[Metalefty]

Hi all,
It's been awhile since my '05 450 has given me any problems and this one may be my fault.
The bike is set up with a Rekluse clutch, the upshifting is a little notchy but OK, the downshifting is horrible, especially from 2nd to 1st. Early in the season it would take an extra stab or two to get into the next lowest gear, but now it takes 10 stabs to downshift. When downshifting to 1st, I could always tell when it made the shift because the lever would stop in the middle, but now it moves down through it's range as if it coming from a higher gear.
For the last two years, the clutch has always made a clunk when shifting to first at a dead stop and made a slight lurch forward, but it will start in gear(barely). In the Rekluse manual it stresses the importance of pad/plate clearance which I've checked numerous times and it's always been i spec. They say that is the main reason for clutch drag. I've always left it the way it was because it was in spec.
Before my ride this past weekend, I decided to change the engagement point which I've always had set at the lowest engagement point, I then set it to it's highest engagement point. When I took it up the road for a test ride it shifted to 1st from a dead stop no problem, no lurch, just a nice click, the upshifts still felt notchy but good and the downshifts slightly better. I figured I would go on this ride and see what happens, maybe as it warmed up it would get better.
It wasn't any better. Still 10 or so stabs to downshift.
What are your thoughts on this? Would the slight drag from the clutch after two years have an affect on the shifter mechanism or the gears themselves? If it's the shifter mechanism, do you need to split the cases on a 450 to get to it?

P.S. Thought this was interesting, met up with 9 other riders, 8 of them I've never ridden with before, most on KTM's. Turned out I was the second fastest rider there, even with the shifting problem(luckily it was slow technical single track). The bike drew lots of attention and a couple of guys on older bikes who were looking to upgrade, were now considering a Gasser. None of them have seen a Gasser 4 stroke before. Hope my exposure helped.