1st gear, low rpm hesitation... pilot jet?

the subject line pretty much says it all, but here's the story:

I finally got my 78 KZ1000 police bike back on the road after a few years of it being in pieces.
I'm still running my BS34's on it for now. I have a set of 28's laying around that I might get around to using at some point...but....
The bike has stock bore, new rings, polished ports, new valves, 4-1 header with a big V&H megaphone...
Anyway, I found that I had some low rpm hesitation in first gear. Could that be a pilot jet issue? It also has trouble keeping a steady idle.
Any ideas?

I would suspect the pilot circuit. With the symptoms you describe, hesitation, and erratic idle.

Low RPM hesitation:

1) Fuel level in bowls

2) pilot jets/adjustment

3) needle position too lean? (lean running from headers and/or pods)

4) vacuum leak

yeah.... I kinda figured... I'll pull the bank and maybe go up a size...or two...

you should try giving them a good cleaning first the double check there are no air leaks past the intake boot's. does it return to idle or does it hang up and come back slowly.what size of engine did the carb's come from to begin with. the 34's i mean. because if they came from a 1000 i wouldn't think you would have to change your jetting much to make them work fairly good it really sounds like partially plugged pilot jets or the entire circuit.

the 34's are the carbs the bike came with... to be fair, the bike never ran perfect before so to say that the jets are the right size is a tough sell haha. It runs great now besides the idle. It does hang up and then rumble back down... then cuts usually. I've found holding it just under 2k rpm is ok, but it still is erratic. PLus my petcock seems to be malfunctioning now... haha...
it never ends, does it?

so I went larger on my pilot jets... from 17.5 to 22.5....
still had a little hesitation on acceleration, but my idle seemed a little better... still slightly erratic. Now I have hesitation from 3K to 5K rpm....

raise up your needles 1 notch and give that a try it should help out in the middle.

I'm not sure if my needles are adjustable?? Maybe I'm an idiot, but I don't think they are.

I'm not sure i would have changed the pilots:) I would definitely change the needle position, remember, to richin it up you must lower the clip which raises the needle. The slightly eratic behaviour may suggest a carb sync.