Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Iridium Spark Plugs

Are they worth the $16.00?

No

Thanks.

Man, if theres anyone i hate to disagree with it's PAT. Don't hate me Pat, and the rest........don't kill me ! But i have to disagree. I used them for a good while and they without a doubt gave the bike better midrage accelleration, smoother, and better idle. And they should last far far longer. You may only need one or 2 sets as long as you have the bike. At one point i swapped them back and fourth with regular plugs and the difference was undeniable. Some may not notice much if thier senses are duller than others or thier bikes state of tune is such that they simply don't make a differnce as they will in others. Thats all speculation, but one thing is for sure they made enough of a difference on mine to where i couldn't enjoy the bike w/o them after getting used to that extra oomph.

Now that said, i don't use them any more. I now use regular plugs and side gap them. I mentioned this at RAT and a bunch of members tried it and every one except 1 or 2 were very impressed. They literally gave me the biggest improvment i've ever gotten from a single mod. low to mid torque is improved hugely to the point theres no mistaking it and it's far far out of placebo range. Second, vibration decreased to the point my normal blurred aftermarket mirrors actually cleared up a good 80% and are not totally usable. 3rd, idle which at a stop used to slowly lower it self to the 1100 rpm i have it set to then idle a bit eratically now drops instantly to 1100 and stays right there with no fluxuation. 4th, 2-3 MPG better. If you think i'm BS'ing, go find that thread at RAT and look at what everyone who tried it said.It's maybe 2 months old or so, not the newer one. Better yet, do it yourself. For the cost of a set or regular plugs what do you have to lose. or gap your current ones. In any case, the results are twice as intense as iridiums.I know it sounds nuts, but results are the proof and many at rat agreed completely after doing it. It suprised the **** out of me !

Whats side gaping?

With all the mods you do to your bike DAZCO, When do you get to ride? Seems your always on here or RAT posting something or moding something!! When do you ride?

REIDO, Like Pat said "NO". Don't waste your money on Iridiums. The Stock NGKs work fine. DAZCO will tell you all about side gapping or check his threads on the RAT.net
Steve

wait-wait-wait, let me guess! You bend the tab down flush with the electrode and gap it laterally? Sounds like a good way to direct the combustion front...

Pictures are worth a 1000 words. Here's a place I just Googled for sidegapping:

http://www.performanceunlimited.com/documents/plugsidegapping.html

You might also want to consider indexing your plugs. Here's a good article on that:

http://www.advanceautoparts.com/english/youcan/html/pht/pht20001001sp.html

Google for more on both subjects

Muchos Gracias. That google doesn't hold a candle to you.

Ahh, I lose. Kinda. I'm going to do this when I get home. Remember the purpose of exotic plug material is to concentrate the spark and lenthen it's life. A regular spark plug change is a great way to monitor your engine performance. If you know what you're looking for you can detect lean/rich mixtures and oil leaks before you feel them.

I put 8k on it this year just on the weekends. I wouldn't exactly call it a marathon of riding, but it's a good bit. Besides, who says you gotta ride your bike constantly anyways? I prefer not too many miles because then when i do ride i enjoy it far more. I rode it to work for a couple weeks and when the weekend came i didn't feel like riding. I don't get this whole ride as much as possible or theres something wrong with you notion. If thats the way you like it, more power to ya. I don't but would like to be respected for my choice. Otherwise you're telling me there can be no bike ownership unless you ride constantly and 8k a years just isn't enough. I get a lot of enjoyment from my bike and it's one of the few things this old man has left. now i'm being told i don't ride it enough? I think riding it to the point where it makes me happy is just fine whatever that amount may be. Isn't that why people own toys.....to make them happy? It does, so whats the problem? I don't get it. And messing with it is fun too. Should i not do that eother? Sounds to me like a perscription for misery. I'm not you, you're not me. We prefer different things i guess. Not all that hard to understand.

Now lets look at the notion that he shouldn't buy irridiums or use Sgapped plugs. there are a ton of people at RAT wo do one or the other and are very happy with the results. So why tell someone not to unless you know he's going to be one of the few who didn't care for them? There are some who prefer the irridiums, but so many like one or the other that it makes little sense to tell someone neither will do anything for him when the stats are actually in his favor that they will !
No offence man, just makin some points.

By the way, Pat dinks around with his bike far more than i do, yet no one accuses him of not riding it !

You do tend to get very defensive when people disagree with you Dale. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, right?

Relax and have a beer or two!

Holy cow what happened here. Is this forum in Lebanon?
"Lord, I apologize for the spark plug question there, and be with all the starving Pygmies down there in New Guinea, Amen!"
Oh wait... It is Monday.
Ok Bombs away!!!

Sorry Reid, Its Monday!
Check Phils link to the sidegapping, it's a good read. Then go ride!

I know you're joking, but If you would actually did that it would be great. But i'd like to see you do that with side gapped plugs because i actually feel a very considerable boost in low/mid torque with those. The iridiums i could see not showing much on the dyno. But i swear the SD plugs would show a bigger difference that anyone probably would be willing to believe, at least if dyno'd on mine. Why some get the benefits and others don't is debatable, but i'd put my money down that if anyone here rode MY bike with and w/o them they be suprised. So yeah, if you were actually willing to do that i'd be very interested to see the results. Bet you'd see a few more Lbs of torque all the way up the chart.

I meant it, I will do it, maybe even toss some SGapped plugs too. They give me plenty of runs and each is documented.
If either shows any improvement, I'm all over it.

That would be VERY interesting ! The gapped plugs at least. The iridiums too, but i don't think they'll show near as much. then again as i said they seem to be very different depending on the bike. But i think i got at least as much benefit if not more as i did pulling the snorkel, and graeme said they got a 2 HP increase when they pulled the snorkel on a 865 like mine. tho it seems like torque more than HP. I think thats what they'd show up as on the dyno. Just hope your bike takes to em like mine did, but with all those mods maybe it'll be different one way or another. Heck Pat, if you'd "be all over it" as you say, why not toss a set of S gapped plugs in it now and see what you notice? Surely you have an old set of plugs laying around, and i'd sure like to hear what you find with the butt dyno.

Keeping it Kiss.
I side gapped & it made a significant difference.

There's tons of articles on the benefits of sidegapping plugs. I use a dremel with a disc to make mine and then clean them up with a flat file.

Dinqua said:

Quote:

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I tell you guys what, next time I dyno the bike, I will get in a run with the iridium plugs I have kicking around, that will be the tell all.

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and, a couple posts later...

Quote:

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I meant it, I will do it, maybe even toss some SGapped plugs too. They give me plenty of runs and each is documented.
If either shows any improvement, I'm all over it.

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I was wunnerin'. Did this ever happen? It would be cool to see some numbers. I just put in some side gapped plugs, but I gotta wait for the snow to go away before I can do a test flight.

Cody

Cody,
Ya know, I done forgot all about that. Thanks for the heads up. I did another dyno during the NorEast rally, but to be fair we were pretty much rushed as we had three bike on the dyno that day.
After the snow melts in the spring I will get another dyno with the new carbs I have and also do the plug swap them.
Remind me again come sprinttime...I have a habit of forgetting things.

I think they make a slight difference but it could be my imagination. I'd love to see the dyno results.

I tried the iridiums for a while. Lotta expenxe for naught.

Buy the NGK and get your dremel tool out and sidegap em. The OEM plugs are cheap and you can change them as often as you want for a swan song.

But then again Dazco could be right. Any fair wind that blows adds five horsepower to his speedmaster.