I'll hitch my questions on to this thread...seems to fit well! Long story, so my apologizes ahead of time.
I have a '97 500R (all stock) that I bought last summer with 2600 miles on it. It seemed like a good deal, and was a good bike for me to learn on. I ended up (stupidly) running it out of gas, and shortly thereafter developed an EXTREMELY rough idle. I took it to a bike shop and they said a carb needle was stuck, dumping fuel into the engine, flooding it out. $300 and 3 weeks later I had my bike back, but it didn't run quite right (very good mind you, but not like it was). After winter storage it ran rough and required higher RPMs in a given gear to attain a given speed than before. A few weeks ago I put new plugs in it and it solved many of my problems, but it tends to idle a little rough on start and has an off-idle dead spot in the throttle.
I got taken by the shop I had the original work done at, so never again there. The bike still runs well, but not like I think it should. In retrospect I forgot to gap the plugs (don't have an owner's manual), but it shouldn't have a dead spot in the throttle. I'm thinking I may need to change jets, or at the very least to clean them. I may go ahead and put a K&N air filter on before winter (would that require a rejet?), and probably that inline fuel filter too

I've thought about upgrading to a SV650S, but my bike is paid for and is cheap fun while I finish out school and start paying off student loans. I don't need a superbike, just a toy...and my 500R is plenty.
My father is a mechanic, and I have a decent background in VW and small block Chevy engines, but I don't know much about motorcycle engines. Any and all help would be much appreciated!!!