Anyone care to venture a guess how it is done?

Negative, no cheating involved. You have seen it hundreds of times but never made the connection to an OEM ride.CrystalPistol wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2020 11:32 amLay down on your back and ease your head under the bike (or trike) and look up … or use a mirror.
Correct.
Understand I do, but I almost never use reverse so it didn't occur to me.ct1500 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 05, 2020 6:09 pmA winner on the other site.The answer is:
One of the first 1500's I ever worked on was for a man who wanted his Compu Fire installed. After brakes, belts,exhaust,carbs,fluids,fork seals,driveshaft boot and of course the alternator It was time to back it out of the stall for him to pick it up that day. When I hit reverse I could here the engine idle drop way down. Uh ooh, something not right here was my first thought until I made the connection to the CompuFire claim of 60A at idle. Sure enough those alternators can kick out some serious amperage and I estimate it to be about 35A more at idle when using reverse.
The reverse system draws about 80A and in your OEM 40A equipped ride the alternator is near or over capacity from the get go so all current for reverse is direct from the battery with no extra current from alternator hence no idle RPM drop.
That’s very interesting. I will be checking that out.
Thanks ct1500. I didn’t notice it until I read this post but my 96 Aspencade does exactly this and according to the volt meter is putting out 14.1 Volts at idle. So without looking at the alternator I’m assuming it is a CompuFire or something similar.