Well I cleaned out my gas tank, and it was full of old crud and rust sludge and whatnot. I cleaned it the best I could and installed a new petcock and cleaned out my carb, and rejected it back to a 66 (which I think is a more realistic place to start) and it runs great now, at least in terms of that. It's not cutting out or anything. I still have some friction/drag coming from either the rear wheel or the front sprocket area (I keep wanting to call it the transmission, but I'm not sure that's exactly correct). Can anyone think of any reasons why it would suddenly turn slightly less freely?
Oh, and I'm thinking in the near future I may convert it to kick start and get rid of the pedals. It has a kinda vintage motorcycle look with the new handlebars and I'd like to continue that theme. (edited)