And just like that, 1st gear is back to working like it should. I whimped out on replacing the the low gear bushing - didn’t want to be the guinea pig trying something different. It would involve a little more research and if I was really gung-ho for it I’d have reached out to Honda to see what their opinion would be (about using the high-performance plastic bushing from Igus).
The issue with my 1st gear, to confirm was a combo of a heavily worn bushing and rounded corner edges on the countershaft gear dogs. Was able to score a good replacement on both of those gears. I even made sure to install the thrust washers too this time :-)
