Me: New guy, Minnesota, 47, retired on disability in April
Bike: 1999 Roadstar with 16K miles
Problem: Carb puking

Yes, the dreaded carb puking, dripping gas under the airbox on start-up. It's never done this before, but the bike sat pretty much unridden last year (back problems, hence the early retirement) and then over the winter. I don't imagine that was very good for it, but I come from a long line of idiots. I installed a new battery and new spark plugs and a fresh tank of gas with some Seafoam in it. Aside from some smoke on start-up, which wasn't unexpected given that the bike sat for so long, it seems to be running okay. Still have to change the oil.

I've read several threads about carb puking elsewhere, but I'm not sure I saw a real solution to the problem. It isn't happening just on hot days, not that we get any hot days in northern Minnesota. It's happening on start-up while it's idling and warming up and it's a new problem. It started yesterday. I turned it off and cleaned up the spilled gasoline, turned off the petcock as suggested in another thread and started it up again and it seemed to work for a while before starting again.

Is this something that goes away once I have the bike out on the road? I'm not really relishing the idea of gasoline spilling out onto hot pipes and a hot engine. If it's something common to Roadstars, I can handle that and any minor annoyances when I'm first starting it up to go for a ride. Is there something besides starting it up with the petcock in the "off" position that I can do? I can't really answer complicated technical questions like how my carb is jetted and that sort of thing. I'm a verified, certified 100% moron when it comes to mechanical aptitude, but I'm trying to learn.

Thanks for any advice!