I have an 05 with a barrons needle... 167.5 main and my PMS sitting at about 2 turns. The bike ran great for a long time 18k miles. Over time it seemed to get harder to start requiring very little choke but I have to hold the throttle on to get it warm. Then it runs fine or did.

Now it's getting harder to start and yesterday when stopping for pop when i went to restart it it started then stalled and fuel came pouring out of the carb. My guess is the float stuck or some crap got in there. I shut it off turned it back on and it started and ran fine the rest of the way home.

The other problem that I have intermittently is that sometimes my MPG falls way off. I get like 130 until the fuel light comes on when it should be about 165-170miles.

My question is can this be float related? If not what else should I check?

-Todd

Sounds like the carb needs to be cleaned.

Oh ... and while you're at it ... check the float needle valve and seat ... they get worn down after a while.

Doc

I would empty that tank, clean the inside with Sea Foam, change the fuel filter, pull the carb and clean the bowl out and when you start it back up give it a shot of Sea Foam. It sounds like it needs a good cleaning.
I would also put some Sea Foam in the gas as a shocking treatment and run it through before I got to crazy.
Might be some gunk sticking something.
I'm sure others will have other ideas, but that's what I would do first.

A clean carb is a happy carb!!

I ran seafoam through it on the previous 2 tanks. I was going to tear into the carb anyway so I guess its going to be sooner than later.

So you don't think that the issues with the bike not being able to take any choke when starting cold but also not idling is float level related? The issue of me having to hold it at 1/4 throttle until it's warm to idle right has been like that for a long time.

How many miles on the bike? Have you checked your fuel filter? Float needle and seat ?

Almost 19,000 on the ODO.. haven't torn into it yet. It will probably be later in the week before I can get to it. I am just trying to get a short list of stuff to check as I dont' have allot of time to muck with it.

The choke issue has bothered me for a while. I would have gotten into that before but it always seemed to run alright once it was warmed up. It just wont idle cold.

I'm not positive if this will effect what your talking about, but you may want to do the choke knob mod. Thats where you cut 1/8 inch off the back of your choke knob and see if that helps, your cable may have stretched over time and not be closing all the way.
Mine was that way and I had not nearly the miles you have.