I can only presume Bill that he used to run with it out, but when he p/ex'd it (I got it at trade in the dealers) he put the plug back in to revert it back to standard.
I've been running with it out all the time since my original post, having put the standard silencer back on, and it's been perfect still. Not a hint of surging, fuel consumption seems about normal (45 ish) and plugs don't seem too bad, perhaps a little dark.
I recently purchased a 99 1100GS that had bad surging between 3000-4000 rpm, and I tried the remove plug and reset the ECU trick and bugger me it works brilliant, at all rev's the bike response is superb, it's made a good bike better.
However you get nowt for nowt in this life, and since this is the first bike I've owned thats had injectors and all that malarky, so my question is what expensive component have I shorten'd the life of,
1. all that extra fuel can't do the CAT any good
2. the injetors
3. barrels
4. the bike failing the MOT on emmissoins
5. the whole bike
6. something I haven't thought of
1. Catalytic convertor doesn't get poisoned by a bit more fuel - if it did, there would be no acceleration enrichment possible.
2. Injectors can handle all that is thrown at them. It is not so much the size, but the duration of the opening time which determines fuel passage.
3. Barrels - hmmm... too much fuel WILL shorten their life, but this would be felt as 'hunting' with a mixture rich enough to cause damage.
4. Emissions are not tested on bike MOT's.
5. More power probably = more wear in the transmission but you would struggle to notice the difference.
6. I can't think of it, either!
Oh no ... thats the gay relay ... take it out and put in a drab beige on before you start liking Barbara Streisand...
If it runs fine ... leave it alone... many owners (and technicians) have changed them in the hope of curing surging ... but as mentioned in this thread ... if you pop the top off the "relay" ... its just a rather non-technical bit of wire ... quite a nice bit of wire ... but still just a bit of wire ...
I found that the best way to cure surging was to not use cheap supermarket fuel ... its rubbish ...