wtf

I was out riding for about an hour today, and as I was riding home on the highway I shifted up, and it immediately started like stuttering pretty bad. I went ooh shiet this isnt good and pulled over asap. It wouldn't start up right away, I had to sit around a couple of minutes and then she fired back up. Idk if this means anything but the neutral light wouldn't go on when it was dead. I got back on and started riding.

It then happened 2 more times at a red light then right by my house. Both times right after I down shifted and was coming to a stop. It just died. The throttle just seemed off before dieing and after starting it up.

Its an 05 with idk close to 8k miles. I bought it with around 7k and have no idea of how well it was maintained.

I'm thinking its the carbs? Im almost 100% sure they've never been cleaned. Ive never cleaned carbs out so its going to be quite the task for me, I might just bring it to this bike shop thats nearby. I bought a spray carb cleaner, felt it was better than nothing. Im going to run that through soon and I also bought a new air filter.

I just changed the spark plugs 2 weeks ago. It was odd though, the left spark plug didnt come out as smooth as the right one, and there was some black stuff on the threads.

What else could be causing this?

Sounds to me like your GS is low on gas. I get the exact same symptoms on mine when the tank is running low.The gas sloshes away from the tank petcock when you are braking fast or slowing down due to down shifting. The same things happens when you pull away fast. Fill up the tank and see if the problem goes away. I'm not sure if i misunderstood you... but the neutral light doesn't have to come on just because the bike died while riding (unless you actually shifted to neutral).... only the oil light would light up.

Thanks man, it actually is rather low on gas but not low enough to where I thought Itd be a problem.

Yep... the tank design isn't that great ..... especially the petcock placement. It isn't designed to be lowest point in the tank. It was confusing to me when it happened the first time. The bike started bucking like it was low on gas and I could still see plenty of gas at the bottom when i looked inside. Filled her up everything was back to normal.