My experience with the xs charge and XSCharge electronic advance ignitions

[Jan_P]

I feel that the Suppliers are a bit in the hands of the Chinese Manufacturer ..
Not the Japanese 70 -80 ies Quality attitude ´ if you understand what I mean .
As I understand it they have a quite high percentage that should not be Shipped but are Accepting replacement or money back quickly.
More as a business model. Saving quality control.
Have seen a chain riveter not pointing to the other anvil side and a Regulator combo not for the right motorcycle.
Did not have to ship it back got instructions to destroy it drilled holes in it and posted the pictures .
But immediately accepting the responsibility fixing it.
Sure it is a hassle But prices are sometimes low And costs is major decision factor.
Wont work for all parts .. But It can be difficult to achieve even for large suppliers .To make the Chinese to enforce stricter quality.
Difficult to get. better quality. From China and expensive and then out of the market being to expensive.

 

[jetmechmarty]

Better parts are more expensive. Are we willing to pay for them? That’s a big part of the issue.

 

[madmax-im]

Cheap is cheap..you get what you pay for....

 

[willis]

Mikes is the Harbor Freight of XS parts? Some good, some bad. All made in Asia. Love ‘em or hate em I still buy there sometimes out of necessity. But I definitely shop around. Like mentioned before a lot of it all comes from the same place. It’s good to know your vendors.

 

[Jim]

I agree that Mikes is a valuable resource for our bikes. But for me they're a last resort... if I can't find the part somewhere else. I'll spend twice as much for OEM when it's available.
Mikes is at the very bottom of my vendor list... but yeah, they are on the list.

 

[jpdevol]

I can't wholesale bash Mike's, a lot of the stuff is serviceable quality at very reasonable prices and I'd certainly hate to lose them as a supplier (we've lost Omar's and soon Hoos).

The ignitions (red & Blue), though, seems to be a different story. They're problematic at best and lately there are several reports (Redline24, Dogbunny, et al) that even the mechanical parts (trigger, spacer) are unserviceable. Well, the latest batch at least, just appear to be junk - period.

Was it the the last remnants of the initial production run?; is it a new batch that's even lower quality than previous?; do they know (they should now)?; do they care? - IDK.

I'm glad Dogbunny got refunded. Both versions are still for sale at Mikes as of now. And that's the part that bugs me - like the bad batch of cam chain guides - when a defect is found, the product should get pulled from sale until inspections are made and specs verified and only correct versions returned to sale. If it's bad, you go to the supplier for relief - not pawn it off on the customer hoping they'll eat it.

 

[Tlted_Jelli]

I had the same issues with my blue mikes xs e advance ignition https://www.xs650.com/threads/83-xs650-startup-frustrations-advice-appreciated.63919/post-789586

I also had to put extra washers on the advance rod to remove the side play.
The rotor on the right side that replaces the mechanical advance having it's pin slot for the cam locating pin cut all the way through to the outer face of the rotor was an issue for me as well.
I had a friend of mine tig weld over the gap to hold the pin in place. You'd figure that if the original mechanical advance had something on it to hold that pin in place mikes would include the same feature on their unit. Guess common sense is rare over there. I even had quite the email exchange with one of their reps seen in my thread.

 

[Wingedwheel]

I agree about sometimes you just gotta get what you can get. During the pandemic supply shortage I needed an exhaust valve. Mikes was the only one that had it and although shipping can get a little pricey for one small item it got to me in two days. Just like Jim said they occupy a place on the list, just depends on a persons experience with them.

 

[DogBunny]

Update: my refund went through. Yay!... sort of...

 

[Redlined24]

I wanted to follow up with my final update.

The XSCharge electronic advance unit I received lasted for about 9 miles before I noticed a slight intermittent miss on the right cylinder and extremely weak spark. Contacted mikes again. After a few email issues exchanges for specs so I could bench test this second unit they just went ahead and refunded my card.

I bought a used points plate off eBay and mechanical advance and the bike runs great.

 

[WideAWAKE]

Glad you guys got refunds.

What makes me despise Mikes so much is that they knowingly sell junk and profit off the headaches and frustration they cause.

And this is not the first time it has happened. Or the second… or the third…
It’s a very small list of items they sell that are of any quality (probably cause they can’t get a cheaper supplier).

Maybe it’s my line of work, but I get tired of the race to the bottom. Quality of parts and quality of service.

Take for instance yamahaxs650.com and their big bore kits. - the moment they were made aware of the under sized holes, they pulled them from their site and offered to issue a refund. They then fixed the problem and relisted them. They could have easily left them on the site and did nothing. Kind of a bummer he’s just selling off inventory.

 

[Flash1977]

Hmmm these problems are quite possibly what happens when you steal a design and ship it overseas to be budget built. I personally don’t understand why anyone spends a dollar at Mikes.

I bought mine at tc bros and I am having the same problem

 

[Flash1977]

I am having all of the same problems with my project bike. My question is what will it take to go back to the points. Meaning can I keep the single coil that came with the kit wired the way it is. I don't have any of the original wiring harness on the bike . So in other words the bike is in the mocked up stage and ready to run but won't start. The I have spark but the timing is way off and I can't tune the plate far enough to get it to line up. So if I just wanna take off the red xs charge ignition plate with the mechanical rod and advance thingamabob and re install the points plate with new points , the old rod and advance side. How will it wire up to the coils with only the 2 wires?