| Author | Message | ||
     Iman501 |
So we've seen the "will these actually fit" threads all across badweb with those cheaper $24 levers on ebay. I myself started a thread about them, and if any of you guys have been following my posts on that thread and the other lever threads I did not have a good transaction with the seller. Long story short I put them on the bike, and they bolted right up without any problems....or so i thought I got my bike out the other day for the first time, and made it about 15 feet and my front brake locked up! Yes these levers are only as good as the suzuki levers. They need to be filed down as well. I spent a long time filing it down after i realized the problem (it took a long time b/c i didng have a grinder, so i had to use a hand file). In the end i did get it to fit right, and have been riding the past few days without anymore problems from it. Although my friend bought levers from the same seller at the same time with me for his X1 and they fit fine, and he's been riding with them for about 2 weeks now, so if you have a tuber your in luck! and a final thought. If anybody would like to buy a set of these levers for an X1 (they may fit other tubers i have no idea) i do have an extra set of gold shorties that i honestly have no use for at all! i just got 2 sets b/c the seller is dumb! If your interested PM me | ||
| Terrys1980 |
Get a dremel tool...I use mine for almost everything. | ||
| Ltbuell |
Iman501,might be interested in the levers-Got an '00 X-1.Please shoot me a pm w/pics.Thanks. | ||
| Iman501 |
terrys1980 I have one, but it was in my dads truck with some of his other tools. the hand file was the only thing i could find at the time | ||
| Its_a_buell |
i thought this deal was too good to be true when i came across it on ebay. but i recently added a set of CRG shorties to my XB9S and i must say that they are absolutely worth every penny. i never imagined something so simple as a lever, a tool thats thousands of years old, could make such an incredible difference. | ||
| Iman501 |
yea, i think i'll add some CRG's eventually, not anytime soon b/c i'm poor (tires arent cheap!) | ||
| Datsaxman |
My levers from HONG KONG still fit fine. 400 miles in the rain, hail, and quite a bit of snow this weekend. Better control since they are shorty levers, and still working perfectly. No filing needed... | ||
| Trojan |
I find a certain irony in that people here will immediately report someone on ebay selling 'fake' Buell merchandise and shirts, yet will actively support and encourage people to buy fake copies of aftermarket products such as levers because they are cheap  Without wishing to go on about it again and again.....The people who copy and sell cheap have no development costs to think about. When they eventually force the good manufacturers out of our business do you really think the copiers will take up the task of developing new and innovative products? No they won't, and that will leave the motorcycling community a lot worse off. I won't even start to go into the quality issues etc......... | ||
| Court |
Beyond the mechanics of it . . it's basic character. | ||
| Andymnelson |
I agree with the basic premise of your sentiments...but I'm not sure that I fully agree with it in this case. I mean, it's a friggin lever....there's only so much variance that you can have! By your logic, there would only be 1 manufacturer of each product out there, and then you have a monopoly. Again, it's a lever. Not like there was an outrageous amount of R&D that had to go into it. And to manufacture the "cheap" ones, they had to do their homework as well. All of that said, I love my Pazzo levers  Speaking of that, which one is real and which one is "fake"? Which one has "quality issues"? Which one bears the development costs? Which one lacks "basic character"?CRG or Pazzo? I've owned both...basically identical... ...or is it just because they are selling it for a lower price? | ||
| Iman501 |
I'd love to own pazzo's or CRG's, but the fact they cost $200+ for two pieces of bent and colored metal kind of kills it for me. The cheap ones are exactly that.....cheap.... Being a college student working part time at a movie theatre and not getting any money from my parents or anything, i have to pick and choose whats worth spending my money on. Be it myself, my girlfriend, or my bike. the $24 levers seemed like a little more practical of a deal for levers that look good, and function decently (once i filed it down). Once i can afford to spend $200 on some high end levers i probably will, but at this point of time i simply cant afford it, and wanted some shorty levers for my bike. | ||
| Its_a_buell |
do what you've gotta do Iman. if they work for you then leave them on there. they looked almost identical to the more expensive brands. im thinking the only difference is the fit and finish. i dont think anyone is busting anyone else's balls, at least im not. im speaking from the experience i have with CRG shorties compared to stock and that experience leads me to this conclusion...shorty levers function far greater for me than the stockers. its your bike, build it to suit your desire and needs. everyone has an opinion. | ||
| Trojan |
I'd love to own pazzo's or CRG's, but the fact they cost $200+ for two pieces of bent and colored metal kind of kills it for me. The cheap ones are exactly that.....cheap.... That is like saying a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow and an AMC Pacer are both motor cars so there is no difference between them. They are cheap precisely because they are not the same as teh more expensive CRG,Pazzo (Pazzo originally copied the CRG lever by the way)ASV, LSL etc. The cheap copies are poor quality machined aluminium or in some cases poor cast alloy. They lack the quality bearings of the more expensive items and if you were to use both together for a while you'd see and feel the difference. Again, it's a lever. Not like there was an outrageous amount of R&D that had to go into it. And to manufacture the "cheap" ones, they had to do their homework as well. Ask CRG how much R&D they put into their levers? How much marketing and sponsorship money they spent to get them noticed and used by riders? The only homework the copiers have to do is to strip, examine and copy somebody elses product, period. Something that Chinese companies in particular excel at. Add the low wages and low manufacturing overheads into the equation and it is little wonder they can sell 'similar' looking levers at a much lower price. No development work, no warranties, no conscience. Using a similar idea to another product is one thing (Pazzo,CRG,LSL and Braking all use the same type of thumb adjuster) but just making a complete copy of another design is not only wrong but illegal in most countries As one poster has already found, fitting a cheap brake lever that locks your front brake ends up being anything but a cheap solution. | ||
| Dhays1775 |
+1 for Trojan. i bit the bullet and dropped the $190 for the known-to-work CRG levers. i would rather have something i know is meant to work over something that "should" fit. call it piece of mind.  | ||
| Andymnelson |
I'm really not trying to be argumentative here (i actually own 1 set of cheapies, 1 set of CRGs and 1 set od Pazzos!), I'm merely trying to truly understand your position: do you have a problem with Pazzo, since they directly copied CRG? Or is it merely a price thing? my Pazzos and CRGs are basically identical, my cheapies are COMPLETELY different. So it would seem that Pazzo is the one lacking "basic character", and the Chinese simply sell an inexpensive lever. | ||
| Trojan |
Pazzo ripped off the CRG design and I DO have a problem with them for that ( I won't sell Pazzo levers!). Most of the Chinese levers are pretty much cheap copies of the CRG design. Some are cast some are machined, but pretty much all of them copied the design without chnaging it at all. Some Chinese companies copied other aftermarket levers such as ASV, Rizoma or Oberon, so won't be the same at all as CRG original design, but you can bet your bottom dollar that they is no original thinking involved in any of them. Some reputable companies such as LSL and Braking use a very similar thumb click adjuster to CRG but the rest of the lever is different. Thsi thumb click adjuster is pretty much the industry standard so many people will use a similar adjuster of course, and there is a fine line between using an idea and stealing a design. I have been a victim of copying by a so called 'reputable' company who bought one of my parts and copied/marketed it immediately (even after giving me verbal assurances that this wouldn't happen), so I am maybe more sensitive than most to this. | ||
| Andymnelson |
interesting. I appreciate your insight, and can also appreciate that you might be more sensitive to it all than others! also, I had NEVER heard anyone complain about Pazzo before, so that's interesting too! FWIW, my XB9 came with the Pazzos, the China levers (which honestly look nothing like any onther levers I've seen) came to me in a box of random parts I purchased....so the only ones I've actually purchased are my CRGs for my Uly, which I proudly bought from American Sport Bike. ;D | ||
| Iman501 |
I'm merely trying to truly understand your position: my position is if i had the money i'd love to own the high end levers from pazzo or CRG, but i cant, so to keep my buell going in the direction i want, i'll have to settle with the cheap crappy hong kong look alikes | ||
| Greg_e |
What exactly is cheap or crappy about them? It sounds like the biggest problem that you had was the seller was dishonest about the fit. They appear to be machined out of billet to good tolerances with some grade of stainless steel fasteners. The shape is certainly much better than the stock shape where your fingers wrap around the lever. And while we are talking about the fit, I hope you took material off of the curved part that presses the master cylinder and the flat part where it hits the forward stop. Both sides really need to be changed to make it the same/similar as/to the stock lever. The R&D on this type of adjustable lever probably goes back to the 1800's, I know my 1990 Suzuki has this same basic type of adjuster on the brake, so where did they steal it. The thumb lever can't really be considered new technology since the cam is the real working surface. | ||
| Blake |
>>> if i had the money Maybe the truth is more like "if i had the patience to save the money"?  | ||
| Guell |
I came really close to getting the chinese levers, but the ones on my bike right now work just fine. So id rather save up some more money and buy some crg's or asv levers. Coming from a japenese sports car, the Chinese made goods are all knockoffs and usually arnt even close to the quality of what you get from a name brand company, and on top of that like trojan said they rip off the designs, and thats not good for the aftermarket. | ||
| Iman501 |
blake your right, but at the same time $200+ is a lot to spend on a few pieces of metal.... | ||
| Skully |
+5 Matt! (Trojan) Keith | ||
| Ducxl |
Having spilt some D.O.T.4 on my O.E.M. clutch lever the clearcoat disintegrated. Having also read this thread i'm absolutely BONKERS for a few sets of Ceee-Rrrrr-Geeeze  | ||
| Blake |
Iman, Price difference is $200? No Chinese knock-offs for me. OEM work fine. | ||
| Iman501 |
i wanted shorty's i like to make my buell my own, and a dif. from stock or OEM | ||
| Jramsey |
OEM work fine. : ) for 40+ years of riding the oem's have worked fine for me also. | ||
| Froggy |
Same here. I picked up a few used sets of spare levers for my bikes on ebay for the cost of the Chinese levers. Best part is, I know they will work without issue, and won't cause my brake to lock up at speed like what happened to an 1125R owner here recently. | ||
| Theirishbueller |
"OEM levers work fine" Yeah, but they don't look fekking kewl! Just kidding, I'm broke too. Seems like it's $200 levers or stockers for me...my next $200 spent on my bike will have to be a new back tire. Bummer | ||
| Jramsey |
"my next $200 spent on my bike will have to be a new back tire. Bummer" Not a Bummer just a wise choice. |
