I saw a few comments about Iridium spark plugs, and there are plenty of google hits on the pros/cons.  Does anyone have any actual experience in how they perform in our bike?  I'm not interested in opinions or a rehash of pros/cons.  I'm interested in actual experiences....  Does the bike start better?  Does it affect afterfire or backfire?  Does it improve acceleration or smooth out any timing/hesitation issues?  I could just drink the kool-aid and go for it, but wanted to ask the forum.  Thanks in advance for any real experience.

Do you have experience with one on our bike?  I have several NKG plugs in my hands. One of each actually.  Should I install the red plug or the cool red plug?  Hope you can provide some experience. Thanks for the reply by the way.

Maybe not but the iridium will last longer. Denso or Ngk for Japanese bikes.
But as long as it sparks I’m good.

Try this out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcVF3xL_fzk
Really gives you an idea of the differences. Interestingly enough, the iridium and copper are near identical ... at least when new. By all measures the iridium will keep the same spark a lot longer.  The E3 was surprising to me. My sons S40 has the E3 (previous owner) and it works great. Only comparison I have is on my Yamaha Stratoliner. It's a 2010 and had the original spark plugs with 12k miles on it. I had a lot of random problems with surging at low rpms in 2nd and 3rd gear. After changing them out 4 times and watching the above video, I decided to try the E3's. Made a world of difference in every good way. Now, that probably had to do with the comparison to very old plugs, but I had problems with new NGK Iridium's and new NGK OEM plugs as well. No way do I think they are miracle plugs, but I was very surprised by the engine feedback after comparing all 4. The sound was much deeper, I had more low rpm power, and it was much cooler according to my right thigh. Gas efficiency also is improved.  It's not some massive jump but if the comparison was on a scale from 1 to 10. The other 3 sets were in the 5-7 range. The E3's felt like they were in the 8-10 range.

Smith2 - you really got me thinking about the E3.  The test and results on the generator video comparison are pretty compelling.  Excellent real experience that I was looking for.  Thinking about our bikes and your actual experience, I'm thinking our bikes with the Twin Swirl Combustion Chamber (TSCC) may be a good marriage with the E3 design.  So, I'm going to stash my NKG Iridium away and go buy an E3 and give that a shot.

FYI - for our bikes, we need an E3.36 plug.

Hopefully I can give an update early next week.

Smith2 wrote on 08/24/22 at 10:29:56:


Got it and an 18mm to pull the current one.  Thanks!