Long story short, I bought this '98 500R with about 24k miles from a friend of mine for a pretty good price. I know that he drove the bike for about 7 months and put (I think) about 1000 miles on it, without doing any maintenance other than adding some chain lube when he first got it. Even though the bike was moderately neglected, I know it wasn't ridden terribly hard. The owner before him drove the bike for about the same amount of time, and also didn't do any maintenance. However, I've been told that the bike was completely serviced before the second previous owner bought it, so probably 2000 miles ago or so.
Anyway, on to the real issue. I bought this bike about 4 days ago, and have only put about 7 miles on the bike. I go to school in Clemson but I have a shop in Charleston where I do a lot of work on my cars, so my plan was to drive the bike some around here, then put it in my roommate's truck to bring back to Charleston to really service the bike well. I was on the highway a few days ago and the engine started to run really strangely. I couldn't hear anything due to my helmet and the wind noise, but by the time I made it to an exit and pulled off, the bike would barely accelerate out of first gear. By the time I limped it back to my apartment complex (luckily I was only about a half-mile away), it wouldn't run. Having read many of the posts on this and other websites, I pulled the carbs and cleaned the entire pilot jet circuit based on the information provided here. The carbs looked really clean, and I could see light through the pilot jets. I cleaned them anyway using a single strand of copper wire and carb cleaner until they were absolutely the prettiest pilot jets a woman could ever desire. I set the mixture screws 2.5 turns out, put the carbs back together and on the bike, and still -- nothing. I pulled a stock plug (which looked fine, by the way) and replaced it with a new plug, then attempted to start the bike a few more times. Then I removed the new plug and it was completely dry. I loosened the drain plugs at the bottom of the carbs and saw that fuel was dripping out, so I know the carbs are getting fuel, but it isn't getting to the motor. The pilot jets and any associated passages are clean as well. Any idea as to what my problem could be?
Anyway, on to the real issue. I bought this bike about 4 days ago, and have only put about 7 miles on the bike. I go to school in Clemson but I have a shop in Charleston where I do a lot of work on my cars, so my plan was to drive the bike some around here, then put it in my roommate's truck to bring back to Charleston to really service the bike well. I was on the highway a few days ago and the engine started to run really strangely. I couldn't hear anything due to my helmet and the wind noise, but by the time I made it to an exit and pulled off, the bike would barely accelerate out of first gear. By the time I limped it back to my apartment complex (luckily I was only about a half-mile away), it wouldn't run. Having read many of the posts on this and other websites, I pulled the carbs and cleaned the entire pilot jet circuit based on the information provided here. The carbs looked really clean, and I could see light through the pilot jets. I cleaned them anyway using a single strand of copper wire and carb cleaner until they were absolutely the prettiest pilot jets a woman could ever desire. I set the mixture screws 2.5 turns out, put the carbs back together and on the bike, and still -- nothing. I pulled a stock plug (which looked fine, by the way) and replaced it with a new plug, then attempted to start the bike a few more times. Then I removed the new plug and it was completely dry. I loosened the drain plugs at the bottom of the carbs and saw that fuel was dripping out, so I know the carbs are getting fuel, but it isn't getting to the motor. The pilot jets and any associated passages are clean as well. Any idea as to what my problem could be?