After winter cleaning:

I put seafoam in the gas tank and I also used the seafoam aerosol cleaner, by fishing my hand into the air box spraying each carb individually.

After that, I had major starting / running issues (wouldn't rev over 5-6k rpms). Figured I over-did the seafoam in the gas; so I siphoned out a few gallons of the old stuff and filled it up with some new fuel. That fixed the running issues; however I am still plagued with cold starting.

The choke doesn't affect RPMs when warm, and it obviously isn't doing anything for cold starting. I have to spray brake cleaner for about 15 seconds until it gets some heat and starts idling on its own. Again, the choke lever does nothing. I had the right side cover off and could see that the choke cable is indeed connected and was moving the right-side carbs choke plunger in and out. I burned about 2 gallons to see if that would help, no issues running or warm starting; but the choke is still not working.

Am I screwed? As in I need to remove the carbs?

NEW UPDATE - SOLVED:

The gents below were right! A carb or two had a super sticky choke and would only allow it to move 30%...tricking me into thinking that wasn't it (by looking at the side, i saw it move so figured it was okay, however it is a spring loaded system so the choke cable worked perfect and was pulling the cable 100%). Based on the responses the advice was clear, lift the tank and inspect it further. After encouraging the choke linkage with my finger, it freed up. I carb cleaned and wd40 the plungers. Works great, I don't need to carry around a bottle of ether anymore :P

 

Removing the carbs will certainly let you see better what the actual problem with the choke slider is. It's not difficult and doesn't take long, just make sure you've loosened all the giant 'jubilee' type clips properly and use a bit of grease to lube the rubbers when re-fitting.

 

You should be able to lift the tank and look down at the carbs to see if all 4 plungers are moving.

Side note: even in 30 degree temps my bike idles fine after 3 minutes with the 'choke' on.

It's possible that the aresol seafoam may have damaged the slides

 

yeah ^ I'd go checking out the external choke link first
pop the tank up like ranchome says and see if they're even
moving

You are not the first one to choke up an engine with
aerosol SeaFoam

 

Thanks for the replies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See above edited original post.