Robert, how many miles are on those plugs? They look like your bike is running too lean. I might be tempted to go to the colder IK22 spark plug.
3500k, And yes they are pretty clean but then again I'm sure all of the Goldwing types are pretty much
the same way. Modern engines with fuel injection, water cooling and O2 sensors, unleaded gas are not going to look much different with that kind of mileage.
I bet if you pulled one of yours you would find the same thing. Going to a cooler range is not really going to help with the color and I have no pre ignition or knocking and the electrode is not melted or showing signs of heat damage. If the engine was lean the check engine light would also come on.
My 01 is a golden brown color perfect for carburetor engines and more what you and I would be used to in a properly tuned pre emission world.
I was also surprised that the bike actually does seem to run better, smoother and maybe a bit quicker. Put antisieze on the new plugs because they actually squeaked coming out. Glad I did it actually, plugs were not expensive either.
Was curious so I looked for Goldwings and plug color and found this carburetor 1100 with 3500 miles on them and look pretty much what you would expect but still pretty white.
http://goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2211