: 221 Book By john dixon.
A fully tuned pipe exhaust with long exhaust timing can double the power output with peaking speed up by 20%... One penalty is a very low speed performance.