I recently bought an 03 400ex. I got a good deal on it so I figured there would be some work I needed to do as in some of the bushings were worn out and it needed a couple of tires. I noticed that the clutch lever was hard to pull on it and I took it out for a couple hour ride and it wore me out squeezing it. So I did some research and ordered a new clutch cable and an MSR perch for it as these seemed like they could contribute to my problem. They are supposed to come in this week but I was working on it today and I tried moving the clutch lever that is on the clutch cover of the engine (the one that the cable attaches to) and I can barely move it with my hands. My question is should this be that difficult to move by hand, because to me if its that tough to move there even replacing the cable and the perch aren’t going to stop it from being hard to pull? I was just wondering before I put on the new cable and perch which I plan on doing anyway.

The guy I bought it from said that he had it for about 9 years and he never replaced anything with the clutch internally FYI. Any advice is appreciated.