i beleive that you should never start in 1st unless you are at a complete stop.
no matter how slow you are moving or how steep the hill, 2nd gear will be the way to go IMO
If you are moving at 5km/h and there is a steep hill, 2nd gear will lug you engine.
i had this problem also with my DC2R, and my gears crunched from 3 to 4. thought it was a loose syncro, but a simple transmission fuild change with honda MTF resolved it. saved me $500
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