1978 KZ650 - no start

Valve lash is 0.08 - 0.18.
Go to the nearest shim that gives you closest to the upper gap size. 
Simply the smaller the shim size the larger the vavle gap. 
So if your at 0.08 gap with a 255 shim then a 245 shim will give you a 0.18 gap. 

Carbs. 
​​​​​​If the choke is not helping but it is firing on easy start then simply the engine isn't getting an enriched mixture. 
The brass tube pointing down into the bowl is the choke fuel pick up. It has a tiny hole in the end which must be clear as that's where it gets it's fuel through. In the bowl itself there is a hole in the bottom at the back corner. Again it needs to be clear as that's where the bowl feeds  fuel to the hole in the choke pick up brass tube. 
Either of those two are blocked on each carb and the choke system isn't doing it's job of enriching the mixture and you've virtually no chance of starting from cold. 
Both places are often overlooked during a "carb clean" 
 

Perfect, thanks for verifying!

Just as an update, after setting the valve lash the compression numbers are 125-130   Had to turn the air screw in so it's only 1 turn out, guessing the pods were feeding it more air than expected, but she runs like a top!  Thanks for the assistance guys!