This is my response on a Facebook motorcycle group page to a previous post on ignition module failure and the allusion that it is endemic to Harley's.

This discussion takes me back to my dirt bike days of long ago, and magneto’s.
In the magneto there was a component that would die from internal heat. The talk was that Bosch solved it by coming up with a “double heat sink” component.
No doubt Bosch didn’t solve it but MIGHT have made it better.
Obviously, there is a long history on ignition module failure from internal heat. 
One thing certainly has become clear, after market ones are junk, but why? I don’t know if there is a connection but I’ve heard that Apple uses real gold in some of the electrical connections in their computers? So could it be a cost factor? 
Why should one model (like the Sportster) be known for component failure as B.B. has said and is there a bike out there not known for this failure? 
No doubt the 80’s Jap bikes were higher quality overall than today’s and I’m on my 3rd. ignition module for my ’85 Shadow in 34,000 miles. My ’81 Harley FLH however, had one die in 42,000 miles and that is an AMF Harley… supposedly built in the days when evil and stupid people owned it.
I would bet there is a great article out there somewhere on what makes ignition modules tick.

I had an ignition control module fail on my '92 K100RS. Heat does kill them so I used a higher quality thermal paste when installing the new one.

Hi..i am a new user here. Even i faced the problem of heating for this component. I am agree with the suggestion that we should use the thermal plast more to avoid this problem.