Hi Board!
I just bought a Monster 796 Anniversary Edition (so 2013) and have only taken it a few miles but noticed a little strangeness from the gearbox and don't know how alarmed I should be.
I find that the neutral can be quite hard to find, which from what I understand is quite common. But more often than when I go from 1:st gear to neutral it doesn't turn on the Neutral-light. If I fully disengage the clutch I have no sound of drive so it would seem that it is indeed in Neutral. If I put it in first and roll a bit and then try again the neutral light might come on. This is getting really annoying as I don't know what could be the cause of this.
I also noticed that sometimes if I accelarate fast on 1st gear and do a fast change to second it actually lands in neutral instead (with light) and sometimes the sound of going from 1st to 2nd comes with a fairly large shifting-noise. Don't have any experience with Monsters from before so I don't know what is normal sound and not, just that it doesn't always have such a loud bang associated with the shifting between 1 and 2.
Quite normal.
Might work better with more positive gear changes - more force.
Of course, you might have a bad(ish) neutral switch and it won't hurt to stop by a dealer and ask them to check the bike for, especially the clutch engagement/fluid/possible air in the system.
In some cases a simple adjustment of the shift lever solves a false neutral on upshift. Try lowering the shift lever a bit. And "Might work better with more positive gear changes - more force" too. Do try bleeding the clutch for the hard to find neutral , can't hurt. If you have adjustable levers more lever travel might help.
Neutral light? As long as it a wiggle of the lever gets the light on I suggest just [Dolph]
My wife 696 had the same issue .
Try popping into neutral while the bike is still slightly moving as you pull up to a stop.
Should go in clean , hers was aways really hard to find when the bike was stationary and also had the light not show.