My sporty sounds a lot louder than others. Talking about the tap tap tap noise. Where should I start diagnosing?

I had Andrews N4 cams installed. Andrews claims no other mods are needed for these "drop ins". I can't recall if it's louder post cam install though....

I use dino 20-50 motorcycle oil. Levels are fine and maybe 1500 miles on it.

2012 with about 11k on the clock.

I know its supposed to be noisy but when I did a side by side with my buddies 09 with similar miles,...mine was noticeably louder. This your typical HD inconsistency thing,....no 2 alike??

 

After some searching it seems the cams "might" be the culprit. I had a feeling it was a bit louder post cam install,....but the bike was down for a while so hard to compare.

If anyone has similar experience with more noise after cam install,....do tell. Don't want to chase my tail diagnosing

 

Could be the cams. Some cams are more noisy than others. Although my Hammer 560 cams are advertised as quite cams, they are a little more noisy than stock but not by much.

 

I called Andrews to try and get their thoughts. Tech said it could just be normal noise due to performance cams or "gear lash". When I tried to get an understanding of what he meant by gear lash the conversation went off the rails he is became a real *****. Off to the all knowing Googleland to find out...

 

Ahh,.....found it. Gear backlash. This is a good read for anyone who has cams and a noisy top end and wondering why. Bottom line....if it's a louder tick tick tick,...it's 100% fine. Just the sound of the gears touching each other. If it's a whining noise,...gears are too tight and could cause issues.

http://www.andrewsproducts.com/sites...014-page21.pdf