Hey I brought my gs back in march of this year in England. The bike is in very good condition in my techs and my opinion, I have cleaned the carbs put in a rebuild kit changed all of the fuel pipes for new installed a small fuel filter, however last week the bike cut out whilst riding I managed to put it onto prime as I read on here before doing so cuts of the vacuum seal which worked I have since taken apart the secondary pet chicken which was nasty and the seals we all beyond repair visibly able to see where it had pulled so much on the seals and started to tear. I am in the process of getting a replacement seal kit however it seems like its going to be a few weeks and there is a lot of different opinions on what is best to do. I am not sure if I wait for the seal kit or change to a simple on off pet chicken or someone said about switching to a Honda cr250 petcock which is better however I cant find that  thread again. Any help would be really apricated.

I bought my GS (K4/2004) back in 2013. Previous Owner had dumped the vacuum fuel tap and fitted a very basic gravity feed tap. I put well over 25K miles on it in the next 8 years before it was nicked last year and never had any probs whatsoever with fuel supply to carbs.

Only ever did basic carb clean - gunk out of floatbowls, replace float valves, adjust float height, gasket replacement, clean all jet passages, rectify PO cockup with diaphragm crease (reassembly VERY CAREFULLY essential), replaced all carb screws/bolts with Hex versions. Never changed any jetting whatsoever (did fiddle with clip and washer settings a tad) - if t'aint broke don't fix etc imho.

Never understood why a vacuum fuel tap needed, works perfectly well with a trad gravity feed tap in my experience.

Other peoples mileage obv varies of course, but in IME in UK - no probs at all...

Happy Trails old fruit