I go thru this every time I get a different bike. I don't know what "normal" is, so I second-guess every little sound.
Having a gen 1 DL1000 sort of got me past it - very noisy. Going a gen 2 DL650, tho - it seemed like there was an electric motor in that thing, not a gas engine. So smooth, quiet, and well-fueled that it re-dialed my expectations for what a healthy engine sounds like.
Now I'm obsessing over a tap I think I'm hearing in my '14ST. I worry that it's either valves or a CCT problem. The bike has a few other weird symptoms: it takes a few seconds to develop idle revs from a cold start, RPM will dive to near zero if I blip the throttle at a standstill, and I have to give it what feels like a "lot" of throttle to pull away from a stop without stalling. It surges just a little bit under certain throttle settings. I don't think I would notice any one of these things alone, but paying close attention to running/tune makes you notice every little thing. Maybe I'm worried about nothing. ...or maybe I have a tight set of valves, hinky CCT? Loose connection between the airbox and TB's? Unbalanced TBs? Exhaust leak? ...obsessing about it removes some enjoyment from riding, but I plan to own this bike for many miles and don't want to do expensive damage out of early ignorance, either.
About 2k miles on the bike, it's had new oil and FD oil at 600mi, and again at 1800 mi.
Should I be worried?