Because I'm worried about this issue as it affects my 05 S4R, I've been doing quite a bit of reading on the subject, and I ran across this article.
It begins with a statement straight from Ducati, and it only gets more interesting.
http://www.sigmaperformance.com/rockers.html (http://www.sigmaperformance.com/rockers.html)
All the best to all of you Ducati folks and Merry Christmas-
Eric M. (aka Radar)
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S4R with stuff
Got metal flakes in your oil? Tested them to see if they are chrome?
If not, don't worry about it till it's valve adjustment time. Until then, ride it :)
I have a O1 S4 whch had 5 bad opener rockers i replaced them all 8 with Nichols/megacycle rockers and now 12,000 miles later they are still fine .