My RT1B has been a bit of a swine to start all of a sudden.
I put it down to other things,but today i went to it and tried to start it.
It spat back and then miss fired only to go on to run.
It sounded odd.I heard a knock from the motor then it died.
I pulled the new NGK plug thats gapped and earthed it out and hoofed the bike over.
Nothing. I picked an old plug up i always keep popped it in the cap and kicked it over and there's a spark.
Swapped it over and the first kick didn't even reach the bottom of it's stroke and it was away. Really quiet.
I thought back to a post on here a few weeks ago and checked the plug only to see " MADE IN FRANCE "
scribed on it. Never seen that before and i bought the plugs ( 4 of them) from the Yamaha dealer i always use.
Last time home the same thing happened with the HT1B. The plug was tossed in the scrap bin. I fished it out only to see the same thing written on it.
I have complained like hell to NGK see what i get from them.
Will keep you posted .

Disappointing that it's happened with plugs from a reputable source. No chance of returning them and getting a refund?

Because of what I've been reading about this lately I've been buying many NGK plugs from local dealers and eBay that are in old boxes and have been sitting around for awhile. I think I have enough real ones to last me the next several years.

Really gets my back up with cheapening a quality product, just to make a few more cents.
Unfortunately the world is full of sub standard goods now, it's the throw away society and cheap Chinese imports.

Rant over, I'm off to consume some quality beer 

I wonder if the dealer even knows about it and if they are ordering direct from NGK or perhaps saving a buck and ordering from somewhere else as there are a lot of cheaper fake NGK plugs out there on places like Amazon.

Be good to see detailed pics of the offending plugs. I've never looked to see where they're made but never had need to look as not had a faulty one--yet. Plug tester at work was good as could look in the window with the plug under pressure & see it short out down the insulator but was only from oily carbon mostly, so a sand blast in the plug cleaner & away again. Had to be careful picking all the sand & carbon out deep down with a sharp scratchy thing. Wonder where that machine went, would be handy at home.

Hi Al.
I'm waiting to hear from NGK.
I'm going to mention it to Raceways tomorrow.
They're pretty decent and I know them well.
I don't think they know.

I've just checked the batch that I got from my local bike shop last autumn and no sign of Made In France anywhere. Photos attached.

  

I've had such fantastic luck with Autolite.. and since they are phasing out most of the non-resistor plugs I've also bought what should be a lifetime supply of old stock from sellers on ebay...  very cheap a couple of years ago.

 

I recently bought some old stock NGK plugs for a MX250B, they take a plug that is no longer manufactured, have to rely on eBay, some of the plugs I bought were NOS from Japan. I also found a local mom and pop auto parts store and bought out their remaining stock of NGK B8ES AND B9ES  spark plugs.