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All 4 spark plugs look fine to me, too.

The angled wire on the plug has some tan markings, so I would also ride it more. If it seems to be running cool enough your likely good. The timing check is worth looking into if your inclined to do so. The porcelain is whitish, yet as previously noted, I feel the ethanol in the gas contributes towards that condition and more riding may start to show a tan colour on the porcelain area.
Seems like you have solved the rad cap issue which is a win.

The general consensus appears that I should go ride

DSA wrote: ↑Fri Oct 20, 2023 9:43 pm The general consensus appears that I should go ride

As Rocky said “absolutely “ !!!

Working hard on the "ride the crap out of it" advice
In the meantime, something else has occurred to me: my bike has a chromed metal radiator shield that I've been assuming is OEM. Turns out it's not - looks like OEM is a much less bulky mesh.
In addition to weighing a TON and being (to these eyes) a bit gaudy, I can easily imagine this shield reducing the total airflow available to the radiator. I'd estimate it reduces the frontal area of the radiator that is exposed to air by a bit less than half. I took it off and went for a ride yesterday, and it seems like engine temps were cooler - but then again, it's also gotten substantially colder here over the last few weeks. Will do a back-to-back run next weekend. I'll still need to get some sort of radiator protection at some point, ideally OEM, because these fins like any other folded sheetmetal ones are very delicate.

Pictures ???

Here are a couple of the grill, removed from the bike.

That looks like a good winter cover to a cooling guy like me. Reduces airflow around 30% or more. Fine for lowlands with mild temperature but not mild temperature with big hills.

Thanks for the feedback - agreed. I'm going to work on sourcing an OEM one. And if that fails, I can't imagine it's too hard to fashion a piece of mesh into the right shape and bolt it in.

EBAY has lots of used oem GL1000 radiator screens listed there. Here's an example. Free shipping and Make Offer, too.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/404170242803?h ... R77qsKWIYw

Ordered one off ebay! Thanks Cliff

Yep.

Mine came with one of those rad grilles when I got it. I liked it at first but it had a broken weld on one rib so it always buzzed and after about a dozen years my taste changed and the buzz started to annoy me. One day I was at a wrecker looking for something else and I saw an original grille so I bought it.

FWIW, I didn't notice any difference in the engine temperature. I think the size of the ribs is deceptive in that regard.