And I thought my second gear synchro was dead...

So I am missing shifts to second like crazy. Not really smooth any other gear either. Used bike, 40,000km, my thinking is tranny issues.

After flushing my brake fluid, i noticed the color of the clutch fluid was really dark. So flushed it and added that Penzoil Synthetic dot4 (really inexpensive).

WOW.

Night and day. It drives like it has a new tranny. Even starts from a stop much better.

So if you are paranoid it's you're tranny, change that fluid!!!

 

Try pre-loading the shift pedal. This should help.

 

Posible damaged shift drum, It blows the sides of the drum and causes a fantom neutral.
Hope it was just the clutch hydraulics.

 

What year model is your bike?

 

first gen 1984 VF1000 K euro. Tahts the engine pic showing the cases split to repair the blown shift drumand damaged left shit fork .Unfortunaly the fork is not avalable and Im having to remachine the fok if you follow the fiche in this post you can find one in Holland.