Sounds like the problems I was having before my bike went tits up. There were a long list of items that caused the problems - starting with the carbs needing to be cleaned up. Then, the spark plug caps that were on the bike when I bought it were wrong, the wires weren't connecting to them well.
Someone gave me the advice to remove the spark plug caps and see if the wires were still good at the end an connecting well. If not, he said to trim them back just a little to expose new wire. My guess is, when I get the bike back together, just having that issue resolved will make a huge difference in power, etc.
As usual none of these are my ideas, I'm just spitting out what a person I trust told me. So, hopefully, it helps a little. I figured since everyone jumped to help me I would recycle some of the advice I got.