After spending a LOT of time swearing and bruising my knuckles, I found it is far easier to remove the carbs if you loosen the air box so it can slide back about 2". This 2" is the trick to removing the carbs.
Underneath the rear fender, up where it connects to the airbox are (2) 8mm allens you need to locate and remove.
Once these are removed, pull back the airbox as far as you can. It may slip off the carbs at this point, but that is of no concern.
