You're not talking about the ticking of the exhaust cooling once the hot bike's turned off? Assuming you mean a ticky, whirry, clatterey noise a bit like a sewing machine while the bike's running that comes from the top of the engine, that's normal. Parallel twins have a cam chain that runs up the middle of the engine and over the twin camshafts, and the whole camchain/valve noise can be disconcerting when you first hear it. It does also get more noticeable when warm, as everything expands and loosens up slightly.
Oh and the dealer's right - if you "hug" the tank with your legs it gets quieter. The more usual way of not hearing it is to get some louder pipes on the bike, or drill the rearmost two baffles out of the standard ones.
I was concerned enough about it a year or so ago to spend $250 getting the dealer to check the valvetrain, only to find out it was perfect.
