This was a day without actual riding (other than about half a mile around the block).
Since I rode nearly 6000 miles on this trip so far, the bike was due for a service. This was actually the "large" 12k miles (20.000km) service, including valve check. All of the valves were within specs. So far so good.
The cam shift mechanism isn't as complicated as I though it would be, the cams have two lobes and the shift mechanism just moves the cam over to the one that is to be used for the current riding condition:
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| Shift Cam Valve Train |
The engine does a great job hiding the shifting process in terms of power delivery, but certainly not in terms of sound. It can be especially annoying when riding under cruise control and going at a speed that has the engine close the typical shifting point and then every slight incline/decline in the terrain will make the engine shift over the cams and mine makes a "popping" noise when this happens. Slightly annoying, it sounds like it has digestion issues ...
Tomorrow I'll try to get an early start to beat Hurricane Delta – I need to ride across its projected path and be west of it by Saturday. Otherwise I might get into some seriously bad weather. Shouldn't be too much of a problem though, I just hope my ears won't give me issues.