Valve check led me to look at my cams

So I just got a WR250X not too long ago and I'm having a great time with the bike.

The bike has 13.5k miles on it, and it was a little noisy after an oil change (went from dino oil to full synthetic). Not very noisy, but enough to say "that's different."

I knew the PO had stunted the bike so he probably ran it hard, I figured I would take a peek into the motor a little. Just as a FYI to those that want to do a valve check, you can get the valve cover off without having to remove or drop the motor. Disconnect the blocking radiator hoses, loosen the radiator, and you have just enough room.

So I dive into the valve check and good news! Everything is in spec, Intake valves were at 0.15 and Exhaust were at 0.25. However, I still wanted to see if I could eyeball a source for the additional noise. So I looked at the cams, specifically the gears, and the intake cam has be a bit concerned.




The intake cam looks more worn than the exhaust cam. For those that have opened up their bike, does this look normal? (this is my first valve check ever on a bike!) Exhaust cam teeth look nice and sharp, but the intake looks rounded off. If that does look troubling, my first inclination is a bad cam chain, but could there be anything else causing the wear that i am not thinking of?

Bummer this happened, but if I have to go through the trouble of putting on a new cam chain and (potentially) a new cam, might as well go the next step and get a big bore kit.

Looks OK to me.

After asking around to a few mechanically inclined friends, it does seem the consensus is that nothing looks abnormal in that picture. The only comment I got is to make sure the cam chain is still tight!

So if anything this is a nice indicator for all. After 13.5k miles, all valves are still in spec, and everything is in order.