Pods are filters that you place one on each carb and you remove the entire airbox.
Pulling the plugs wont help you determine of your rich or lean. If you can not tell by the way it runs, you have to follow steps to find out.
Many opinions, here is what I do.
Warm the bike up on the old plugs, then turn it off. Put in a brand new set of plugs, and put the old set of plugs in your pocket. From start, run thru all the gears at WOT(wide open throttle), pull the clutch, hit the kill switch while in 6th roll to a stop. Then pull the plugs. Place the old plugs back in the bike to get you back to where you came from.
Use a flashlight to look down inside the new plug you used for WOT. You should see a nice brown choco ring around the base of the electrode. If its really dark/black your rich. If it is light brown cigarette stain color, your lean. If you can not see it, proceed to chop the top of the threads of the plug down until you can.
Check out the Jetting section. MANY threads cover all this. Even detailed stickys at the top.