I pulled an '01 Savage out of a lady's backyard.  It's 20 years old, but only has 3k miles on it.  It's basically a new but extremely dirty bike.

Everything on the exterior of this bike is dirty and has corrosion.  However, once you get past the outer "patina", the internals of the bike seem to be in pretty good shape.

So, my question is about the clutch and how it's currently functioning.  Let's say I'm in 4th gear, cruising along.  If I approach a stop and I want to downshift all the way to 1st, I have to do the following:
1. let out clutch, let it engage, then then downshift to 3rd
2. let out clutch, let it engage, downshift to 2nd
3. let out clutch, let it engage, downshift to 1st

On my other Savage, I could just downshift, downshift downshift while holding in the clutch hand control.  The clutch foot lever would spring back and I could continue to downshift without having to let out the hand control.  

Do you think this bike just needs to be ridden and used, or should I start popping covers, wrenching and inspecting?  Do you think the clutch is just dry from neglect and needs to be used for a while to get that spring action back in the foot control?

Thanks in advance for the help!

There are a number of reasons why you have to clutch between gear selections...and a dirty clutch (whatever that is) isn't one of them.

Start with the simple things. Lube the clutch cable and adjust the free play at the lever.

If that doesn't solve the issue, then you may need lube the gear shift linkage.

Also, you may need to adjust the throw of the gear shift lever at the linkage.

Lastly, I do note (on all bikes, not just the S40) that when the engine oil is old and tired, shift quality suffers.

UPDATE:  So a little bit of riding & lubricating the foot controls a a little has done wonders.  I think it was just dirty.  It's shifting much, much better now.

This old bike, the more I ride it the better it gets.  I think it just needed some time to wake up after it's slumber in the back yard.

Also, after I bought it one of the first things I did was an oil change.  I must have only ridden it 10 miles max after I got it running and the oil looked like chocolate syrup.  Changed it again last night.  I'll keep an eye on that as I'm sure I will go through several oil changes over the next week or so until the internals are cleaned out.

Thanks for all the help!