181 indicated pinned in 6th? You have a healer? Mine indicates 189 and still builds revs. Don't know how fast it is exactly, but I'm pretty sure that everything is an estimation anyway because of the uncertainty principal. We can probably only accurately estimate speed by using particle motion and shit, because the bikes are fucking fast as shit.
You running stock gearing? Just curious.
Valves get tight over time. It ain't just Yamaha that is true for. Ask my bandit. Shim under bucket is a great way to do things though and at 2,000 you wouldn't think there would be a need to check the lash. So far as the ticking goes, post up a video for us bud. I'm pretty sure a little racket on startup is fine, but, I haven't heard it, so, I don't want to just throw a blanket statement like that out there.