Iridium. Really??

[CosmoKorny]

I went to the auto parts store for an iridium plug, they didn't have it in stock and had to order it,  so I bought a standard NGK to tide me over.  The bike did run a little smoother with the new plug.

Today the iridium came in, so I swapped it out.  Filled up the tank and spent the day running errands.  The bike is considerably smoother and more responsive.  Put 137 miles on today, much of it WOT going 75 mph gps on the freeway, but mostly country roads with a little bit of in-town. Pretty typical day. 

My fuel economy increased 10 mpg!!  Is that possible?  I've put 1,000 miles on the bike over the last month, and every tank has come in around 60, sometimes 62 or 63 mpg.  This time it was 70.

[Vivo]

Maybe the old plug was really bad...

[Peters]

Lucky they even carry the standard NGK. My stores carry an Autolite "equivalent". Not as good...

I have to agree with Vivo. Your old plug was probably the cause.

[CosmoKorny]

I went to the auto parts store for an iridium plug, they didn't have it in stock and had to order it,  so I bought a standard NGK to tide me over.  The bike did run a little smoother with the new plug.

[ginger cat]

Dirty or unlucky bad plugs as Vivo said - gives you less fuel economy so it was obvious that with new plug it was breathing better.

[Stig / Major Tom]

Nevertheless............
An Iridium plug made my new Kymco run better in this way > a smoother start and smoother idle while sitting at lights, and the idle speed increased slightly.
My scooter was so new that the stock NGK plug never had a chance to get dirty - nor did I ever get a chance to get good readings on the stock plug's MPG's.
In spite of my inexperience with scooters - it was obvious to me that my scooter ran differently with the Iridium plug.
I paid @ $7 for the Iridium plug (ordered from O'reilly's) To me that's a very thrifty one-and-done deal on spark plugs. It will come out when the junk man breaks down this scoot before recycling the metals -- several years from now.

I did put these in our old Scion xB (150,000 miles on it) - it will now be good till 250,000. The new xB came with them installed by Toyota.

[08087]

Report back in a few tank fulls and tell me what you've got.

[Vivo]

Nevertheless............

I did put these in our old Scion xB (150,000 miles on it) - it will now be good till 250,000. The new xB came with them installed by Toyota.

The only reason why cars have iridium as OEM is because of the long service interval trend... synthetic oils that last for thousands of miles, 5-year OAT coolants/antifreeze, etc.