Last week I finally got around to adding a single washer to each of the carb needles on my 02 gs to solve my cold starting/long warm up problem. After about 200 miles now the bike seems to be running great and the cold starting problems I had are now nonexistent. Until today everything was great-then came the problem. Today after I was cruising around in stop and go traffic for a couple hours the bike suddenly started to idle around 3000 everytime I would get to a stop. Sometimes it would return to normal in a few seconds, other times it would stay at high idle until I got going again. I have never had this problem before so I am assuming it is due to the recent needle adjustments. Anybody know what the problem might be? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
lou

Before you start tearing the carbs apart again, have you checked the obvious? Throttle cable binding? Choke cable binkding?

My bike has always had a touchy idle. Once it's warm I generally need to turn down the idle thumb screw a little. Sometimes on a long ride I'll have to do it a few times as the bike runs hotter..

That's lean... air screw it octane... 1/2 turn... You can actually set it up to idle lower when hot than cold... Over do it and your bike will never start hot... Been there ... Lean at idle is OK... just make it as close to right but still lean as you can get it on the coldest day in the area you live in.
Cool.
Srinath.

It's like one guy said a few months ago on this site "Carburetors are the devil".  I have a 2002.  It has over 15,000 miles on it.
I have the damn same problem the bike is stock and it started at about 12,000 miles.  No it's not the cables guys.  I'm getting the damn thing rejetted and synched etc by Suzuki in about a week.  It ain't fun crawling in the Lincoln Tunnel and all of a sudden you idel goes up to 3000 rpm.
I would adjust it down and it would be ok for the rest of the trip.  After it cools off the idle is too low, and the nightmare starts again.  It seems many people have this problem.  If this was a car there would be a recall.  But since it's a bike everyone puts up with it.  That is why carbs suck.  I love the FI on my new V-Strom 650.  Never will by a carb bike again.

Quote from: mp183It's like one guy said a few months ago on this site "Carburetors are the devil".  I have a 2002.  It has over 15,000 miles on it.
I have the damn same problem the bike is stock and it started at about 12,000 miles.  No it's not the cables guys.  I'm getting the damn thing rejetted and synched etc by Suzuki in about a week.  It ain't fun crawling in the Lincoln Tunnel and all of a sudden you idel goes up to 3000 rpm.
I would adjust it down and it would be ok for the rest of the trip.  After it cools off the idle is too low, and the nightmare starts again.  It seems many people have this problem.  If this was a car there would be a recall.  But since it's a bike everyone puts up with it.  That is why carbs suck.  I love the FI on my new V-Strom 650.  Never will by a carb bike again.

I agree....why can't they just fix the damn problem with the carbs....although i like carbs, i've noticed that only cheap bikes have this problem...imagine riding a R6 or a zx6r and always having to adjust the idle....since they have a fairing it's imposible to always adjust the idle screw...

my bike, well i have to adjust my idle every time i stop at a light  

Thanks for the help everyone. Took me a while to get to working on the bike but I think it's fixed. I checked the cables all seemed to be free of any problems so I ran the bike for a few minutes and noticed that even after only a few minutes it was running at nearly 2000 rpm. So I adjusted the Idle mixture screw to the about 1200(which is where it shoud be-DUH). I took it out for the day and didn't notice the same problem anymore, so hopefully it will be cool now. I guess I had not really noticed that the Idle was way to high since I never really ride the GS anymore(it's the wifes bike now). Anyway, thanks again for the help.

I had this problem also but a very extreme version.  My jetting was very lean and the bike would run itself up to about 6,000RPM and just hang there.  Makes you nervous.  I rejetted richer and the bike runs about 100% better    however I still have to screw around with that air idle screw now and again also...  :dunno:

ASLAM.