Come to think of it, my bike also had the problem of slipping out of 1st gear that several other captains have reported in new / low mileage bikes. That problem went away after 5k miles or so, but since my bike also needed pretty firm shifts from 3rd to 4th and AFAIK the same shift fork is controlling 1st and 4th gears, I'm also inclined to think the problem originated from the factory.
Unfortunately the bike is an '11 with 18k miles and I bought it used, so I'll get to pay from my own pocket. At the moment it's looking like about $1k in parts, another $1k in labor, and more than a month of downtime