Just bought this bike it is my first and currently is not running.  I have bought the repair manual and I am replacing all fluids, lines, etc.  The bike appears mechanically sound as far as the engine goes but will need lots of work before it is road ready. I hope this question is very stupid and I am just ignorant to the workings of my transmission.  My bike is sitting on its center stand with it in this position and the clutch in it will only shift b/t 1st gear and neutral.  Does the transmission require that the bike be moving to get into higher gears or do i have a problem?  Also any tips anyone has on this series of  bikes of the top of there head to look for please post.  All help is very much appreciated and I hope to return the favor when I learn more.  

Early 80's Viragos were nice handling, fast bikes. Yamaha had some serious problems with their gears, however. I had an '82 XV920 and almost every Virago I have seen or heard about has issues with the starter gears. It will sound like your are grinding marbles when you try to start it. There are several things you can try, but none of them actually cure the problem. Despite the grinding, my old 920 would always fire up without hesitation. If your bike doesn't make this awful grinding sound, consider yourself extremely lucky.

Also, Yamaha had issues with 2nd gear. My 82 Virago and 83 Seca 900 both had 2nd gears that were out. I simply shifted from 1st to 3rd on both bikes.

Although I had problems with both transmissions, I was always able to shift to higher gears even without the bike running. Good luck on your project!