SO, yeah, it was one more little chunk. The last time I pulled the carbs and flushed everything really well, all the float needles were moving freely, but apparently, there was a speck in the body of float needle #1 and it finally turned its way sideways and jammed the needle.
Amazingly, everything else seems good. I ran a wire through everything and I'd pulled the idle screws previously. So despite dumping a metric assload of carp through those carbs, the worst I had was a really bad case of stuck float needles.
And to all thanks for the advice.
gsxr400: indeed. there is a huge amount of really good info here if you just dig a little. Believe me I've learned a ton, even if I don't quite apply it properly. What I find amazing is all the stuff Im learning about my previous bandit that I never knew. That bike was great, but if I'd known what I know now it would have been even better.
cheers
A