heres my problem.

on the first start of the day its a real bitch to start, gets a bit of life but dies and does this up until about 8 attempts then fires into life. the bike is fine when being ridden but when i turn it off and try and restart the bike wont rev over 3k, a small amount of black smoke comes out of the exhaust and there is a strong smell of petrol. eventually after a few attempts of restarting the bike operates as normal.

help will be much appreciated as i want to sell her!!

You'll need to do the usuall stuff like clean the carbs and check the exup is opening and closing and the cables are ok.
After that your looking at the valves being tight