02 Prairie 650 loss of power
 

I noticed a couple days ago that my bike was hard to start and didn't want to idle too well. This was odd as it had been starting with no problem. Once I started out the drive, I noticed I had about half as much power as I should have and it sounded a bit different, like I had an exhaust leak? After a few minutes of driving, the bike would 'surge' back to normal with full power as if some switch was flipped and the exhaust leak sound went away. When I put the bike up for the night, it was running normal. A day later, same problem. Hard to start, won't idle well, half power, exhaust leak sound. A couple months ago, the belt began to squeak on take-off indicating it needs tightening or replacing. There are no belt lights of any kind on. The bike only has about 350 miles on it and it's the original belt. Does this minor belt condition have anything to do with the loss of power? I've searched the internet and have found very little information on this so apparently it's not a widespread problem with these bikes. It is, however, very frustrating to only have half the power I once had...especially when trying to pull a trailer. Please help.

is the bike running rich, the biggest problem they had was the choke sticking. makes it hard starting, sluggish. sometimes fuel in the oil. when the bike warms up it handles the over fueling better. worth checking out as it was a common problem.

It does sound like a carb/fuel issue to me, first thing to do is remove the belt cover and check the belt. If belt is bad or damaged, the performance will suffer greatly. many things can cause a belt to go bad early. Things like a misaligned clutch, bad belt, oil leak, water intrusion, improper adjustment. If the belt looks good and is adjusted properly then do an easy compression check to be sure the engine is healthy, if that checks out then fuel or ignition is about all that is left.