Went for a ride today and noticed that the gearlever felt as though it had plenty of play in it. To my suprise the lever that comes out of the gearbox was very very loose and had a lots of free play. After nipping it right up, a easy job i had a look on the internet and sure enough this is common fault and if you dont jump it on now can strip the shaft and then its a major  to get it off.  Go and have a little look before your next ride.

Yeah, my old evo hss a bit of free play, which is probably exascerbated more by also having forward control linkages.

I thought this ptetty normal for a 28 year old bike, but now I'll also go googling to check out how to twitch it up a little if possible

My old evo had a bit of wear so i found some bolts slightly larger then the original clevis pins and ground the heads down by spinning them in a drill and hitting them with a grinder then cutting to length and drilling holes for the split pins.