Lights and spark

Riding in to work today my bike (72) with Pazon ignition missed a few times which is unusual.
The bike has been running well and has about 700 miles on a new set of pistons and rings.
Died at a light and I had to it to nurse it to get to my garage at work keeping the revs up to avoid dying.

I ride with my pilot light (20 W Halogen) plus halogen tail light on and wondering if I've drained battery down too low for ignition.

However my signal flashers run at their typical rate and I know there have been times when I've got all my lights on they will flash slowly indicating I'm drawing too much power, but the engine running has not been affected.

Does this sound like a low battery causing ignition problems?

Thanks
Bob

1. You can't tell if low battery by dim lights = if you are reving high to run.
2. This has same let down character as I've had many times by some connection or smoke conductor leaking intermittently, rev'd up enough they bounce enough to mostly conduct enough but let vibes mellow out and out goes the fire.
3. Water in fuel has done this to me, can't say about anyone else.
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GDay Chaps,

IMHO a 20 watt Halogen pilot bulb is a heavy load if you are using it as the same time as the headlight. I would guess things could get rather hot because the pilot light stays on when you turn the headlamp on, I believe?

You'd have 20w + (may be) 55w headlamp= 75 watts before you add indicators and brakelights, not to mention ignition. Not sure what alternator you have but if it's 120 watt you'd be getting close to limits.

You could replace the Pilot bulb with a LED and you've instantly saved almost 20 watts- LEDs require v little current draw but are bright enough to use as daytime headlights. You might need to swap the bulb holder to one with a feed and return wires- incase you need to swap them over to get it to work- unlike biulbs LEDs are polarity sensitive. See:

http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/GoffyDaytimeLights.htm

Pazon already the best ignition for running with low voltage, me thinks

None of this may be your problem but good to check they aren't about to cause you another!

The reason folks run 20 watt pilot is to have day time attention light w/o running the 55 watt headlight. Should be wired so both not on at same time of course.
Magnetic rotors go stale after a time, should hold its own mass on frame or be hard to pull screw driver off w/o snapping an eye out.

A simple check is to see if the alternator is supplying current to the battery -

Use a DC voltmeter, (or Multimeter set to 20 VDC). Measure the voltage at the battery + - terminals. A good battery will show 12 to 12.5. Start the bike, get the revs up to 2,000 and apply the meter probes to the battery. The reading should be 0.5 higher, rev the motor to 3,000 and it should read 13.5 or therabouts. This assumes the bike has 2 wire Lucas RM21 alternator, i.e. pre-Mk3 Commando.

But note, a battery that reads 12 V standing does not mean it has a robust store of that current. Turn on the headlight and let is burn for about 2 minutes. Remeasure the battery and if it has dropped below 12 V its probably got aged or damaged cells and it cannot sustain a charge.

Mick