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Definitely sounds like bad stator. They fail due to insulation of magnet-wire in windings melting from heat and shorts-circuiting across to neighboring wire. This heat is caused by running stator at full-output continuously due to way charging circuit is designed.
More efficient regulation is that series-regulator ducatiman mentioned. Modern versions are much better than previous ones and only draw as much power from stator as needed for charging and running light & electronics. A lot of this design improvement comes from increased use of LED lighting and buck/boost regulators used in that market.
Series regulator reduce load on entire charging system and load on engine as well. Not uncommon to see 5-10% improvement in MPG. I'm also putting on on my race-bike as removing that kind of parasitc drag is worth couple seconds per lap.
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