engine noise

Hi,
I'm a new owner of this bike and not familiar with how they sound. I have read all the forums and I'm getting the impression they are just a loud engine. I could hear a bit of initial consistent rotatary sound coming from the engine which I thought was more than I'm used to with any of my other bikes. However the bike runs well, and I am not burning oil, and there is no clunks like bottom end noise, or clacking like valve train nose so I assumed this was normal. A fellow motorcycle mechanic came over and commented he thought it had more than normal piston or wrist pin noise... Is it normal for these engines to be a bit louder for those types of sounds than average? Any suggestions?

What are you running for a skid plate? If a metal plate, you will get an abnormal amount of engine noise.

Some are a bit loudish yeah, but for the price of 2 gaskets & some work you take the jug off and inspect it all. Yours is a 2000-model mind, 13 years old now.

BuRP wrote:Some are a bit loudish yeah, but for the price of 2 gaskets & some work you take the jug off and inspect it all. Yours is a 2000-model mind, 13 years old now.

Check the cam chain.