Yesterday I polished the tops to my carbs and fitted stainless socket head bolts and spring washers, such a small thing has made quite an improvement to the look of them.
I had ordered new carb boots from Yambits to replace my perished ones, although not mentioned on their website I was pleased to see they are Tour Max. I've decided to leave a complete strip down to get the frame powdercoated until I have more room to do it so I cracked on and refitted the newly painted battery box, it's an easy job once you've done it once before. With everything back together and carbs at factory settings I turned the petcocks on and kicked it over, started on the second kick! Very happy with that, and the popping on the left cylinder would appear to be gone, it must have been the air leak from the carb boot.
Today I will try and sync the carbs and fettle with the idle, it's a bit wet to get out on it to fully tune them but already it is a vast improvement.