Just canvassing opinions and experiences. obviously there's loads of CNC machined ally adjustable levers on eBay - prices vary from sub £20 a pair to well into 3 figures for ASV branded ones. Now, I bough some from "road and race" for my z1000, ages ago. They look nice, fit perfectly and I've had no issues with them at all. They cost me about £50 the pair. However, looking at what is available at the moment, the cheaper ones look absolutely identical to the ones I bought before, and I can't help thinking they are in fact the same article that road and race are selling for £50. Any thoughts? Tales of woe or delight?
I bought a pair of levers for about the 17 quid mark. Aesthetically they look the part, very nice. However, they dont "feel" solid at all. That might just be me however the standard levers felt better. The new ones also wobble a little. I guess that could be fixed with a thin plastic washer but I guess that's a "fix" rather than the product being good. But for 20 quid just buy them and see what you think. You spend that sort of money without thinking if you were on a night out so just spend it and see what you think
I had a cheap set on my 05. They were pretty nasty, slipped around a lot and the brake action always felt a bit rough. They also faded really quickly, the black ended up with a copper look to it and the red faded to pink. I'd rather stick with stick levers if I had to chose between them and eBay ones. ASV levers on the other hand I have always been very happy with.
Issue is the quality control, quality of raw materials, quality of end product, research and development etc. You could end up with a solid pair (most people do), you could end up with a dodgy pair. The levers are just copies of existing high quality kit. The issue is the list above. No idea how much the levers are checked after machining them, are the tolerances correct, will it cause the brake switch to push against it once hot causing a lock up? The alloy may have imperfections in it causing it to be weak and you won't know until you want to rely on them and have it snap off whilst avoiding the object in front. Paint jobs/powdercoats are always inferior in quality and will begin to fade (you could just buy a new pair for that money I suppose). To each their own but when it comes to something that can kill me very easily I wouldn't go cheap at all. I wouldn't buy Chinese rims that you can get nowadays for the fraction of the cost of a pair of second hand 12+ wheels. I wouldn't put my trust in a set of Chinese leaves not knowing anything about who makes them etc. Before someone pipes up and says ASV/etc levers are machined in China or wherever, the difference is in the manufacturing of them, period. A lot more money will have been invested in the manufacture, research and development of the product by a reputable company. ASV themselves offer a free replacement if you're able to snap one of their products. To each their own but I'll stick to my ASV levers
Bought a set of short levers from one of the guys on here a while back, they were cheap chinese copies and were pretty rubbish. Went back to Honda levers shortly after.
