I ride a 2002 Honda VLX. It was definitely not my first choice, but as I always say, chop whatcha got. I removed the spring and it rides rigid, I made a tooled leather seat with springs under it, K&N pod filter on carb, straight pipes, and soon another modification. I'd like to turn my pipes into flame throwers. Never saw it on a bike but I know many hot rodders do it. I've got several questions. First, I don't want to buy a kit, I want to make it all myself. That and I'm a cheap bastard.

To get started, what's the best way to wire these things? I plan on buying a plain jane coil. My bike has dual coils and I have not investigated the electrical system too closely yet, but do know that it has two coils and fires once on compression and once on exhaust stroke. There are magnetic pickups. What I want to know, is there a way to splice into one of the wires ran to an existing coil that will tell the new coil when to fire? I've heard of guys making buzz boxes and stuff, but if there were a way around it that would be much easier and cheaper. If not, what's the best way to make a buzz box? Do you use an existing points plate from a distributor or fab up your own job?

Also, I've heard that some of the kits cut out power to the motor's coil while it fires the coil for the flame thrower. I do not have much experience with this, but I would think you would want to keep the exhaust gases pushing out of the pipes so the flame travels outward. Am I right here? I do not want to have to shut down my engine, throw some flames, and then start it back up. Maybe somebody can explain better how these kits work.

Another thing, I have been told to just weld a nut on my pipes to thread the spark plug into. Isn't the plug going to foul very easily with the electrode very exposed like that? I didn't know if you guys made a small shield in front of it or not.

Does it matter if I use a small spark plug for this? I'm asking because even though this will be on the backside of the pipes, it will still be noticable. I want it to be as compact and neat as possible. I found some plugs for chain saws and weedeaters that are very small but don't know if these would provide enough spark. I do not want to weld a nut to fit these plugs to my pipes and then find out it won't work. There's also not much clearance between my pipes and the frame to work with.

I think that covers my questions so far, maybe you guys can give me a few more pointers. I'd appreciate any help I can get.