I recently bought my wife an '06 250. Initially, all was well. We only rode it for short periods of maybe 10-30 minutes until we could get it all legal and always on backroads going <50mph...until about 2 weeks ago.
Some bike history: Previous owner said the bike had sat in the garage for several months with fuel stabilizer. Bike test drove well and the only issue I could find was a small leak around the petcock. Since purchase I've replaced gas, changed oil, and changed spark plugs.
Where the problems start:
About 20 minutes into a ride, and 5 minutes of steady speeds of 65+mph, the bike began to jump a bit, lose power, sporadic throttle reponse, and it died. I tried choke, opening the gas cap, swapping to reserve, but couldn't get it to start back up. We waited about 5 minutes and it fired right up. The bike ran for about 2 minutes, lost power and died again. I repeated this stall, troubleshoot, wait, start, ride, stall cycle several times until we finally got the bike back home. The next day I took apart the petcock to see if I was having fueling issues related to the leak. I found that the petcock would flow gasoline freely with engine off/no vacuum. So I replaced the spring and fixed that issue. I'm currently awaiting a brand new petcock from partzilla, and will go ahead and replace the whole thing because I couldn't stop the leak.
The next day I took the bike for a ride to see if I still had issues. Again, five minutes into highway speeds and it died. I repeated the cycld of starting/dying again until I got home. I noticed that while idling my rpm's were all over the place, and it died idling several times. Choke didn't seem to help, nor did opening the gas tank. Since then, the bike won't start at all. I have two theories, 1: Before I replaced the petcock spring, the engine was being flooded with fuel, and now the new spring is causing too much restriction, starving it. 2: My carbs are likely gummed up and need cleaned or rebuilt.
Before I start messing with the carbs, I'm going to see if the new petcock gives any improvement. But while I await it's shipment, I've come across some things I'd like some opinions on (I'm not very versed on motorcycle repair or mechanics, so please bare with me.)
1. The rubber vent hose that runs from the rear of the gas tank. Is this actually a vent? The hose itself isn't plugged. I've removed it and blown clear through it. But with it attached to the tank, I can't blow any air whatsoever through it. Is this normal?
2. I drained the float bowls after the bike wouldn't start at all. There was about 2 tbsp of gas in the left one (closest to petcock), and only 1/2 tsp in the right one. Then I cranked the bike for 10 secs, no start, and drained them again with the same result...seems odd?
3. I noticed this small hose on the left side of the carb was slightly kined.
http://imgur.com/a/oZP9qmk Can anyone tell me what this hose connects? Could restriction here cause issues like mine?
Thanks for reading. I'm sorry that my first post had to be a lengthy call for help, but I'm so lost.