Okay, so I get my bike running, and I think everything's fine.  There was a small crack in the fuel hose from the fuelc0ck to the carb, so I replaced it.  I go out, start the bike, and after a minute or so fuel starts leaking under the fuel tank, onto, I dunno, maybe it's the starter.

So I take a look, and it's wet around the area where I changed the fuel hose, so I assume I got the clamps too loose.  I tighten them, everything seems fine, I go for a ride.

Next time, I start the bike, after a minute or so, fuel's leaking again.  This time it seems like it's coming from a hose that's connected to the back of the carb.  There are two of them, one on the left and one on the right.  I think i moved it when I took the fuel tank off.  So I remove the fuel tank again, and the one on the right just seems to be stuffed in a little area under a sensor, not hooked to anything, so I put the one on the left there too.  I had a funny feeling I'd have issues with this again, so I went ahead and took pics, cause I know my descriptions aren't that great:

http://s979.photobucket.com/albums/ae277/vanillaxtrakt/

I start it up, everything seems fine, I go for a ride.

I went for a couple of rides and everything seems fine.

Well, it starts doing it again yesterday.  Basically the bike will run for a minute or so, then fuel will drip out of the end of those hoses.  If i give the bike gas, more fuel runs out of the hoses.  I haven't let it run too long once it starts leaking, cause it just doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

I don't even know what these things are for.  I think someone said they're vent hoses.  That makes sense cause they sure aren't hooked to anything.  I can't even find them in the Clymer manual.

I'm guessing this isn't good or normal.  Any idea what causes this or how to fix it?  I'm guessing I'm gonna have to take the carburetor apart, which is exactly what I've been trying to avoid...

Yup,... DD nailed it....

+1

(Just a heads up, I've got a couple questions that I've bolded, for anyone wishing to skip my usual rambling.)

I finally bit the bullet and took my carburetor apart and cleaned a couple weekends ago.  I've been waiting to post, cause the first time I started my bike up after cleaning the carb, it seemed to run okay, but acted like it wasn't getting enough gas.  It wouldn't run without me giving it throttle, and never seemed to warm up.  Determined, I let it rest for a few minutes, started it up again, and it ran better than ever.

The next time I went out, to my surprise, it started leaking fuel again.  I turned it off and waited for a few minutes, tried again, and it was fine.  Since then I've had several times starting it where it's started and ran great, and a few where it's leaked fuel after I've first started it, so I turn it off, wait a few minutes, try again, and it's fine.

Did I not clean it well enough?  Do I need to clean it again?  I don't understand, because I followed all the directions pretty much to a T.  I think I even soaked everything a little longer than the recommended 30 minutes.  I blew everything out with compressed air and made sure it was nice and dry (with a "lint-free" cloth).

As far as the carburetor cleaning itself, it actually went pretty well.  I did my homework ahead of time, and gave myself plenty of time to do it.  The fact that my bike’s only got 2500 miles on it probably helps.

Reading that most of the screws on the carb are a pain to get off, first I sprayed the top and bottom bolts of the carb with PB blaster and let them soak while I removed the seat, gas tank, hoses.  Then I went ahead and broke them loose while the carburetor was still on the bike; I figured it’d be easier that way.  I bought a new screwdriver just for that purpose, figuring I’d be less likely to strip the screws, and I can never have too many screwdrivers.  I was able to get all 4 top bolts loose and 2 of the bottom ones.

The carburetor didn't really look too bad inside once I got it apart, but then again this is the first time I've really seen the inside of a carburetor.

The hardest parts were honestly getting the carburetor on and off the bike, and then getting the float pivot pin out.  I broke a couple small electronic screwdrivers trying to get it off.  I sprayed some PB blaster on it, worked on some other stuff, tried getting it off to no avail, sprayed more PB, worked on something else, til I finally got it off.  Any suggestions/tips on ways to remove the float pivot pin?

I didn’t strip any screws, but I had a tough time getting some of them off, and one of them was already stripped.  I decided I didn’t even want to take a chance with stripped screws, so I ended up replacing all the screws that I had to take off, with the exception of the two inside the main diaphragm assembly.  I went to Ace Hardware and got stainless steel Allen/hex head screws.  At some point I'll probably post the sizes of screws I bought in the tech section in case anyone's interested.

I was pretty wary of doing this, but I went ahead and adjusted the float as well, like the Clymer recommended.  It's actually idling a lot better since I've done that.  I'm pretty sure it was running a little too lean before (after I'd start the bike, even with choke, it wouldn't stay running on its own without me giving it gas).

All said and done I'm pretty pleased, although I really wish the leaking would have stopped altogether.  I suppose at some point the gas leak will frustrate me enough where I'll take it apart again, which should be a lot easier since I've replaced most of the JIS screws.

Thanks to all of you who have posted great tips on cleaning the carburetor!

yup DD nailed it.. carb float/needle sticking, take apart and clean WELL