[Water Warrior 2]

At the 1st oil/filter change on the Vstrom I put in synthetic oil. It did improve the shifting quite noticeably. After another 4 or 5 changes with Amsoil synthetic I switched to cheap Shell Rotella 15-40 and the shifting is still buttery smooth. A lot of the smoothness can be atributed to everything in the tranny and clutch finally wearing in very smoothly after 30,000 or 40,000 kms. Most transmissions will be a little notchy when new even with a good synthetic oil. A deliberate but smooth shift is the best. A half hearted dab at the shifter can lead to a false neutral between gears and quite dangerous in some traffic situations.