I have the points can right now, and I am in the process of putting in my old hall sensor can. I am at the point where I want to simply ride and not have to fiddle with more than I have to. I am well aware of the downsides and the stuck on the road failure caused by a failed hall can....BUT I did have a condenser go out this past summer, my spare was damaged and I could not find any place that actually had one in stock. The discussion is not about what I could have done in that situation...but about finding out the actual correlations on hall sensor failures. I want to know who has had one fail or knows of a failure, about how many miles and where in the country or world it failed. My hypothesis is that there is a higher incidence of hall sensor failure in heat prone areas due to the added stress on the part. Also, before someone suggests it....I am considering the alpha can as well. Just want some confidence in the stock setup as I ride in the cool northeast. I am also wondering how long I can ride a points can with a 1.5 coil in case mine goes tits up. Discussions on this site do tend to get a bit heavy on the if it's broken or not...let's upgrade it. Not all folks feel the need or willingness to do that.
My breakdown was in temperate Melbourne, Oz, which does get damn hot at times. Bike was 11/1981 R100RS with 150K kms. The more I read of them, the more I think it's the flimsy wires that fail. Protect the wires and reliability might improve. Maybe a regular renewal program...
Yeah, I saw that, the region is a biggy because of the use too. I could even go far as actual use....slow technical or faster touring..even on dirt. Again it comes back to heat.
I can't say it is a significant enough sample to draw any conclusion. but it seems like more failures occur where it is hot.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=823543 I was so over I Hall Sensor I decided to put 2 in the can.