I know mate - i think I may have over tightened it Len. This morning my Wingman and I are riding our Nortons to Rutland water.

I don’t know what one is but it made me wince 😂

Mate - I have many times limped home with bits lost or hanging off - Brit bikes are very challenging

Lesson learnt mate. I will pal your right

Thanks for the info!

Modern NGKs don't work or last well with weak ignition systems. That's why some bikes work well with them and some don't. We were running a DT2MX with points. All the other DTs had electronic ignitions and the same NGK. They had no trouble; we had to change plugs every race. Switched to Champion. Never subsequently had plug trouble. That's just one example. I talked it over with West Country Windings and they just laughed when I said we had used NGKs with points. Said the ignitions were never that strong and 50 years later..... Told me that NGKs now need a strong ignition, due to the make up of their centre electrode.ceramic coating. It's not fake or faulty plugs; just a modern plug design for modern ignitions.

I disagree ... stick with NEW Champions.

The volume of chinese copy NGK plugs out there is mad .... google it

All modern petrol contains detergents. High octane is a bit a con unless you've tuned the engine and are running a higher compression and ignition advance.

thanks so much for commenting. As you can see I have several classics. However the NORTON is simply sublime compared to many other of my machines. Both the dealers you mention are fantastic places. Keep us posted on your search for a Norton. I take mine to the IoM in July, theirs no doubt their'll be a series on our trip over. Mk1 and MK1A ( 850 )

I have had a dud new Champion but quality control or not modern NGKs don't tend to work well with old ignitions. The olden golden hued NGKs were first class

@@jeremyatkinson4976 look at the kv's on an oscilloscope and you will see how poorly champion plugs perform. Ok for garden tools .

@@phil6506 I'm only concerned with how the engine runs with them. And the engines run fine. Not so with modern NGK, although all the problems seem to be in UK so possibly different factories for both.

If you want durability and reliability, get some equivalent IRIDIUM sparklers. Wider heat range and stronger spark .

Right about that, bad experiences with Champion, and Bosch isn't the best either.

Hi Steve, it's the pig tail for the TomTom head mate. Sorry for any confusion. I was using Quadlock and my iPhone for Navigation. But found it unreadable in most lighting conditions. And to be honest I use the iPhone 15 Pro Max and its worth four times more than my TomTom Rider. I am forgetful so thought it better to risk losing a tomtom rather than my iPhone. Hope all this makes sense ?

Oh, my friends and I have been caught out with fake NGK plugs, but each to their own. Back in the day we only had Champion available locally.

​@@AnotherflyonmyvisorI've given up buying branded things like memory cards, batteries, spark plugs etc off eBay full of counterfeit rip offs in my experience!!!

Hi Bill, their new premieres from Burlen mate. They simply need dialling in.

Thanks pal. Dodgy plug was found

Yeh except for the chip out of the tail cone 🤨

@@Sailor426 adds character.

Bang on mate

yes, it's mostly tax - bit like our beer mate. all the best

JPN Paintwork by Dream Machine in Nottingham. Alloy Tank Painted - Tank was made by TAB classics, Seat was made using the original pan by trim fix in St Ives Cambridgeshire.

@@Anotherflyonmyvisor Looks fantastic - that's probably my favourite Norton colour scheme! I can remember looking at some in Sports Motorcycles, Manchester in the final days. 👍👍

I know right, I was fuming. Fortunately it did not mark the paintwork

Don't mean to gloat, but when I first saw the plug sitting on a paper towel on that beautiful paint, I thought, "Gee, not a very good place to put that." And my thought was immediately justified! Oh well, we all have brain farts!

@@dudeonbike800 yup mate your spot on I was foolish. I was tired and as you say mate ….. a dumb arse moment :-(

Thanks for posting pal I’ll read up on the morning. I am seriously considering giving up on champion plugs as I had another fail two weeks old yesterday evening I’m fed up with em tbh

@@Anotherflyonmyvisor We had 3 NGKs lasting 15 minutes each [one race on a DT2MX engine running GYT points]. The same plug everyone one else was using with electronic ignitions. Put a Champion N3 in and never had to change since. I have had Champion not working straight out of the packet. West Country Windings told me that modern NGKs need a strong [ie modern] ignition. A friend's son with a CD175 had to switch from NGKs to get the bike running well. The father builds competition motors. Problem is modern NGKs are not made the same as they used to be and people don't realise that. The old plugs had a golden hue on the threads. I hoard those. NGK Iridium and chainsaw plugs seem durable, I've neither had nor heard of any issues with those, and some of my chainsaws are from the '70s.

@@jeremyatkinson4976 thanks for commenting pal - its a real mixed bag. I bought a lot of NGK's from Ebay, and suspect like you mention i bought bad ones. My Norton came from Canada with Champions in, and my favoured reseller Andover Norton do favour these in the Norton Commando. I suspect its a case of finding a good reseller that can be trusted. My location is on the Norfolk border and remote. I do rely heavily on the internet for parts. Thanks for your comments. All the very best. Cloughie

hahahaha! better get him an alarm clock so the spark arrives on time...

Hi New Premiers, just need dialling in.

No, the plug doesn't necessarily show it has been running rich, simply that the fuel hasn't been burning fully, which is explained by the broken conductor. That's a strange one. I'm a retired mechanic, and I've never seen a plug like that, in a car or a bike - plenty of broken insulators, but never broken there. Maybe the ferrule on the top was over-tightened?

@@rickconstant6106 I'm also a recently retired mechanic. 37 years experience. I have seen the tip of a few spark plugs (though not that many) broken. That tip is in two pieces. New spark plugs come with a larger tip screwed over the smaller one. Most cars use that larger tip, many bikes don't. When you remove it, the threaded tip is very small and weak. Dropping the plug (like he did) would be a good way to crack it, the vibration from a Norton twin could also eventually crack it. But if there was like 1/16" between the plug wire and tip of the plug, it should still fire just fine, though there is no way to know how far apart they were. I have a few special spark plug wires that I use for testing, that have a clear section in them, with a fairly large gap the spark must jump, before getting to the plug. And it still fires the plug just fine. I've seen people replace all the spark plug wires with wires like that on vehicles permanently, just so you could see the spark while the engine was running. They still ran fine. But yes, it's possible that with the Nortons weak ignition system, the plug was not firing properly.

Hi - I only use Shell V- Power use to have no Ethanol, now my County has unfortunately no garages that sells fuel without ehtanol in.

@@Anotherflyonmyvisor That’s a real bummer. I even run my Honda mowers on E5 super unleaded because they are a pig to start on the E10 and I don’t like leaving them for long with that knats P in them. On E5 they start well every time.

@@jfro5867 Spot on mate. I put some E10 in my 85 Kwak, it left an awful mess in the carbs over winter. Bought a sonic cleaner and sorted them matey. thanks for your comments.

Does the ethanol in the fuel damage the fibreglass tank?

@@andrewallen9993 In a word. Yes. If you look on the Norton forums there’s a lot of detail and owner evidence of this. Only long term solution is a replacement tank, alloy seems to be the enthusiasts choice.

I think you’re spot on pal. My wingman reminded me that I tightened the nipple just outside Ely last summer. Dooohhh

@@Anotherflyonmyvisor what about the spark plug?🤭

@@mattydare spat my coffee out pal - pmsl

it was the plug. Swapped out and no issues - thanks for the comments though. All 17 classics run on Champion plugs. Never had a problem before.

@@Anotherflyonmyvisor I had a MC workshop for 30 years and I saw it all. God only knows how many jobs I fixed by just replacing champion plugs with NGK - classic or not makes no difference when you have NO quality control. If you bought 4 plugs one was a dud - I dont know how they stayed in business. Like I said; champion was the problem - the snapped end made bugger all difference... Great to hear its fixed; keep the shiny side up!

@@gerrydepp8164 curious mate - I will try NGK on the Bantams to start with mate - and see where we go. I buy from the Green Reaper a well known online plug reseller. I have had issues with those i bought online via Ebay Pal. Thing is my "local dealer" does not sell NGK. But will give them a go. thanks for commenting. regards Dave

Yes mate Pazon

Yup it was pal

Amal concentrics seem to be particularly prone to gumming up over the winter, the slide needle in my Enfield was gummed up and the pilot jet blocked. This didn’t happen before E10…

Sorry if I'm teaching my granny to suck eggs, friends. I have had issues with my bikes, mower, genny etc all running problematically with e10. I spent some time on yt watching folk explain how to rid fuel of water and ethanol crap. Easiest was to put fuel into a plastic water-container with a tap as close to the bottom as possible. Then put some food colouring(I used red) into the fuel in the container. Then leave it for a while. I tilted the container forward slightly to get the tap to be right at the very bottom point. The colouring will only mix with water, not fuel and the water is heavier than fuel. Hence, the water(with the food colouring now mixed in with it) will sit at the bottom of the container and will be clearly visible against the clear fuel above it. Then simply open the tap gently and let the coloured liquid at the bottom pour out until clear liquid starts to come out. Dispose of the Coloured liquid......this is just water with red colouring in it. All that is left in the container is pure fuel.......or the equivalent to E0. This fuel will not harm your engine or cause lots of the modern-day issues with fuelling that many engines suffer from. I have been doing g this for months and all of my engines(motorbikes, mowers, gennys, power tools) start every time and now run perfectly; I haven't had any of the prior issues I suffered with since I started using my home-made E0. I keep my big container topped up with E5 or E10(whichever is convenient to get whilst out and about. I use a proper Jerry can to collect it at garages, so they are happy it is a proper container for fuel and they hold a decent quantity) and put a little food co,ouring in, each time I want to make some fuel. Let it stand for about an hour and it is good to decant into a jerry can I keep for freshly made E0. My neighbours have tried my fuel and many now do as I do and experience a revelation in the smooth running of petrol engines. Just a tip in case it helps folk like yourself, friend.

​@@georgezuss2925Many of the examples on KZfaq add water to attract the ethanol. Either 5% or 10% depending on E5 or E10. Do you do this?

@@deanmsimpson No, friend, I don't. But please don't take that as good advice; I'm no expert or better informed than anyone else. I just found that lots of folk put up yt vlogs to rid fuel of water. I was puzzled as to where the water came from. A bit more research told me that the ethanol attracts water from anywhere, even out of the air. Hence, as soon as e5 or e10 leaves the pump and hits the air around it outside and inside your tank, it is literally sucking water out of the air and polluting your tank. Apparently, then, the water pollutant creates havoc with internal combustion engines. Hence, it then made sense why folk were trying to remove it. I honestly can't remember whether the water also absorbs the ethanol(it may well do). If so, that is a double bonus, as the fluid with red dye in it at the bottom of my plastic fuel container would contain all of the pollutant(water & ethanol). So, when I drain off the dyed liquid from the bottom, it would mean I am disposing of all of the pollutant. The only way I can think of to prove it would be to add dye to a container full of fuel, wait and drain off the waste pollutant. Wait for a few days with the cap a little loose and then re-treat the fuel again with dye to see if it mixes with more water. That would prove if any ethanol had remained in the fuel and gone on to attract more water. In honesty, I don't have the fuel around for long after I have filtered it as I try not to keep too much fuel on my premises. In the UK there is a limit of 20litres permitted to be held in storage before you risk official folk paying you a visit and threatening an official temper tantrum. But, in honesty, the fuel has such a noticeable effect on the engine performance and continues to(I don't use my generator, tools, mower or motorbikes all that often) that if the ethanol. Has not been removed, it must take a long time to attract water again. It was so easy to do; the container was at a camping outlet as a water container and I just chose the one with a tap as far toward the hottom as I could. I then just prop up the container at the back on so e wood scraps so that the tap is right at the bottom. The food dye is cheap and available anywhere. I just pour it in with a load of fuel; it soon settles at the bottom. Because the tap is right at the bottom, as soon as you open the tap, it is the red fluid that pours straight out. As soon as all the red pollutant is gone, all that is left is e0. I'm sorry I can't answer your question, friend, I too remember seeing folk put water and food colouring in. I honestly can't remember why they do that. But I was so shocked, Dean, the difference in my motorbikes and my mower were night & day, friend.

Agreed. I run the bike till dry, and then remove all fule from the pipes. Tank is stored seperately

That seems to be the general consensus mate. I will.

I assure u it’s not. It’ll be my GoPro off centre

The video of me riding was consolidated from over an hour of riding. It was an awful experience. I never would have thought the top of the plug snapped whilst in my hallway. Under a cover pal

Thanks for your comments ? Several of us are head scratching as we have the mapping of both companies plugs and their effective heat grading. Please explain ? We are extremely interested in learning more about

It was mate. TBH I have no idea how the plug became broken. It was in my hallway over winter !!! I will blame a visitor or kids !!! thanks for your comments pal.

mate .......

Oh ? I’ve used em for over 45 years and never had a problem until this time ? What makes you think they’re not good ?

Me too,used them for over 40 years,still the best,old triumphs will not run well with the nearest ngk equivalent, the heat range is not right

@@geoffshelis agreed pal spot on

thanks for your comments ...

@Anotherflyonmyvisor Before you think I'm just a modern motorcycle moron...lol I was the proud owner of 1 x fully roadworthy and originally restored Matchless 600 twin. Also enough spares and frames to build another three. I'm also the owner of a 2012 Repsol trim Honda Fireblade and a 2013 BMW GS 1200R. After two years riding the Matchless, I decided the vintage bikes are not for me. I sold everything Matcless. FYI, started ridi g mototcycles as a 16 year old in 1977......happy to be alive!

@@alanthom4641 Ok