After about 1500 km on my new-to-me XX (49K on it now), I was in love except for the tranny; specifically the 1-2 upshift. I'm well familiar with Honda's trademark double clunk when going from first to second, but the Bird was more of a double-THUD. Below 4,000 rpm anyway -- above 4,000 it was more of a double-CRASH-RATTLE-CLANK and then often as not being kicked back into neutral. If that happened, it would generally click nicely into second gear on the next try a few seconds later when I recovered from the trauma and stopped cringing in expectation of chunks of shattered gears blasting up through the seat. The noise was that bad. No other shifts, up or down, gave me any trouble whatsoever.

I did some (as in, a shit-ton) of reading followed by troubleshooting, droning up and down the road shifting from first to second and back using every possible combination of rpm, throttle, and shifting technique I could think of. Nothing seemed to help except grannying at low throttle, low rpm. I adjusted the shifter to a few different positions (no change), tried my well worn in work boots instead of my riding boots (slight improvement, possibly imaginary and not consistent), even wore my riding boots for a weekend doing construction work going up and down ladders all day to work all the stiffness out of them (and nearly died from the heat, but that's a different story).

I finally gave up in disgust and resigned myself to just trying to baby it along until I had time to tear into the transmission. Then today on my way home from work I got annoyed enough to spend some more time doing the 1st-2nd shuffle (I'm sure the people living along my route were about as irritated as I was) and somehow hit upon the right combination of shifter preload, throttle movement, cursing, and voodoo to make perfect smooth shifts at unprecedented high rpm and/or heavy throttle.

So my question is, what's the deal? I'm pretty sure a new-off-the-showroom-floor Blackbird didn't require the rider to learn a specific technique by trial and error just to make decent 1-2 shifts. So from the description of what the bike was doing, and what made it better, does anyone have an idea of what might be going on, mechanically? Bent shift fork, something worn or loose from nearly 50,000 km of god-knows-what, tranny about to explode, god hates me, etc.

OR, am I just a tard who couldn't shift, and I've just never encounted anything discerning enough to call me on it until I met the Bird's 1-2 upshift?

try some 20 50 synthetic mobil oil, motorcycle..grade and get back to us.

20w50 is way too heavy for normal use here except for July and August . . . I run Rotella T6 5w40 synthetic in all my bikes and putting it in the Bird didn't make any difference in the shifting. Is there something extra-special about Mobil?

The bird's tranny is a pretty stout unit. I doubt you have issues with it. I'd check/clean the clutch rod, maybe change the clutch fluid. And heavier oil does help with the shifting and I'm in the Arctic...

Also don't try and baby the shifter, shift with authority. I've never had mine click back to N except when I screwed up the shift.

True. If the clutch fluid has not been flushed lately, it could be working poorly (could even have moisture or air in the system). If the clutch doesn't fully engage, the more dramatic changes (1-2) might be under stress. The other shifts (2-6) don't need as much engagement for a smooth shift.

Ok, thanks guys. I'll start with the clutch fluid and rod and work up to more complicated and/or invasive procedures if necessary. I do try to shift with authority, the lever feels like it's hitting resistance and getting slammed forcibly back down. Except yesterday after I found the sweet spot, then it was like shifting a ZZR 250.

+1 on the oil and cleaning the clutch rod. I make this part of my regular yearly maintenance. I hate bad shifts. Pull the rod all the way out and re-lube the end of it. I even wire wheel it to make it clean again.

I'm with Quad on the Mobil 1.

I use Mobil 1 (10-40), and it makes gear changes much smoother than the couple of other oils I tried.

Both suggestion are sound advise..... relatively cheap, and easy....

My suggestion.... is to do it all.