Motorcycles? Yammy troubles

[benscool1]

My buddy has an 80 Yamaha XS 850 Triple Midnight Special that he bought last summer. He and I rode it a bit and it basically sat this winter when he got his car. He has since wrecked his car(got a DUI) and has decided to fix his bike and drive it when he gets his license back in a few months. We've been working on it a little bit but neither of us really know much about working on bikes. Heres the problem: When it first starts up(if you can get it started) it basically won't run at all without the choke on, then when it gets warm it won't run if the choke is on but as soon as you try to give it gas it dies. It idles really low, and it sounds almost like its missing whne you first lay on it(clanging sound, like maybe there could be a dead cylinder) but once it gets into the higher RPMs it is just fine. What could be the problem? Carbs need rebuilt, air/fuel mixture wrong, coils?

And then it won't hold a charge. We put a new battery in it when he bought it, but we have never been able to start it without jumping it or putting it on a battery charger first. What would cause this to happen? I'd assume its the stator or something but I don't have any real idea. What is the problem and how can we fix it?

Any advice would be great.

- Ben