I wonder if this was a my problem all along

As some of you regulars may be aware, I’ve been having trouble with my left hand Multi Function Switch. I was not able to shift into Reverse, I could not manually downshift and I could not shift from any gear into Neutral without first shutting the bike off and restarting.

In the past, when setting out on a ride I would start the bike so I could release the parking brake and then try to shift into Reverse, which never happened. But now that I was in Neutral with the parking brake released it was easy to push it out of the parking spot in front of my apartment.

But for the last two days, when going though my pre-departure dog and pony show , the bike actually shifted into Reverse. Of course I was pleased . Today I decided to try a few tests while out on my ride. The couple of times I tried shifting into Reverse it worked fine. Then I tried a manual downshift with no joy. I tried again, only pressing the Minus paddle harder and lo and behold, it down shifted.

So I pulled over and tried shifting into Neutral from 1st gear, pulling hard, but not overly hard, on the minus paddle and it performed flawlessly. Same with going from Reverse to Neutral.

Before, when I was having trouble shifting into Reverse and it didn’t work, my instinct was to press harder on the R button. I’m now wondering if maybe the problem was I was not pulling hard enough on the Minus paddle?

Now the big question….. I already have a new left hand Multi Function Switch on order from the dealer to be replaced under warranty. I’m expecting it to come in July. Do I go ahead with the replacement, just in case, since it is a known problem with the 2018 RT and F3?