Thanks everyone who responded to my post. After soaking followed by spray carb cleaner and reassembly I got it back on the bike this afternoon and it runs great. Good low idle, no hesitation when opening the throttle and no lag when backing off. Good power in all ranges.

Thanks again all for pointing me in the right direction and helping me to know what the look out for.

 

Don't know if I said it here or not, but I never shut the gas off while the bike sits for any period of time. Two reasons:

1. If you turn off the petcock, but don't drain the float bowl the part of the gas in there that can,will evaporate off leaving a residue. That residue can flake off or turn to goo and get in your pilot/idle circuit and clog it up. See that all the time, bike runs great on choke (on the unclogged choke circuit) and at high revs (bigger main jet), but dies when choke is off.
2. The one year I turned off the gas and drained the float bowl the float needle seized up in the body, stuck open. Gas ran out the overflow, but it also ran into the intake, filling it up, because the valve seal was air/liquid tight. Fortunately the overflow through the vent was noticed before I tried turning it over. Turning it over might have hydro-locked the engine.

I figure the float needle will stay moist, allow gas to enter the carb, and if it does stick it will be quite obvious by the gas on the floor (never happened in the last twenty years) long before starting.

I do have to drain the old gas out of the float bowl before starting, since we here in Ohio get gas that loses flammability over a couple weeks sitting in the float bowl. Usually around 3 weeks in the 250 and a week in the 650.

 

What about turning the gas off and letting the bike run until it dies. No good?

 

Most of the time in short term... refer to reason #2... just the way it goes when I try to do the right thing.

If you are going to have the bike sit for a longer time, like a couple months, you want to drain the carb float bowl using the drain screw at the bottom of the bowl. Crack it open, let it drain. I'd even stand the bike up straight to make sure most of the gas comes out.

Thing is when I did that the float pin actually seized in the bore. I had to tear down the carb and pull it out with needle nose pliers, then clean the bore and the needle. An unusual thing to happen for sure.

Still, I just don't turn it off, much easier.