Yeah, let's not go overboard here... these bikes WILL tick - it's a by-product of the overhead cam system that Triumph uses and is fairly peculiar to British engines (you should hear the top end of an original mini engine at full noise). Normal ticking sounds a bit like a sewing machine - lots of little mechanical bits working away furiously and will be louder when cold (bigger valve gaps due to metal not yet expanding). The ticking that you'll get from a sloppy cam journal will sound more like a bad big end bearing (higher pitched though), will be a lot fewer ticks per revolution than normal top end noise (1 loud tick per revolution as the cam rotates, rather than the normal 8 little ticks per revolution as the valves operate), and will get louder with heat (due to hot oil falling away from the overly large bearing gap).

The odds of an out of round cam journal are very small (though obviously there IS a chance of it), and the odds of a pack of them occurring and not being detected for six years are minuscule.

Matt Electronic mods for TBA/SM!