Gearbox warning sign???

A few days ago my Mark 3 started a new behavior, and I am wondering if I should be taking some preventative action....?

The bike will occasionally slip back into neutral after I shift from 1st to 2nd. (slips out of 2nd gear just a couple of seconds after the upshift, and it does catch in 2nd gear for that brief interval).

the other symptom, which i assume is related - it is harder to get into neutral when I am stopped. It was fairly easy before, especially if I just tapped it down from 2nd. But now it is takes a lot more effort, and is next to impossible to get it up to neutral from 1st when stopped.

The clutch is adjusted fine, and is not slipping or engaging early or late.

Oh, also - a couple of days ago I noticed that it didn't want to shift up to 4th after holding the revs up in 3rd for a little while.

I know somebody on this forum has a better idea of what is going on than I do...... ideas? Sure hope this is not the first sign of serious gearbox issues.

Bike has 17,000 miles, of which I have added 2,500 since I bought it last year. I have no idea if anything has ever been done to the gearbox, but believe it is all stock, including the final drive sprocket.

Thanks for any suggestions and theories.

There is a "standard problem"with the gearbox layshaft bearing that fails but as far as I noticed (when mine failed!) the warning here is that it gets harder to change to second and third gear. My gearbox also started to leak at the kickstart seal but since you have a better seal on the MK3 it might not be seen.

You might have a problem with the shifting mechanism that is located in the gerabox outer cover. It is easy to remove and you can look at oldbritts.com, technical articles, gearbox, to see how it should look like.

Regards,
Per