Intermittent problems are the worst!

[keman]

Don't miss the BBQ weekend in Auburn Washington mid July. We will be doing some wrenching and a few short rides. Great way to meet fellow GS folks. There are several riders coming down from BC for this event.>>>

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=190862

While you have things apart. Get new orings for the carbs from cycleorings.com, including the intake gaskets that go between the intake side of the head and the output tubes from the carbs. An air leak there will cause all sorts of oddness. They are almost always bad on these bikes.

[bottobot]

The stock plugs are B8ES, not BR8ES. If you have resistor caps on the plugs (stock items), you do not need resistor plugs.
However, if you have non-resistor caps, you should have resistor plugs.
Remove one of the plug caps (they unscrew from the end of the wire) and measure its resistance. If it's about 5k ohms, get the B8ES plugs.

Well these sure did the trick Steve. Took the bike for a multi leg jaunt around town and it was running pretty good! I also went and ordered a new set of rings for the carbs and intakes from cycleoring on another recommendation here. I am going to take the bike for a longer shakeout ride early tomorrow morning with my friend who I originally gave the bike to. Its smoking way more than I'd like so I will be doing a compression test tomorrow at some point too.

That being said, this bike needs a big tune up. All the fluids refreshed, suspension renewed, new rings and from the sounds of it a new shims and a valve adjustment. But for now.... I get to ride!

And because you guys like pics so much, I took a video of the bike finally running

http://youtu.be/EysiFWVM0RI