MJ, I would remove the clutch cover, the six springs and the pressure plate and check that the center nut is not loose.

The reason I say this is because my nut came loose on my slipper, I could change up easily enough but had great difficulty in changing down. Also while at islands or junctions, bike would labour because clutch was not fully disengaged.

The tickover is fairly easy to adjust.
As for the gearbox,Dukes have pretty good gearboxes in general.They can be pretty stiff when new,my 998 was the worst,but loosen up as the mileage goes up.
It sounds to me that you may have a clutch problem.

Jon that happened to me, except the nut decided to liberate itself, needed a whole new clutch, thankfully at Ducati's expense!

Thanks for all the replies guys. I phoned service dept at JHP (Geoff I think) who was very helpful. He doesn't think there is a problem because I don't seem to have a problem changing up. He said with the R, you have to almost stamp on the lever to change down. It's just part and parcel of the bike! Ditto the low rev missing. If that's so, I might think about changing to an S which is maybe a more forgiving roadbike!
Mike

sell the motor n put a 998 lump in ;)

Ya all wimps, in my day changing gear on my Gold Star with its RRT2 gear box..............blah blah blah..................................and it had a Norton clutch!:lol::lol::lol:

Kids today don't know they're born lad. Sheer Loooxury!
On a serious (for me) note, the bike is out of warranty end March so if anything needs fettling, now's the time!

BSA Goldstar DBD34, RRT2 gearbox-aaaah the smell of castrol 'R' and burnt cork-takes you back eh Rob??:lol:

John

Monty you would have loved the Brough Superior that was at Coombe, castrol r smells luvvverly :lol:

I'd consider changing to a race shift pattern where the lever bolts directly to the gear selector shaft. It'll provide far more feel and smoothness when shifting up or down. It'll "snick" into gear. I'd strongly disagree with the service guy's statement that all R's are like that.

But before changing anything, I'd definitely have the clutch operation checked thoroughly: air in the line, stack height, basket wear, friction plate wear, push rod bearing, etc.