They should be sealed up tight. As far as I know, they need to resist free-flow or you will have a rich condition that is hard or impossible to tune out. i have seen reed petals with broken corners, that didn't look like they would change anything, since they were still sealed, but the bike ,a yz125, would bog right off of the idle, if you gassed it real hard. It would go "bah, ying." I like my Vforce. Expensive, unless you compare to buying something else and that cheaper deal doesn't work right.