sounds like you were told this by a honda motorcycle owner ?..lol. the shift pattern for honda motorcycles ( and most other brands ), is down shifting ( when pulling clutch lever at bars ) puts the motorcycle into first gear, then to shift to second gear, pull in clutch, lift up into second. motorcycles are not the same as atv engines. on motorcycles, when you shift as i am saying here, the space between 1st gear, neutral, and 2nd gear is very very close on the shift drum. where is on a atv engine, clutch design/transmission : you have neutral, press red button on left side of handle bars, pull back brake lever, push the foot shift arm down, now you got reverse. let go of brake lever. to get back to neutral ?, simply lift up with your left foot, now your back to neutral. when you want 1st gear ?. starting from neutral, lift up with left foot one click, now you are in 1st gear, work throttle up a tad, ease off throttle a tad, lift up again, now your in 2nd gear, rinse and repeat this 5 times, as most manual shift atvs are 5 speeds. to get back down to neutral, ease off the throttle and speed, just push the foot shifter down easy, one gear at a time, each time you down shift, the atv, engine will rev up, let the engine and tranny catch up tp your speed, down shift again..do this 4 times ( leaving 5th gear ), and then you will get back to neutral, green light on dash.
es's are nothing but money pits. i have worked on a few, and hate them..lol. but what i can tell you is, most of the shifting prob's come from a bad angle sensor ?, bad connections ?, weak battery ?. last es i worked on awhile back that i fixed, discovered that the shifting motor had broken magnets inside the housing. i stay manual shifts, easy to work on, if and when they go bad ?!..lol.