You can pull it off an look. But I warn against it. My reason is that you'll likely need to replace the o-rings between the head and the cylinder when it comes time to reassemble it. If there is or was anything wrong with your top end you would be having an overly rich conditions. That = wet oily fouled plugs, and lots of spooge out the exhaust tip. Or worse it just wont kick over (seized). I say get the carb jetted and tuned correctly for your elevation. Then if you are still having problems, I'll have more bad news for you as to what it could be. I wish I could just go ride the bike and listen to it. This having to trouble shoot from the west coast thing sucks the big one.