of course, if you grind at least once a week ... then it's a whole different story

 

Not true. It is far more important to use the correct expletive to utter immediately after this happens. The wording and phrasing will differ based on model year, car color, and region.

In general, the more "colorful" the better.

 

1-2 shift has the biggest change in gear ratios. Thus a big speed differential that 2nd gear synchro has to absorb. Most trannys have multiple sychro's (2 or even 3) for lowest gears (since gear ratio changes are large) and only one synchro in highest gears (since gear ratio changes are small).

 

Let me tell you a little story. If it makes you feel any better, I had to grind my gears about 100 times (literally) before I needed my transmission rebuilt. I bought my car over two years ago, used (~13k miles), and had a real bad 1-2 grind from day one. The dealership I bought it from would never admit there was anything wrong with it. It kept getting worse, until I started momentarily losing gears.

I took my car to a different dealership and they immediately told me there was a problem. Turns out I had a couple shot synchros and needed two new gear sets. Almost $5k worth of work later, I have a newly rebuilt tranny that feels better than it ever has. Fortunately Honda Care covered 100% of the cost I'll tell you, I never knew how nice the S2000 transmission felt until now

My point to all this: the S has a pretty tough transmission. You're perfectly fine if you accidentally grind every once in a while, but not if you grind once a week for 2 years.