| Author | Message | ||
     Iman501 |
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ewItem&item=330491107838&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK %3AMEWNX%3AIT#ht_14317wt_1346 i found them on ebay and compared to pazzo and other levers they seem pretty cheap. at that price they may be worth a try (even if i have to file them a bit like some of the Gixxr levers people have used) if you scroll down it says they make levers for all types of bikes including ours.... | ||
| Terrys1980 |
No I haven't but these are a new style on ebay from China. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Brake-Clutch-Levers -BUELL-XB9-XB12-Ulysses-XB12X-12XT-B-/160511357873 ?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item255f38f 3b1 I am thinking about ordering a set after Christmas. | ||
| Iman501 |
well i just bit the bullet, and ordered myself a set of blue ones from the link i posted above for christmas as well  i hope they work out! still though, has anybody tried out the ones i linked, or even the ones terrys1980 has linked? | ||
| Gambit |
i pulled the trigger on a pair of black shorty ones as well after reading this post... | ||
| Greg_e |
I got reprimanded for talking about the GSXR levers on my bike so I will not say what I think. | ||
| Andymnelson |
Just as a fair warning: many have purchased and installed GSXR levers and had some interference issues with the brake lever. The story usually has something to do with it feeling just fine, but either causing the brake to drag (and all the issues that would create!) or causing it to catch when braking and not releasing- some with accidents resulting. Proceed with caution! | ||
| Greg_e |
The GSXR brake lever requires more than a small amount of filing! And on more than 1 surface. | ||
| Buellblastrider |
interesting. I have a set of gsxr levers from my girls 750 because the clutch on her 1000 is a hydraulic and the 750 wasnt, makes me want to see what I can do. Greg e could you pm me some insight? | ||
| Migs16 |
dude go on to buellxb.com and there is a DIY video on what u have to do to get these levers to fit. it takes all of 15 minutes of filing. ive been looking all over for them. | ||
| Buellblastrider |
If these will work they are actually for sale. I'd use them but I'd prefer black lever with gold adjusters. These are grey with red adjusters and regular length. Have em posted in classifieds a while back. | ||
| Iman501 |
well i'll let you guys know how the ones i bought worked out. it says they have levers that will fit our bikes (i had to specify what type of bike i had and what i needed when i purchased them). but the expected arrive date of them is the second week of january....i guess it'll be a late christmas present haha | ||
| Greg_e |
It takes more than 15 minutes to get it right. The clutch works fine without modification though the perch is a little larger so it looks funny. The brake requires about 1/8 off of the flat side, and at least 1/8 off of the curve side to make the profiles line up correctly on my 03 9R. I do not have any pictures because of the response when I brought this up a while ago and asked the thread to be deleted to stop the grief from the doom and gloom squad that paid way to damn much for the "other" levers. Mine have been made safe and I'm not all that interested in providing more details due to past experiences!!! If the Buell specific fit correctly then I'll order that version so it looks normal, Iman please PM me when you get yours mounted so we can compare. Also remember that Buell used off the shelf parts from other bikes to keep the cost down. Find the correct clutch model and correct brake model and you have a winner. It's all up to comparing the pieces to get it right. And to fulfill the doom and gloom squad... Using levers not designed to work with our bikes is very dangerous, do not assume that some simple work with a file will make them function correctly! Buy only the stupid expensive levers that were "made" specifically for our bikes! Also the stolen designs coming out of China should not be tolerated, buy only the original stolen expensive designs. And since they are coming out of China you should expect the quality to be less than great, those cheap bastards undercutting everything. (did I forget anything???) (yeah a little mad about the subject)}} | ||
| Terrys1980 |
Greg do you need to fill out a hurt feelings report? I mean seriously at some point you get over it. And from the sounds of things you are not that happy with the ones you "modified". All I did on your thread was question the quality of the materials used on the "cheap" levers. No one told you to delete your thread. It was a simple debate. The good levers are at least $100 a piece and these are around $25 there has got to be a reason why are are so much cheaper. | ||
| Trojan |
The good levers are at least $100 a piece and these are around $25 there has got to be a reason why are are so much cheaper. Exactly!! Such as.... 1. Chinese manufacturers making cheap Ebay levers have NO design or development costs (nor warranty) as they just copy other peoples hard work and design expertise. Eventually the people who invest money designing the 'expensive' parts will stop altogether because the market is flooded with cheap nasty copies. Do you think the Chinese will then take up the cudgel and design new and innovative parts for your bike? Think again chum. I have seen this happen in the Minibike (Minimoto) industry which was flooded with cheap chinese imports a few years ago. This decimated what was a strong and growing industry to the point where a lot of quality manufacturers just stopped altogether and those that were left struggled against cheap imports. Those who bought the cheap bikes now find that they can get no spares or backup and once something goes wrong they are trash (they were only motorised trash to start with!). 2. They are made using either cheap cast aluminium or very cheap machined alloy made to look vaguely like billet, not the expensive and hard wearing aerospace spec billet used by CRG/Pazzo/Oberon etc. 3. You get exactly what you pay for. A decent aftermarket lever will not only last a long time and work properly straight from the box, but you will be able to order replacement parts for it should part fail unexpectedly. Try that with your cheap Chinese copies. 4. Would I want to trust a brake lever at 100mph+ that wasn't designed to fit my bike and had to be 'filed' to make it fit...I don't think so  You spend thousands of dollars on a new bike, many hundreds on riding helmet & riding kit etc, then finish it off with an ill fitting poorly manufactured and bodged $25 brake lever? | ||
| Terrys1980 |
To add to the list is the poorly designed and function of the adjusters. | ||
| Iman501 |
odds are they probably are cheap POS's, but seeing as i cant afford $200 levers, i'll try out the $25 ones, if they work, then great, if not....well i'll switch back to the OEM levers. and if they break....well who cares they cost $25 buying two sets is still half the price of a set of pazzo's, (Message edited by iman501 on December 01, 2010) | ||
| Sinatra |
what about the ASV brand levers ive seen on ebay lately? they say they have some for the XB line. and the 1125s.? anyone pull the trigger on the ASV brand levers yet/? they look really nice, actually look as good as the crg or pazzo levers in IMO. they are a bit cheaper too, i think they go for 150 a set. | ||
| Sinatra |
link to asv levers http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ASV-LEVERS-F3-SET-B UELL-XB12-ALL-MODELS-2004-2008-/270656404902?pt=Mo torcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3f0460fda6#ht _1291wt_939 | ||
| Trojan |
We have sold a lot of ASV levers for both Xb adn 1125 customers. They are excellent levers and guaranteed unbreakable, but not quite as 'bling' as some others | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
I am running these levers on my Ducati 999S. Not one thing the matter with them. (Natcherly I don't tell me friends where I got them).  The idea that these must be inferior because they are made in China is preposterous, especially the idea that they would break under the pressure of high speed braking. Any more than a slight squeeze on the front brake at 100 mph is much more likely to cause an accident than breaking the lever which is a total impossibility for your average mortal, who can only apply about 80 to 100 pounds of pressure with his hardest squeeze. My iPhone is made in China, and so are many other high tech products that we all own and love, like the wheels on our Buells. Actually, I have always wondered how CRG and others had the temerity to charge two hundred bucks for a pair of levers, which are made in seconds on a CNC machine. Compare what you can get for $200, say an Epson wide body printer, with a pair of levers, and you will get the idea. Of course fitting brake levers properly is very important, and best left to a specialist if one is not mechanically inclined. Now that I think of it, I had to modify one of the CRG levers I put on Lil' Blackie as I had a Shindy brake master cylinder with remote reservoir to fit better on my Tomasselli adjustable Clubman's bars. Tricky bit of business if I recall. The real danger in aftermarket levers is that some that will fit on the bike, but will put a small amount of pressure on the brake disks, not noticeable at first, that will cause the disk to overheat, and seize unexpectedly. So make sure that there is a little play between the brake lever and the master cylinder so that doesn't happen. OK? | ||
| Pwnzor |
Some things from China are crap, just like some things from America are crap. It's a crap shoot. (lol, I'm hilarious.) I just love reading chinese ads on ebay, for the following reason. Guarantee:100% money refund A:Your don't satisfaction the item quality B:Item don't fit your motorcycle perfect C:Item less than your expected D:The item arriver be broken E:Your don't receive the item F:Parcel Lost G:Receive the wrong item Please let us knnow ,We will give you a 100% satisfactory solution I get the gist of it, and I believe every word of it. I've had nothing but good luck ordering stuff directly from the Chinese. It's still funny, and I'll laugh at it every time. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
I know what you mean, Matt. Very amusing ad copy, indeed. However, the parts are nice, I really can't complain. Here are the levers I bought. By the way, I took the photo with my Chinese camera, an iphone 4:-)  | ||
| Iman501 |
gambit, you said you ordered a pair as well, did you order the same ones as I did?, or the ones Terrys1980 posted? If you ordered the same ones as I did, what is the ETA for your levers? like i said above, they told me the second week of january, and i dont see why it takes a month and a half to ship four levers! (My buddy ordered a set for his X1 at the same time and same order as me hoping that we could save some money on shipping, but the seller wouldnt have that, and charged me twice for shipping, even though i contacted him before the purchase and everything...  I havent decided what type of feedback i will leave him yet, depends on the product i guess) | ||
| Trojan |
Not one thing the matter with them. Jon, The biggest single problem with all of these cheap Chinese products (not just levers) is that they are basically just stealing other peoples hard work and design expertise to produce copies that look the same but are nowhere near the quality of some original manufacturers parts. By slavishly copying something they don't have to spend any money on design or development, and can pay their workforce slave wages to make them. great for consumers you may think, but when they eventually force the quality manufacturers (and original designers) out of business who will they then turn to to copy? The answer is they won't design anything new but will just turn to another segment of industry to copy, clone and destroy, leaving us without any new and innovative products to but at all. You think this sounds a little bit OTT? I have already seen it happen in various industries (minibikes, guitars etc) and it is a major reason why manufacturing jobs in western countries are disappearing faster than you imagine. How can we compete with virtual slave workers when we have the costs involved in paying union rates and have design and development costs to absorb too? The only way to keep US/UK/EU manufacturers in business at all is to bite the bullet and pay the more expensive prices for what is after all a better made product. I could sell countless brands of Chinese levers/mirrors/componenets and am constantly bombarded with ofers from various manufacturers over there offering to copy pretty much anything for peanuts. I haven't done it on principal more than anything else, but it is getting very hard to avoid jumping on the bandwagon (Dragon) when price seems to be the only factor to customers rather than quality. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Thanks for your thoughtful post, Matt. I know you will take no offense if I suggest that you have perhaps wound up several issues in one ball of string. Allow me to try to untangle a few strands, if you will. It is true that the Chinese appear to have very little regard for intellectual property rights, and that is something that they do with the knowing compliance of Western diplomats, who, in my experience, are not very sensitive to this issue: they should be. Intellectual property right are the basis of modern commerce as we know it. That being said, whilst in most western countries patents are respected to a certain degree, good designs are constantly copied, patents infringed or almost so, in no case more blatantly than our poor brake levers, which are manufactured to what appears to be an identical design by at least three manufacturers. I couldn't help noticing that they all charge the same price. Only one of them incurred the cost of invention. As to the question of jobs disappearing overseas, I personally take a more global point of view. I realize that many do not. I see no more value in a job in China, than I do in India, Europe or the United States, and not for lack of patriotism, on the contrary. People need jobs the world over, and I believe the goal of world peace and prosperity is more likely served in fully employed and prosperous countries, peacefully and honestly trading with each other. Easier said than done, of course. Finally I might note that the exports of a nation do not depend entirely on wages, or even greatly so. For example, Germany, a country of 80 million or so, exports $1.145 trillion dollars of merchandise, and has among the highest wages in the world, while China with sixteen times the population, and among the lowest wages in the world, exports less than twice as much. England, with 60 million and high wages, only exports one third as much as Germany. They are both members of the same economic community. The point here is that high wage countries can and do export a lot. In fact, of the top ten exporting countries only China and South Korea are low wage countries. What is more important than wages alone is education, industrial policy, monetary policy, labor relations, capital formation, and the morals and values of each country. What high wage countries need to do is to produce high value added products, and leave simple items like brake levers to low wage countries. I would be the last person to suggest the proper relationship between you and your devoted customers, among which I am proud to count myself, but I do not think you would be doing them a disservice if you used you experience and expertise to offer them the products that promise the greatest value, no matter where they were made. In fact, with the possible exception of Chinese copies, that is what you do already, am I right? Thank you for all your many contributions to this board, and to the sport, for which we are all grateful. Jonathan | ||
| Trojan |
I do not think you would be doing them a disservice if you used you experience and expertise to offer them the products that promise the greatest value, no matter where they were made. In fact, with the possible exception of Chinese copies, that is what you do already, am I right? To a large extent yes, although there are considerations to be taken into account in addition to monetary value. What we do not want to do is sell anything that is 'cheap' in terms of construction or quality, so we tend to stick to manufacturers that we either know personally or are assured will stand behind their products and offer good warranties etc. My limited experience with Chinese companies is that they offer little or no guarantees or warranties, and those they do offer are often not worth the paper they are printed on. Add this to the cost of trying to return faulty/damaged goods to China and it can be a false economy trying to buy from them. I had some dealings with a company that was importing pre-painted body panels from China and were given 'cast iron' guarantees of quality and fit. Suffice to say he now has a lot of Jap Sport bike bodywork littering his warehouse that neither fits properly nor can be returned to China For example, Germany, a country of 80 million or so, exports $1.145 trillion dollars of merchandise, and has among the highest wages in the world, while China with sixteen times the population, and among the lowest wages in the world, exports less than twice as much. England, with 60 million and high wages, only exports one third as much as Germany. They are both members of the same economic community. Germany trades very much on its reputation for quality and efficiency, which is a good trade off against low prices and which works well for them. Germany however is in a unique position for major European economies in that it has deliberately sought and fought to retain its 'heavy' manufacturing industries and has successfully achieved this through innovation and quality. England (UK) and most other Euro economies have seen manufacturing industries decline at a shocking rate, which of course leads to a decline in exports. This has been due partly to high wages but more to poor quality and ageing designs in respect of the UK motor and motorcycle industry in the past. | ||
| Greg_e |
It should be noted that China labor parties are pushing for much higher wages. | ||
| Sifo |
The biggest single problem with all of these cheap Chinese products (not just levers) is that they are basically just stealing other peoples hard work and design expertise to produce copies that look the same but are nowhere near the quality of some original manufacturers parts. We are talking about break and clutch levers here, right? It's not like CRG levers are going to keep the front wheel from locking up, or make you stop missing shifts. I'm all for supporting American made products, but we still have to be able to compete on value. The idea that the Chinese can't produce quality workmanship is nowhere near correct. Most of the stuff they produce (such as the XB wheels) are contracted for by foreigners (from their view point) and manufactured to the standards specified. Specify tight tolerances and you will get high quality stuff at very affordable prices. That is a proven fact. I would sure hate to be one of their workers though. They get screwed. | ||
| Speedfreaks101 |
I wish the labor parties in China would be successful in raising labor rates. It would provide more incentive for companies to produce their own products and focus on quality vs outsourcing. Items like the Buell wheels are in fact held to a strict standard, however ebay items are not. It would be nice to see Chinese items tested against the items that were copied. Test them for strength, durability, porosity and then recalculate the value. This is not directed to the levers but all the cheap items that not scrutinized for quality by an outside source by a company like Buell. I'll even bet China was Buell's first choice for wheels.  | ||
| Sifo |
Items like the Buell wheels are in fact held to a strict standard, however ebay items are not. It would be nice to see Chinese items tested against the items that were copied. Test them for strength, durability, porosity and then recalculate the value. You can't really say what standards an ebay item are manufactured to. Have you ever looked at the stock levers on almost any bike? Do you really think anything in ebay is any worse? Just about anything is going to be a step up (or at least equal). Just to be safe you may want to give them a good hard squeeze once you get them mounted to make sure they don't crumble like a stale cookie. If you choose not to purchase cheap Chinese knock offs, good for you too. |
