Another thing that will cause harsh or abrupt clutch engagement is not allowing the machine to warm up properly before taking off. You're supposed to let the machine warm up about 5 minutes to warm the belt and clutches and everything else. My 18 1k has about the smoothest clutch engagement of any Polaris I've ever been on...BUT, if I just hop on it cold, start it up and take off immediately it too will hesitate to engage and then hit pretty hard when it does. Not good for the machine or your belt and clutches.
I'm not accusing you of bad riding habits lol. I just know I'm sometimes guilty of being in a hurry to get on the trail or get off the trailer or get out of the garage and take off cold. Its just better practice and easier on machinery to get in a habit of starting the machine FIRST and THEN get yourself ready to go. By the time you get your gloves, jacket, helmet and whatever else put on, the machine has sufficient time to warm. Proper warmup will almost ALWAYS make for a smoother initial take off.
I'm getting long winded here, but another thing I do is to very seldom take my machine out of gear when I stop to take a break while out riding unless I'll be parked for a very long time. I know many will disagree, but I've worked on a lot of Polaris machines over the years with worn out shifter parts. I figure that like most other mechanical things, that mechanism only has a finite number of times its gonna operate from new until its worn out and don't work very well or needs replaced. On the newer machines you MUST hold the brake to start anyway. So unless I'm parked somewhere that I NEED to have the tranny in Park (rare), I just shut off in gear and start back up in gear rather than having to shift two times unnecessarily causing more wear.
