If it pops, then you're too lean, but maybe since you're running pods (or was that another guy?), you can't get enough juice into the moose no matter what adjustments you make, and ought to re-jet. You could also have one o' them-thar dreaded vacuum leaks.
I once put Mikuni carbs off a yamaha 750 on a Yamaha 850 (it orig. used Hitachis). I futzed with the Miks. until I got sick of the whole thing because the dang thing wouldn't stop smoking (what a STINK!). It finally dawned that the enrichment lever spring was missing and the "ckokes" were always "on"!! Lousy little hair-spring on the left carb!
After installing the hairspring, I had to go to much SMALLER mains in there and go up on the pilot jets before the dang thing finally stopped smoking.
All told, I tried 5 different sets of jets before it finally began to run like a striped ape, and it gave up 47 MPG as well (best original mileage was 36 mpg).
Sold it to an ex-Yam mechanic who said it was the strongest-running Yammie triple he'd ever ridden.
Since this was my first effort at re-jetting a set of carbs, it may have been dumb luck that I got right. So, let me encourage you to keep trying different combinations of jets in conjunction with some heavy thinking about what you need to look for and do to make it run clean. Heck, it only takes maybe a half-dozen "Carbs off - Carbs on" and a handful of new jets (a range of sizes) to get the job done, and Mikuni jets are CHEAP.
How can you tell the sweet spot??? Is thta where the ROM gauge stops fluctiating at all?? then drop to 1200 RPM?