A question about Carburetion

[meteor3178]

I want to start with the fact that I have read every thread on here and the UK site about carburetion and I have gotten some great information on setting up my carbs. My setup is on a 1980 Special, I have colortuned the idle mixture (brought to the emergence of yellow) and the baby idles great. I have also sync'd the carbs. My question or statement is that I have never taken the bike above 6000 RPM's and the times I have gone to 6000 in the last 5 years I can count on one hand. I generally run between 3500 and 4500 the majority of the time.
I also have only taken the carbs off once to replace the float valve ( gas was leaking into the airbox when I first got the bike) I also checked the float heights and they were at the approved factory setting according to the manual. I ran Seafoam thru them on a regular basis for the first three years and felt that was enough. I recently put MAC 4-2 (about a year ago and made no changes to my setup.

Now for the question - Am I hurting my bike by not riding her hard and getting to redline. Do I need to tune the carbs for WOT when I never go there. I believe in performance before looks so I want to make her run the best I can but I don't want to break her either, she's my only form of transportation. Plus I can't afford to pay speeding tickets. Any input would be gratefully accepted.

[DGXSER]

IMO, your doing things just fine. There are plenty of race ready machines that never go over 70 MPH out there and run just fine for a looongg time. If the carbs are running good up to 5-6k RPM, you really have tested out all of the circuits at that point.

If your plugs look nice and tan or similar then your running where you want to be. Honestly, these bikes were built just as much to be a long haul full bag cruiser as they were a race ready rocket.

[MaximPhil]

For a Meteor you sure are a sedate rider
4500 is a nice cruising speed on the highway.
The horsepower peaks at around 7200 rpm so no need to go to redline.
Enjoy the ride at what ever rpm suits you.
Phil

[slow mo]

hi meteor

its my experience that these bikes just start to perform until around 5,000rpm you really notice the wonderful power then ,,,that being said ride your bike anyway you want ,,i ride much like you ,,but every now and then i got to let her fly ,,ride safe,,slow mo!