I'm gonna disagree with you about dropping the helmet at all. I also disagree about earplugs, wear them always even with a full-faced helmet if you're going more than 30mph/40kph.
I ride every day, and otherwise agree with what you've written.
I had a pinhole leak in the diaphragm of one of my two Mikuni carb, and my twin cyl bike would act really weird.
In that case, it wouldn't evenly provide power with throttle, but just as telling was when I got going and suddenly let the throttle go, the engine would die.
Point is, look at your rubber, old stuff gets destroyed by ethanol, mileage irrelevant.
