Cam Lobe marks

[garywiddison]

As my bikes warranty had ended I decided to start doing my own servicing and on the first oil change decided to check the valve clearances, while doing this I noticed some marks on the 4 high lift intake lobes, can't feel them at all and they are not on any other lobes, does anyone have any idea if this is a problem?  Any mark on a camshaft always worries me!
On a slightly different note, if anyone has the camshaft alignment jigs and\or camchain tensioning tool that I can buy\borrow\hire in the UK I would be very grateful, seems to be easier to find rocking horse poo than these items!

 

Thanks

[Hati]

Those lobes look ok to me. If you run your fingernail over the surface and can't feel any changes, you are good.

 

In regards to the timing jig: 

 

[garywiddison]

Thanks for that, no, they feel perfect I was just a bit worried that the "staining" might be the start of something bad, I am used to seeing nice shiny camshaft lobes!

And have put my name on the timing jig in case he (or she?) starts selling :-)

Thanks

[MikeB60]

I have the same staining on the cams of my GS.  Boxflyer holds the opinion this is from the additive package in the oil and nothing to worry about. 

[garywiddison]

Thanks for the reply, I am a bit interested to know why they are only on the high lift intake lobes and not the other 8 lobes, one possibility I did think of is that the higher lift ones may not be getting that much use with my riding! I generally use it as a tourer and often 2 up (when I ride fairly conservatively!) so may need more use to "polish up" a bit, just a theory....

[JCtx]

With so much torque, you don't really need to get past 5K-rpm often. And 5K rpm is good for almost 90 mph (which I rarely exceed), so I don't exercise my high cams often either. I bet they look just like the OP's.

[wbw6cos]

Come on, man.  Everybody needs a little rev-limiter in their ride.   

[garywiddison]

I thought the cam shift thingy was variable on the amount of throttle and load and things like that rather than a fixed RPM (which I assume is what you meant when you mentioned 5K)....

 

[Hati]

2 hours ago, garywiddison said:

I thought the cam shift thingy was variable on the amount of throttle and load and things like that rather than a fixed RPM (which I assume is what you meant when you mentioned 5K)....

 

 

Nah, fixed RPM. I can tell when mine shifts at around 4k+  mark. All the time, eery time.

[JCtx]

4 hours ago, garywiddison said:

I thought the cam shift thingy was variable on the amount of throttle and load and things like that rather than a fixed RPM (which I assume is what you meant when you mentioned 5K)....

Yeah, it's possible with aggressive throttle inputs, but probably not much earlier than 5K rpm. But at 5K rpm, it changes no matter what.