 Hi everyone and welcome to Tatum's Tech Talk. We've had a couple of episodes now on gearing and carburetion and we're now going to move on to the third area that can be manipulated in the pits regarding bike setup and that is the ignition timing. The ignition is located underneath this cover we see often the guys removing it. I'll do that now and away it goes and it is like a generator. It actually spins in there that little flywheel spins in there generating power that then is transferred to the spark plug. It will come with the ignition actually put in the optimum position by the engine tuner from the dyno but on track conditions change and often to calm the engine down one way of doing it is actually by changing the ignition timing. It's on three bolts here and there are slots on the generator itself and if you turn it to the right like so and that's plenty you only have to change it by two or three degrees you have retarded the ignition so the engine won't rev quite as much or if you turn it to the left and you actually advance the ignition timing then the engine will be more inclined to rev a little bit more freely. As I say sometimes again the choice and the feedback from the rider coming in from a race to understand exactly which way to go that's the clever bit and if you get that right all of a sudden the setup of the bike is sweet and the bike is purring away out on track. We often see when guys come out onto the track you know they do a little practice start they've got all their crew around them and then they come dashing down to this and they remove that case and they're furiously working away in there and they're under two minutes they're under pressure it really is and the clock's ticking riders nervous he's then got to trust them to move it the right way whether it's advancing or retarding almost like a Formula 1 pit stop isn't it when they really are needing to get the rider on his way around to the tape so it is something that can be changed at the last minute not always a good sign but certainly something that can make the difference between winning and losing so this is the third area we've got gearing we've got carburation and now we've got the ignition timing it is the three areas that can actually change the setup of the bike get the ignition timing absolutely spot on then you'll get the right results out on track very very important