This set of carbs were amazingly clean for being 31 years old. I examined the bowl screws with a magnifying glass and they don't have a mark on them. I would say these carbs have never been worked on. I carefully flipped the slides up and they work smoothly.
So, I removed the bowl from #1 carb. The inside looked good and again, amazingly clean. My guess was clogged pilot jets since that's the smallest jet in the carb and is often the first to get gummed up (especially if gas with alcohol sat unused for a few months). Sure enough, I backed the jet out and eyeballed it with a bright light and magnifying glass. It was skimmed over and clogged. I don't want to stick anything down there, especially metal that might scratch the jet. Fortunately, a shot of Gumout carb cleaner and a shot of compressed air did the trick.
I'm debating on how to proceed. The manly DIY part of me says to completely disassemble and clean everything (no solvents on rubber parts of course). But, I can't stress how clean things look. No matter what I do, I'll catch flack, but the realistic side of me that wants to be riding is leaning to just cleaning the pilot jets and calling it a day. I'd like to reinstall and see if the problem is fixed. If so, then I isolated the problem. If not, I'll have to eat crow,
One thing I thought of, this bike was sold new at a Boulder, Colorado dealership. Think it's got the smaller 122 high altitude main jets (normally the used 125 main jets)? Guess I'll go out and pull one of the main jets and personally see for myself.