Depends on what you want to do. You can do basic cleaning (with the Yamaha carb cleaner) on the bike as well as adjust the floats, replace the jets and adjust or replace the needle position with the carb bank on the bike. I always found getting the carb bank on and off with the stock airbox enough of a bother that I did everything I could to not take them off. Once you have the carb bank off, you don't need to disassemble it further unless the carbs are really in bad shape and in need of a dipping; in which case, there are some little plastic bits that you can't get at without taking the whole assembly apart and you need to get those off before dipping or they might dissolve.
