Ryan, You have a good bike there! I'm trying to sell one right now that my son got in 97. Funny, he bought it in Maine near Portland. Anyway, over the years of racing I was his mechanic and, other than top ends and a few entire rebuilds, we always ran the stock spark plug at a oil ratio of 20:1 (recommended by Yamaha) with very little, if any, spooge. We usually changed a plug once a season or so. Jetting is the key to staying on top of a crisp running engine. In order for jetting to work you must have a tight engine to start with. If the engine is worn, i.e. leaky gaskets & seals, worn top end, cracked reeds, dirty carb circuits, dirty air filter, dirty power valve, clogged silencer, etc, then no jetting will help, maybe only mask symptoms temporarily. While you will get alot of advise you would do well to get a service manual and read it. The Eric Gorr book covers basic, and up, tips on maintaining and repairing these type of bikes. If you have a tight, fresh, engine you can be assured that jetting will be your biggest and best friend to running right. One other note, that bike is made to run not idle around. As you get better so will the bike. Maybe there's a DNR'r near you that can assist you somehow. Sometimes seeing things done helps. I think there may be a local chapter that covers the Northeast in here. Also, you'd have alot of fun if you hit some of the local tracks. There's a nice one near Skowhegan but I guess that depends on where you hail from. Good luck.