it's not "Harley" loud but its not quiet, exhaust puffs out pretty good. It's got to be on the rich side.... float re-adjust?
High floats
can cause a general richness. Perhaps running a clear tube from the bowl drain hole up the side will tell you if the bowls are overfilling. Normal level is 2-3 mm below the bowl to body interface.
They are not the easiest to get perfect.
True. And they never will be. It's the nature of air cooled motors that seldom run at optimum cylinder temps, and dumb, non-adaptive carbs. Then there is the baro pressure and temp of the air, etc. Air cooled motors often rely on fuel mixture cooling to gain longevity, as there is no massive radiator to accept and discard high heat spikes.
....but bikes are new to me. Looks like a little more finesse is needed ...
That's kind of the nature of smaller engines. Small changes have big effects. You want finicky? Try fine tuning model airplane engines. A spec in the fuel, or a nudge of the needle valve can make the difference from a carefree flight to an adrenaline rush body shaker, or even a demoralizing crash.
Side note, last summer it was really hot here mid to upper 90's for what it seemed like weeks and they didnt glaze at all...
That's kind of what I thought. Air cooled engines run hotter in hot weather, as the air accepts less heat from the cooling fins. Higher temps allow the plugs to self clean the insulator. As an experiment, you could try D6EA spark plugs, if you want to avoid/postpone carb tuning. That should raise the "average temp" in the combustion chamber, by shunting less heat to the cylinder head.
I have thought about putting new 3ohm coils on as I have a Pamco unit installed. The original wires look to have been shortened a few times and when I put new caps on the inner insulation seems to be breaking down...getting to the point of getting gooey.
I don't favor trying to correct mixture issues with spark intensity.
The gooey wire centers are an artifact of arcing between the wire conductor and the plug cap screw post. You do need to get rid of the goo so the end cap can be solidly screwed into the wire end which prevents further arcing.
If the ignition leads get too short, NGK makes wire splicers. It's not too hard to find copper stranded core wire. Steel core is better for the cap's screw post grab longevity, but I didn't want to buy 50 ft of it, which was the minimum order.
http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/products/performance/splicers.asp
