Most bikes don't really have a lot of extra electrical power anyway, turning the extra power into heat is not a problem as it is not that much heat. I have a Norton that is still running a Zener Diode that was probably new in 1975. I rode a Triumph for three or four years with no Zener Diode and it was no problem, I just left the headlight on and made sure the battery was topped up with water. I don't know how much an Alton puts out but if it is about 250 watts it is unlikely that it would need to dissipate more than 100 watts into heat very often. That isn't much heat really. The heat goes into a heat sink, not into the windings.There has been a lot of discussion of this on the Norton site. In theory, the shorting regs are often viewed as a bad thing.
In practice, they seem to work just fine and last a very long time.
If opting for a Shindengen, beware, there are lots of fake Shindengen regs out there! Also, Shindengen makes both types, switching and shorting regs. Some have purchased the shorting regs thinking it was a switching reg.
Either way they seem to work.
So do the Podtronics regs.
Glen
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