10 year old springs that are partially compressed all the time are gonna creep. It only takes a couple millimeters for their effectiveness to decline. If I were you, I'd buy replacements before pulling the clutch cover - just so I could have a fix in place same-day. Note: I know exactly nothing about bandits, so feel free to ignore me
I know this will be a tire or Oil thread like comment, but there is a ton of actual research and data to support my statement vice oil and tire beliefs
Springs 'wear" or fail to be at the designed spec though cycles or heat above design range. Its been shown time and time again, age nor time compressed do not materially effect the spring unless the spring was compressed or stretched above teh design range.
That said you have a good idea and point to check...10 year old bike the clutch springs likely do have significant number of movement cycles on them, so they may very well be shorter free length then the spec calls for.
Creep as I understand it from materials science course Iv taken, (nope, Im not an engineer so only know what I think I know, Ive never had to prove it to a thesis review board) Creep, as mentioned mostly affects materials at or above ~0.4x their melting point. So not likely to be an effect issue with a properly designed and produced clutch spring.
To the OP, Start with Bleed and back bleed the clutch hyd system, Air in a clutch system like the bandit has can cause either clutch to not engage or disengage.
If no luck there..
Measure the spring free length and compare to the OEM spec.
Measure the thickness of the drive and driven disks and compare to the OEM spec.
Check for flatness of both drive and driven disks.
Inspect the clutch pressure plate for signs of wear, which would lesson clamp load when assembled.
Inspect the clutch basket fingers for grooving that might cause clutch disks to hang up.
Keep in mind the bike uses three different designs of drive plates, and they can be mixed up if not careful..
Drive plate I.D. Clutch facing “D”
No.1 127 mm (5.0 in) 48 pcs
No.2 135 mm (5.3 in) 60 pcs
No.3 127 mm (5.0 in) 60 pcs
And there are two sizes of driven plate
Driven plate Thickness
No.1 2.0 mm (0.08 in)
No.2 2.3 mm (0.09 in)
Item Standard Limit
Clutch drive plate thickness No.1, 2, 3 3.72 – 3.88 (0.146 – 0.153) 3.42 (0.135)
Clutch drive plate claw width No.1, 2, 3 13.9 – 14.0 (0.547 – 0.551) 13.1 (0.52)
Clutch driven plate distortion — 0.10 (0.004)
Clutch spring free length 65.0 (2.56) 61.8 (2.43)
"The manual doesn't give much information on this"
The service manual does, all the above came from the service manual and there is more, troubleshooting steps, procedures, special tools