Bike sputtered and died while riding?

[ChaoticGS]

So, here we go. I bought myself a 1997 GS a couple weeks ago. Long story short, it was running poorly, and I thought I had fixed it by rebuilding the carbs. The bike ran great until today, when after about 10 miles of riding, it suddenly lost any low end power, and repeatedly died until I decided to stop and call to have it hauled back home.
Now, the bike will start, but it can't seem to find idle perfectly anymore unless the choke is on just a bit. I haven't tried riding it again yet. My guess is the fuel in the tank is bad, and that led to a mess of problems, causing this to happen. My plan is to drain the tank, clean it out somehow and refill it with fresh gas and see if the problem goes away, but I wanted to come to some pros for any tips. Anybody have a better plan of attack? What else should I check for?

TIA everybody!

[Royer Destroyer]

check all your fuel tank lines, check the fuel tap ( on, reserve etc) check your TPS (throttle positional sensor) . Check the tank for holes, other than the filler cap lol.
Good luck

[RideShield]

Mine acted just like that after a rainstorm. Turns out my storage rental leaks. I put some Heet in the tank and it ran fine after draining the bowls. The same worked for a pressure washer I left out in the rain. I suspect that when the water got mixed into the gas it wouldn't run correctly.  I let it sit, it started and I limped back to the storage unit.  Also, I recently cleaned and power washed inside the tank. Clearly I was in a hurry to get out riding again because the tank did not fully dry.
Description
Heet - The specific active ingredients of HEET and ISO-HEET are methanol and isopropanol, respectively. Amazingly enough, ethanol works precisely the same way: Water is absorbed by the ethanol and then gets vaporized in the combustion process.Aug 10, 2019

[Sporty]

So, here we go. I bought myself a 1997 GS a couple weeks ago. Long story short, it was running poorly, and I thought I had fixed it by rebuilding the carbs. The bike ran great until today, when after about 10 miles of riding, it suddenly lost any low end power, and repeatedly died until I decided to stop and call to have it hauled back home.
Now, the bike will start, but it can't seem to find idle perfectly anymore unless the choke is on just a bit. I haven't tried riding it again yet. My guess is the fuel in the tank is bad, and that led to a mess of problems, causing this to happen. My plan is to drain the tank, clean it out somehow and refill it with fresh gas and see if the problem goes away, but I wanted to come to some pros for any tips. Anybody have a better plan of attack? What else should I check for?

TIA everybody!

One always has to separate fuel from ignition problems. Your problem seems to be more likely fuel, so start there.

Drain the float bowls into a shallow container. Look for "balls" of water or debris. If there isn't much fuel in the bowls, check the fuel supply.

I've had trouble with the vacuum tap on another bike not letting enough fuel through. Check the vacuum line to it. Take the line off at the carb "T" , put in in a container and crank the engine. The fuel should come right out when cranked.  You can also install clear fuel line or a clear inline filter to monitor the fuel supply.

If you want to drain the tank, most of it will come out of the tank petcock.  You can remove the tank petcock, but Suzuki advises new oring and screw gaskets to reassemble.  If you have a suction gun or a large syringe, you can tip the tank and suck the remainer of the fuel out.