This is my first, first hand experience with Nology products. All my prior experiences were second hand from my automotive buddies. I was unaware Nology offered dirt bike applications until I stumbled upon them in the Parts Unlimited catalog while shopping for a replacement for my old, stiff stock plug wire on my 2003 CR250R. I called them for a few tech questions I had and was offered a setup to try out. Even after I warned them that I am brutally honest and “tell it like it is” they didn’t hesitate for a second at the challenge. That alone peaked my interest!
Here is what the stock setup looked like “before”:
The instructions warn against cutting any closer than 2 inches from the “capacitor” so I chose 3 for safety:
Unthread the stock wire and you will see what looks like a wood screw poking up:
I slipped a piece of heat shrink and the OEM boot on the end and then threaded the Nology wire in. Then shrunk it down and slipped the boot back into position:
Super simple and clean!
I routed the wire near the frame spar so I could zip tie it and keep everything clean and tidy:
The ground wire eyelet was the perfect size for the exhaust valve cover:
They supplied me with a Nology “Silver” plug which has a bluish purple anti-fouling coating. After a full practice day at SVMX and a few gallons of race gas later, I can honestly say im impressed! The coating seems to deliver, what do you think?
I did a few short vids after each change to illustrate the differences. See for yourself:
Stock ignition wire, NGK plug
Stock ignition wire, Nology Silver plug
Nology wire, NGK plug
Nology wire, Nology Silver plug
To me it was hard to tell the differences until I got to the Nology wire and Nology plug. When I checked out that footage I was surprised to see the increase in brightness. It wasnt as drastic as some of the photos ive seen on the Nology website but in all fairness this is with the stock ignition coil and not a high performance coil. I can say that even though the bike was not hard to start before this mod, it certainly seems easier now. There also seems to be a throttle response increase, although small. The most noticeable change to me has been how smooth the bike idles and pulls through the rpms now. I have to give this setup the highest marks across the board:
High "bling factor"
Super easy install
Top quality materials and build
Plug is priced on par with competing brands
Only somewhat negative I could find is the anti fouling coating on the plug. It works great! But if you are the kind of person who does a lot of "plug chops" when you are tuning the lack of build up could throw you off. So it depends on what type of person you are. Me personally, id rather have the anti fouling coating, but I tune more by feel and sound, than I do what a plug chop shows.
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A little while back I sent my 03 CR250R cylinder head in for the "100 octane mod" changes. They fixed Honda's quench volume issues and also raised the compression. Right afterwards I started experiencing signs of weak ignition which wasnt a surprise as raising compression can quickly expose weakness in this area. I started looking into upgrading my ignition. First I started with the spark plug wire as this is a common issue on these bikes. After stumbling on Nology products in the Parts Unlimited catalog I called to ask some recommendations. They sent me a Nology wire and matching Nology Silver Plug. This combination made a substantial improvement but was not “optomized” due to the weak stock coil. Nology sent me their “ProFire” coil to try out and here is how the install went.
I could have taken the easy way out and simply zip tied the coil to the frame spars and called it a day. But those who know me well know that I like to make things look clean and professional. The Nology Coil comes with very sturdy mounting lugs. So I took a piece of “L” channel aluminum (gotta save weight you know! HAHA) and made a simple bracket to mount the coil to the stock tab locations. Since these coils are not “self grounding” I added a ground wire to the mount bracket:
Next thing to do was extend the “hot” lead a few inches. Honda was apparently running short on copper wire when they made my bike. Even with the stock coil the lead barely reached. Just like the ground wire, its always solder, shrink, and die electric when I wire something. Used black wire again so it doesn’t stand out:
Next thing to do was bolt the coil up and plug the wires in:
Next thing to do is convert the plug wire over to the much better “terminal” type connector instead of the thread in “screw type”. I “mocked up” a few different routes for the plug wire and once I found the best path I marked the wire so that the fitting was properly “clocked”:
Then crimped the fitting on and fill it with die electric:
Spark Plug Wire ground location:
Last thing to do was run the “tach” wire for the hour meter/tach:
Heres a few completed setup pics:
It wasn't until I took a comparison video that I saw for myself how big of a difference this coil makes! See for yourself:
All stock setup:
All Nology setup:
I was really impressed once I took the bike for a test ride. The first thing I noticed was how soon the bike would idle after being started. Its was well below 50 degrees at the time. On the stock ignition I would have to "keep the bike alive" for the first minute or two while it was on the choke. Then once the choke was shut off id have to once again blip the throttle for another minute or two before the bike would idle smoothly on its own. With the Nology setup the bike would idle almost immediately after it was started and only required a couple "blips" of the throttle after shutting off the choke. It sat and idled for 10 minutes just fine while I cleaned up my mess. The bike has never pulled through the rpms smoother than it does now and all signs of ignition issues are completely gone!
. you know thats good shit. they been making banshee stuff for years. never heard anything bad
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