When I start my bike, it comes alive but the revs slowly drop and eventually it dies out. I'm thinking maybe i should leave the choke on longer, but I did leave it on for a reasonable amount of time.

Today, I got impatient and drove away with partial choke. Soon after the engine died out when I pulled in the clutch to downshift. Did this happen because I was driving with the choke on? It refused to start after that, but i waited awhile and played around with the petcock settings, put it in all the modes, and finally it came alive after a few minutes.

 

how old is the bike?

 

about 20 years.. it usually runs fine, this is the first time its ever done this.

 

when is the last time that you did maintenance on the bike? like cleaning the carbs and fuel filter and whatnot?

 

hmmm i did all that about 1k miles ago. but that was a few years ago. I put it into storage soon after and only recently have I brought it out again.

 

What kind of prep did you do for the bike before you put it into storage?

 

well unfortunately i didn't put fuel stabilizers. I just parked it and that was that. I was expecting the worse when i took it out of storage but it started right up and I've been riding it for about a year now. Do you think I should clean the carbs again? or at flush it with carb cleaner?

 

I would take it a shop and have them take the carbs off and clean them, or just do it yourself if you can.

 

yes you probably want to get the carbs cleaned out thoroughly if it hasn't been done in a while.. can't hurt

just a side note: twisting the throttle with the choke on will make the bike run super rich and will foul the plugs given enough time

check your spark plugs