Ignition retarder

Hi,

Can anyone explain to me what an ignition retarder is?

[Sid Squid]

The opposite of an ignition advancer.


Sorry, not much help that is it?

In the case of an SV, the ignition system's timing of the sparks relative to crankshaft/piston position, is altered slightly in certain gears, it's retarded, that is; it happens later in the cycle.

There is a common mod which on early models is simply disconnecting the wires that tell the ignition system that the bike is in the relevant gears, on later models a resistor inserted in the wiring, that prevents this happening, usually referred to as the Timing Retard Eliminator or TRE.

Also as the ignition is set up to run on just about any crappy fuel the bike is ever likely to encounter, the ignition is set quite conservatively, so by altering the timing - usually with an offset timing key, but there are other ways - there are some gains to be made, this shouldn't be regarded as tuning as such, it's really just setting up for local conditions, in reality any fuel you're likely to get in the UK, and most of western Europe will exceed the minimum spec that was considered by Suzuki when the timing was originally set.