If anyone is interested, I think I figured out a couple of the problems-
one) the valves were way out of spec
b) the needle valve and float assembly in my Whunnderful Mikuni carb are cr@p.
and...
well, I guess that's about it.
Oh, and the petc0ck is garbage as well. I already did the manual conversion, but I think I'm just going to convert the whole thing to on and off (with an inline filter, of course)
Other than that, I am really ejoying the hell out of this bike.