rich front spark plug

[Sundance]

Mike,

Just returned from a 4700 mile trip from Seattle to Iowa, Missouri, Denver then home. I changed plugs in Denver(experiencing disappearing oil)not bad this time))and noticed the aft plug had a normal burn but the front plug was
obviously running rich not oil fouled. I questioned a mechanic at Sun HD, his opinion was it's normal for hot weather in that the fuel injected bikes run richer for cooling purposes. Does this sound normal to you?
Thank you Mike.

[Mike]

If heat management is active it will skip spark on one cylinder and this could cause the plug to show rich. HM also richens the mixture as the temperature increases, but this occurres in both cylinders equally. HM is usually pretty noticable and riders often realize when it is active (although many are not). Two things com to mind. One, if it is an 05 model bike, it coud be a leaking valve guide seal (sometimes looks like fuel in the early stages). There are updated seals to correct this problem, but requires the heads to be pulled. Two, if the bike has or has not been tuned with some sort of device like Race Tuner or Power Commander, it may be that the tune is off for the riding environment found when cruising on long trips. It is not unusual for a bike to run entirely different around town/short trips vs. long trips/cruising at freeway speeds for extended periods. Last, I'm always a little skeptical about spark plug readings unless we're sure that a proper "plug chop" was done as run time after startup, RPM's and load conditions can change the plug color dramatically.
Thanks, Mike