Out riding today, put my bike in neutral, took a break for a few minutes. When I came back, I couldn't click down into first gear, just kept clicking indefinitely. I started the bike, clicked a few times, eventually bottomed out. My ride home was normal, shifted through all gears, until the end when in second gear I got no reaction from the bike from twisting the throttle. Went down to first, felt normal. I let my bike cool down then tried to diagnose the issue. What's strange is that it'll roll freely in every gear except first. I think its also worth noting that I have to let my clutch lever almost all the way out before the bike will start to move.

I'm still relatively new at this, still learning. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Bit more info or a video would be great. But i can't think of anything [that makes sense]. Unless clutch center nut has come adrift but then you'd need to pull clutch further in [lever back to the bar] to get it to free up, which is sort of the opposite of what your describing. Has the clutch burnt out the fiber plates--smell the trans oil on the dipstick. Sprocket nut undone. Lever [under motor on yours] not bent & catching on the frame. You have a lever adjustment screw & 17mm spanner size lock nut [half turn adjustment] behind the sprocket cover. None of my ideas make much sense without a bit more info, although you did a good job of describing it so far. Hope it's not an internal issue but could be. In link below, number 12 not fallen out or very undone which would take tension off the spring. Can easily find the rest of the motor from this link i think.
www.partzilla.com/catalog/yamaha/motorcy...974/dt250a/shifter-1

The only other piece of information that might be helpful is that my kickstand gave out a month or so ago and the bike dropped on its left side. The shift lever felt a little tougher to move after that, but didn't present a real problem otherwise. I also had the stator cover off before riding yesterday to add a 12v lighting coil. I put a little outward pressure on the shift lever getting the cover off, but I doubt it was enough to cause a problem. Maybe something got jostled just enough to mess things up. I'll take a closer look at the shift lever tonight.

Shifter shaft shows a circlip to hold it over so if it dropped on the left side 'its possible' it could have popped the circlip & pushed the shaft ove. It would work only until it moved over too far & got off the teeth behind the clutch. Check that & pull the lever towards you while moving up & down a little & see if it feels like it's engaging to the mating parts better. If it 'has' popped then don't go hammering the lever back on & just be careful to fitting it then put the clamp bolt in & wriggle & pull--something like that lol.

There is a little play in the shift lever. Here's a video .

It looks like it shouldn't be out that far, but I don't have a good point of reference.

looks like i put the wrong link in my post, try this one below & clip 5. If it landed on its side its possible to push the shaft sideways & pop the clip although the plastic/rubber spacer should prettymuch stop that or resist it happening. So 'that' probably isn't the problem in hindsight. I see the up & down movement in the video which is normal play at rest so as to pick up the next pin on the drum. I also see play in the lever on the splines but i'm looking past that on the video & at the free movement up & down--normal. Sorry--no help am i. Thanks for the video.


www.partzilla.com/catalog/yamaha/motorcy...974/dt250a/shifter-2

No worries, I appreciate the thoughts. The diagram is helpful. I did ride around a bit today and shifted through all gears normally. Only thing I noticed was that neutral seems easier to find now, no idea why. I can also click the shift lever without the clutch, although I didn't try this while riding. I'll definitely watch the shift lever more closely, because I think that is likely the cause of any of this.