Let me see if I can explain this one.

The idle is a little rough.
When I ride around town at slow speed there is a little bit of surging at constant throttle, in other words when the bike catches up to the throttle and is running at constant speed there seems to be a little surge, it's not something I feel but something I hear. Doing slight deceleration is rough rather than the smooth transition from constant speed to slowing down it is rough. When sitting parked and holding the throttle open it surges. But at highway speeds when under load it runs fine. Acceleration is fine.
When I bought the bike it came with after market pipes, the ones with all the seperate pipes being straight thru. It also had the after market needle kit. I removed the a/m pipes and put the stock back on (I don't like all that noise when driving a thousand miles), I also adjusted the a/m needles back to stock specs. It ran fine for about 4 years then this spring after sitting all winter it came out of the garage with this condition.
I drove it from Amarillo to New Mexico and as I got into New Mexico it started running so rough and blowing black smoke that I pulled over to the side of the road and re-adjusted the needles. That cured the problem for the New Mexico trip except now it's doing it again. And worse.
I don't think it's the needles but I could be wrong. I finally found the stock needles and am going to re-install them today. But like I say I don't think this is a needle problem. It acts like some thing is either leaking or out of adjustment. I checked all the vacuum lines and tank filters. All OK. I also installed new plugs, although the old ones were in good shape.
Anyone have any ideas? Would those flexible parts that hold the needles cause this if they are leaking??
Thanks
Larry