Great ideas folks. I've learned that the 'dumb' questions often unearth gold nuggets. Early on riding BMW airheads some old fella mentioned when shifting 'preload the shifter and only flick the clutch lever - not too much". Really minor things that no one mentions and I would not have thought of. Made a huge difference in how smooth the shifting was and without his comment I would have just slogged along assuming I had it right.
Sorta like the Randy Newman lyrics: "there aint no book you can read, there aint nobody to tell you, but I don't think I'm getting what everybody's getting. Maybe I'm doing it wrong."
Keep the ideas coming if you like.