As I have said before I have been running JHs on 2 bikes without a retard set at 28 degrees on the Norton can't remembered what the Triumph was set on but would have been the same setting as points, both bikes always started first kick, ran good in all running situations through the rev range, I never took any notice of advance curves as was set and forget. My old 81 Triumph Thunderbird did a lot of miles on that bike and did many many travel miles and long distant runs as well a few long distant runs with the wife, the Thunderbird was single Amal carb 650 same size bores as the 750 but shorter stroke it ran well with the older JH for 9 years and I made a mistake selling that bike it was so reliable with the JH.
As for the Norton it has a bit of work done to the motor 850 built for the Featherbed frame,2S cam ports all opened up carbs jetted and open exhaust with very little baffles just enough to give it the right back pressure, this is my hot rod Norton and the JH works so well with all the work I have done through all the rev range.
I have owned the 850 since new and built it in the early 80s been through points and 3 electronic ignitions and so far the JH has been the best for performance wise, ease of starting even on full advance, very reliable and in 12 years on the Norton with 35k miles on it I haven't touched it, still has the original point in it and I just put in a new set of plugs even when the old ones were still looking as good as the day I put them in when I fitted the JH, the plugs run cleaner than it did with all the ignition systems I had run and get great long life out of the N7YC plugs.
I don't get any kick back from starting itand so far the only maintenance I do is every oil change I do on the Norton I pull the front cover off to check the point and to put a few drops of STP on the felt pad for the point arm.
I don't care what anyone says about it hanging off the cam and timing cover it's so simple to set up, no added chain to run or AAU to worry about and it sits out in the cool breeze where it runs so sweet, best thing no big battery to worry about going flat or dying, all self contained, kick and run and both JHs have never let me down in 22 years of running JHs.
I am not technically incline but I do know my own Norton and have built it and all work done by my own hands and as far as I have said the JH is the best for my Norton, might not be everyone's cup of tea but it works for me and looking at the spark in Jim's short clip at such a slow speed and you can understand why I love JH Maggie's and they are so simple compared to the old Lucas Maggie's.
No need to retard it to start first kick for the day will be the biggest kick but after it's run for the day it will fire up with a a lazy kick and before it get 1/2 way on the kicker it be running, my EIs never did that, but my old Boyar was still running after 32+ years on my Norton and back in the late 70s Lucas's Rita (failed within 12 months) and Boyar were the only EIs on the market for the Norton (first Boyar failed a week after the great fire of 82 100 miles from home) and the replacement Boyar was still going when I installed the JH so was lucky but went through a few batteries in those years and a few coil failures as well.
This is just my look of things with my experience with running JH Maggie's on both my British bikes and I am a true believer of JH Maggie's no matter where they sit and I am sure Jim is as well.
Ashley
