[alanmcorcoran]

Ravenous,

Let me preface this with the caveat, "I'm not a real mechanic, and I couldn't even play one on TV." I sort of had the opposite problem - mine would idle, but as soon as I touched the throttle it would stall out. Basically it couldn't handle anything but the minimal RPM's. That being said, I've let mine idle for ten minutes or more without any noticeable issues. The main thing I can tell you is that, I have on multiple occasions, experienced extremely crappy carburation issues that cleared up entirely simply by getting 150 miles of gas and some carb cleaner through the works. And, on one occasion, no amount of riding would fix it and I had to take it to a dealer to get it fixed. On the had-to-go-to-the-dealer problem, it actually took three visits until they got it fixed up. I'm not sure if they just shined on the carb cleaning or what they did wrong the first two times, but when I went down there the THIRD time and made a complete asshole of myself (not difficult for me) they got it fixed right up (and it's been running good ever since.)

So to sum up: Many GZ carb issues are the result of inactivity, which the bike is very sensitive to, and can be self fixed by non-mechanics if you can get the bike to run well enough to run a tank of gas through it. But some are not going to respond to this and will need to be addressed by a mechanic. It's going to be up to you to decide which category yours falls in. Good luck and let us know how you make out.

Be careful with the gas. Don't mess with the spark plug, or the battery or the battery charger, if you got gas all over the place. Avoid wearing synthetic clothing when working around gas, especially "pull-over" (non button) shirts. If you get gas on your clothes, stop what you are doing and carefully change your clothes. And no smoking!