Sorry for so many pictures! I want to make sure you REALLY know what they look like... I am sure they are lean but the bike is running great no hovering idle and it has full power through the RPM range.

Bike running great?

If it ain't broke - don't fix it!

They look OK to me. So what if a little lean? You say the bike runs great so don't do anything.

Looks good to me, too.

Toasty brown is the desired appearance.


Lean will be more white, even as white as the ceramic insulator for the electrode.

 

"Beauty, eh?  [...]  Take off!" 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BFPt001PYU

not lean ,the modern fuel has no lead in it so the spark plug method of reading rich or lean is not the same.looking at your side electrode your timing is perfect.looking at the threads on your spark plug indicates you have the right heat range of spark plug ..your spark plug rim indicates it is slightly rich but this reading could possibly indicate that  also that it may be that the fuel you are running on is not a high enough octane for your particular engine ,i would suggest that you run a tank full of the highest octane that you can buy localy
through your engine than check your plugs and see if plug rim is slightly lighter and dryer looking than what you have.if it is the higher octane is for you.and no need to think about rejeting..

Mixture looks good.....

Octane?   Pure Bullcrap!

Cookie

Quote from: twinrat on July 31, 2013, 12:56:23 AM
not lean ,the modern fuel has no lead in it so the spark plug method of reading rich or lean is not the same.looking at your side electrode your timing is perfect.looking at the threads on your spark plug indicates you have the right heat range of spark plug ..your spark plug rim indicates it is slightly rich but this reading could possibly indicate that  also that it may be that the fuel you are running on is not a high enough octane for your particular engine ,i would suggest that you run a tank full of the highest octane that you can buy localy
through your engine than check your plugs and see if plug rim is slightly lighter and dryer looking than what you have.if it is the higher octane is for you.and no need to think about rejeting..

Thanks everyone, I was a little worried. Not anymore! 

I just pulled mine yesterday to check them out and they appeared about the same as yours.  I was certain that it was lean at first, but when I compared it to the color photos at the back of my Clymer the picture and description reassured me that the mix is pretty good.

the pictures of spark plugs in the Clymer manual have been round for years and were taken when we had leaded fuel and smokey engines that wouldn be aloud on the road today.Octane is important ,otherwise you would have only one choice .try what i said even if it is only one tank full then check your plugs they should look less oily  crisper and dry looking.l

Be careful of free advice from the internet!

Bull...plain and simple....bull!


Cookie

Quote from: twinrat on August 01, 2013, 02:26:24 AM
the pictures of spark plugs in the Clymer manual have been round for years and were taken when we had leaded fuel and smokey engines that wouldn be aloud on the road today.Octane is important ,otherwise you would have only one choice .try what i said even if it is only one tank full then check your plugs they should look less oily  crisper and dry looking.l

only time octane matters really is compression ratio, higher CR, higher Octane.  you plug looks good, the slight sooty look around the rim is mostly when you close the throttle from higher rpm, briefly gets alittle richer .  if it were lean you might see some color around the threads and it would look kinda ashy grey where you see soot. your good