Hi all, I recently did a carb cleaning on my bike.  This was a big learning experience for me as I am basically a newb when it comes to tinkering on mechanical things.  But I like to learn new things and also as a first time bike owner I want to get familiar with my bike so I am able to diagnose and fix things on my own.

Anyway, with that disclaimer I just wanted to offer a suggestion here that I never saw anywhere when I was researching how to do this. It helped me enough, though, that I just wanted to mention it in case others might find it useful in the future.  Would love to hear what any of you more experienced mechanics have to say about it.

My suggestion is: before doing anything on this project, remove the battery and the battery housing (the metal box that surrounds the battery)!  I did not do this before removing the carb and I managed to get it out, but it was very difficult.  When it came time to put the carb back in place, though, I just could not do it.  Apparently it can be done but I found it impossible.  

Then I removed the battery and it's housing.  Oh my god, what a difference.  All of the sudden there is a way more space to maneuver.  I got the carb back in place in just a couple of minutes with minimal effort.  It really made all the difference in the world.  I am positive it would have made a huge difference on removal as well. If I ever do this again, this will be the first step I do.  I am convinced this is the way it was meant to be done.

Removing the battery and housing is very easy to do as well.  It's basically just the process of taking the battery out to recharge it, plus 4 bolts holding the box to the frame.  Altogether maybe 10 fasteners total to take off.  Can be done in 5 minutes or less.

I hope you got all the cables routed correctly, some have pushed them into the belt thus removing the insulation if not cutting them in 2.

I always pull the box.  Just a pain with it in the way.  I don't even have a battery in there so it's not that hard.  That said, I might give batman's method a go next time.  Less work, the better.