OT: Motorcycle Guru's, Dual Carb Question Options

[saigon71]

My Ninja 250 (don't knock it till you try it), won't idle without the choke on at least part way (after warmup). There is a definate flat spot through the low RPM range, but once you break through it, the bike winds out well. It has been this way since it rolled out of the shed after winter. I have some sea foam carb cleaner in the tank, and while I have not been riding it a lot, things have not really improved. Idle jet clog?

Thanks.

[TargaToy]

Are you familiar with and fairly proficient with carbs? Whatever you do, do not soak them in a bucket of carb cleaner or just start spraying it into passages.

Remove the carbs (keeping the two connected to each other) and very carefully remove the float bowls. It's easiest to clamp them upside-down in a vise while you do this. You'll push the pin that the float pivots on out of its position and GENTLY remove the float and needle valve attached to it. This stuff's delicate and cannot be bumped, bent, or pryed on or it'll lose fuel level adjustment.

You'll then be looking at a few tubes and what lookes like sloted brass screws facing straight up. These are your jets. CAREFULLY remove each with the correctly sized slotted screwdriver. They are soft. Take your time.

Get some carb cleaner, compressed air, fine wire (guitar string) and eye protection. Now you can soak those jets and then look through each like an aperture to verify you've got a nice round passage. If not, there's the gunk. Clean them, blow them dry, and replace.

While you've got them out, put your glasses back on and you can spray some carb cleaner into the very tiny passages you'll see in the carb bottom and throat. Chase this with compressed air to make sure everything you spray in comes out somewhere.

Has this bike been rejetted? If not, I would recommend drilling out the EPA caps carefully and removing the idle mixture screws just in case there's gunk there too. Before you remove these screws, you bottom them into their holes and very carefully count the number of turns required. Write that figure down. It'll be the base setting once you go to put everything back together.

If you lived closer, I'd help. Sorry for the novel.

I've stopped winterizing my bike because the spring blues are a pain in the neck. Instead, I set my phone to remind me once a month to run the bike (and our generator). I give it a quick jaunt every couple weeks in the winter which keeps it in much better shape than winterizing and storing, it seems.