I thought I would compare this to the Bosch alternator on my Convert, it was originally excited by a tiny bulb 63 Ohms when cold and the equivalent of 138 Ohms when hot.
I recently changed the dash over to all LEDs, of course the LED didn't draw enough current to excite the rotor so I put a pair of the old lamps in parallel.
Why two lamps, just because. I think it does help it excite with two lamps and they just lie in the bottom of the dash unseen.
Really the Capacitor and the lamp are quite similar in a way, they both cause a spike in the rotor current, the capacitor will be higher but its over long before the engine starts to turn over, the lamp is still supplying ~80 mA when the bike is idling. The 80 Ohm resistor should be supplying ~ 150 mA.
Note:
I do realize that the lamp current drops off as the engine speed increases, so will the resistor current, the Capacitor though is over long before the bike is running. Interesting idea though.