As far as reliability I think one system is as good as the other. I have run the stock system for a few years. I did do the Chrysler/ Radio Shack Mod because the old mechanical reg's are getting old and are liable to crap out. Mine still worked well.
xjwmx, there are several advantages to the P/M system. No battery, being able to start the bike with a weak or dead battery are a couple.
I think the big advantage is that the P/M doesn't draw 3-4 amps just to make electricity. Once the bike is running all the output goes to charge the battery. The 3-4 amp draw isn't there to take away from the charging.
If the right stator is used you might even be able to up the output from the stock 14-16 amp up to 20 or more.
This can allow riders to use extra driving lights, heated grips. Things like that the stock system can'y handle.
As far as an older P/M stator being more or less reliable than the stock stator, I doubt there is much difference. One thing about the P/M stator, a lot more bikes use one that can work on our 650's. Not too many stators around that fit our 650's.
Yes, we can get them rewound, so can the P/M's.
If you have a good working stock system, and with the proper maintainance it will work very well for a long time, and won't stop me from doing a long distance ride.
If my system totaly craps out and I can find the P/M parts at about the same price as Stock parts I would do the swap. As things are now thats hard to do. A good Banshee rotor can cost up to $200, some times more. I can buy a lot of $4 brushes for that.
xjwmx, there are several advantages to the P/M system. No battery, being able to start the bike with a weak or dead battery are a couple.
I think the big advantage is that the P/M doesn't draw 3-4 amps just to make electricity. Once the bike is running all the output goes to charge the battery. The 3-4 amp draw isn't there to take away from the charging.
If the right stator is used you might even be able to up the output from the stock 14-16 amp up to 20 or more.
This can allow riders to use extra driving lights, heated grips. Things like that the stock system can'y handle.
As far as an older P/M stator being more or less reliable than the stock stator, I doubt there is much difference. One thing about the P/M stator, a lot more bikes use one that can work on our 650's. Not too many stators around that fit our 650's.
Yes, we can get them rewound, so can the P/M's.
If you have a good working stock system, and with the proper maintainance it will work very well for a long time, and won't stop me from doing a long distance ride.
If my system totaly craps out and I can find the P/M parts at about the same price as Stock parts I would do the swap. As things are now thats hard to do. A good Banshee rotor can cost up to $200, some times more. I can buy a lot of $4 brushes for that.
You can find NEW Banshee rotors for about $100-110 on ebay from Ricky Stator
Remember though that the pm one could be turned off intermittently too. I think you could just remove the pm stator from the circuit intermittently using a similar method to turning off the power to the stock rotor. A long time ago I was working on somebody's self-powered gadget that had a little generator built in and was shocked to realize the generator was much easier to turn when it was just disconnected from the circuit. Gave new meaning to the term electrical resistance 
