Charles Falco wrote the following letter on the Brit Iron mailing list and kindly gave his permission to repost the letter here. Charles is one of the list's boffins, and when he speaks, the list listens. If he chose a RITA after investigating the different alternatives, why don't you?

Date:    Fri, 9 Oct 1998 08:55:14 -0700
From:    Charles Falco 
Subject: Ritas on Tridents

On October 8 Michael Moore wrote:

> Harold writes:  Here's what eludes my understanding:  why do
> folks dedicated to the preservation and enjoyment of old Brit
> -Iron gravitate to solid state ignition when the ignition which came
> on the bike is perfectly adequate - and certainly not the weak link
> in the chain, so to speak, of the bikes reliability?
>
> Hello Harold,
> I put a T150 points plate and advancer out next to the
> appropriate parts from a RITA kit, and the reason for the
> switch seems pretty obvious to most people.

When I got my Trident eight years ago it ran erratically, so I
checked the timing.  With the points cover off and the bike
running, the inside of the points housing put on a fabulous light
show, with sparks flying between every piece of metal in there. How
enough electricity was left over to make it to the coils is difficult
to comprehend.  To put a positive spin on it, my compliments to the
engineers of Lucas for a miracle of microminiaturization--cramming
three points into a volume large enough to hold only one.  I bought a
Lucas Rita ignition from Phil Pick--although Michael Moore now
blankets the U.S. with Ritas--which transformed it into a first-kick
bike.  Note that, unlike Boyers, Ritas don't require buying and
installing new coils.

Charles Falco

I sold Mike a coil and RITA for his 441BSA Victor. I saw his email address recently (on the AHRMA web site) and dropped him a note to say hello. This is the reply I received:

Date sent: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 10:03:46 -0700

From: Mike Gilb

To: "Michael A. Moore"

Subject: Re: Hello Mike

Thanks for your note.

If you need a testimonial, this is it:

Thanks again.

Mike Gilb

mikegilb@swcp.com

The following appeared several years ago in the BSA Owners Club of Northern California's newsletter, the BSA BULLETIN. It was written by Don Danmeier, the Club president. I added the bolding to the text.

Consider this an endorsement: Last month's ride had the Ed. wrenching the Dick Mann B50 into tune for a blast in the dirt, and a part of that process included a conversion to electronic ignition. I called member Michael Moore, who I knew stocked the Lucas "RITA" unit for BSA singles. Michael advised me that I'd probably have to use a total-loss battery in order to get the thing to start, as he does with his B50MX. I ordered the RITA, and mounted it inside the still-air box that on my bike contains the air filter. I bolted in a capacitor that I'd robbed from the Enfield that I'm restoring, and bought one of those Lucas-copy Zener diodes from Raber's and bolted it to the aforementioned (aluminum) airbox. All nice and tidy, out of sight, and after static-timing the thing and priming the carb, it fired right off. Flashed the timing with a strobe for accuracy, and presto! Once warm, it's a first-kick starter every time. My bike has a B50SS motor, with its full-sized stator, which as I'd hoped was apparently enough to preclude the battery (remember that the B50MX has a smaller stator; it doesn't have to run lights). The long and short of it is that my machine has never run better, but the real revelation was the improvement in starting. For great sparks for your BSA, contact Michael at 415-665-3363.

© 1996-2003 Michael Moore, last update for this page 19 August 2003