[Thatgloverguy]

Originally Posted by InvisiBill

What they said. Your description makes it sound like it's temporarily "running out of gas". Obviously, a fuel filter that's clogged or too small could cause fuel starvation.

The tank vent can also result in this, as it causes a vacuum in the tank that keeps fuel from flowing out like it's supposed to. It's the equivalent of shutting off the petcock, so the carbs actually do run out of fuel. Opening the gas cap will fix it, but you'll still have to wait for fuel to flow down and refill the carbs again. If the bike has already stalled, that means some time spent cranking the engine to create vacuum and open the petcock (assuming it's working properly). If you keep a spare key in the gas cap, you can test it by popping it open while riding when the problem starts. It should behave like flipping to Reserve when you're low on gas - it may take a moment, but gas should start flowing into the carbs and it'll run like normal again.

I tried running with the gas tank open with no improvement. I'm thinking from all of the advice here that it's the fuel filter and possibly faulty petcock. Both will be replaced by Wednesday...so we will see