something not right

[scoobydoo]

i've had my 98 standard about 6 months had 22k now has 28k It ran great would start with just a little push of the button smooth right away. Now it cranks over about 15 seconds then hits and fires but runs rough, but will clear up after revving it up a few times. At times it cranks over but doesn't seem to fire until I use the chock lever it then fires but it again rough for a while. It may be in my head but power seems a bit down also.
I took a trip a couple weeks ago and while gone out of the blue the float stuck on the front cyl. on the left bank and it hydro locked. cleared the cyl. and rode the rest of the weekend as I was 500 miles from home. It was running rich on that cyl. but cleared up after a while. Don't know if this makes a difference but it also rained that weekend and had to ride in the rain about 450 miles the bike got good and wet.
After getting home I have ran 2 tanks with a strong mix of seaform, But it has not gotten any better.
Before the trip everything was ok after the trip & fuel problem not right.
What could of changed? where do I start ?
Miss the old bike!
any help would be much appreciated
Scoobydoo

[Valker]

Sounds like you need to drain the "Drool tube" under the bike. That is the one with a screw in plug. Careful, it's nasty stuff.

[Thunderbolt]

sounds like it it weak.

[Ricky-D]

Some things I would suggest would be:

Replace the plugs. See how the old plugs look. This could give you a clue to what's up!

Drain the float bowls for each carburetor to hopefully expel any crud that accumulated in the bowls.

Change the brand of gasoline you're using.  Sometimes this will surprise you.

Try some other brand of gasoline additive like maybe Techron. Use a massive dose in a full tank.

Check for any vacuum leaks and tighten all connections.

Could be useful to check air cleaner for obstruction from dirt.

As a final thing here, I don't think revving the motor is a proper tool for good running.  Warming the motor is best achieved by maintaining a smooth fast idle, revving the motor to me is antiproductive although it should not hurt the motor.

***

[Old Geezer Richard]

 Hey Scooby , I had my Valk running like a top and all of a sudden on the Interstate , it started to miss out real bad and the damn popping coming out of the exhaust pipes sound just like popcorn on the freeway  ...  I could of sworn it was the vacum hoses because of the popping  even tho I had already changed out ALL my vacume hoses .....  but guess what ,  I called my mechanic friend and told him the story and HE said , what heat range are you running and I said what the book calls for a 9 plug  ......  he said wrong, because here in the San Antonio area where we have alot of humidity I need to run alittle hotter plug and go use the 7 plug instead of the 9 .... low and behold I put some 7 plugs and the Old Fat Lady she is running better than ever before .... He said that plugs will foul out when you least expect it and when they do go foul all the cleaning and regapping won't help ya  .....  so thats my story Scoobydo and my Valk is still running  " Bitchin good "  so maybe check your plugs and smell them and see if you can smell gas on them , it worked for me  ....   Thanks Old Geezer Richard

[Daniel Meyer]

...out of the blue the float stuck on the front cyl. on the left bank and it hydro locked.

You need to check the function and probably rebuild or replace your petcock. It can also cause a lot of the other symptoms...

-dm