[Bobcat]

Dan ... congratulations of the maiden voyage . Now the pursuit of anything you can think of begins !
FWIW on the TKO 600 , they are very stiff at first . That combined with your cold weather is probably the reason for the hard shifting . The TKO guys told me to break the gearbox in fairly easy with progressively more throttle and higher revs for the first 500 miles .... no WOT . Did that and mine shifts as well as my toploader .
I noticed in the pictures that your shift boot has the top ( small end ) extended . Push that down so its inside the boot and that will take the strain off the shift boot . I probably didn`t put that very well , but there are pictures around somewhere , just can`t find them now .

Bob