We sell Pazzo's and have them in stock. Yes the Pazzo levers are very high quality products ...but no Pazzo lever has bearings in it. The Pazzo levers use plain brass bushing inserts (and nothing wrong with that). But If you want levers with roller bearings in them then you need to go to the top end of the market... to products like the Titax levers used in MotoGP....that we also sell.
Every brake and clutch master cylinder and perch requires a different design of perch adapter. To correctly design a lever you need a sample of every master cylinder and the bike so that you can check the brake lever allows the piston to fully return back past the compensating valve. You also need to check you get a full clutch throw and release although on the clutch side this is not so much a safety issue as a quality and performance issue.
The biggest problem I have seen with some of the cheaper after market adjustable levers is that made in Asia is that the companies that make them simply don't have access to a wide range of the larger European or Japanese bikes to test their products on, and as result you get issues like this http://www.gixxer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=274298
When brakes lock up due to the compensating valve not being able to do it's job of dealing with fluid expansion, they do it a lot more suddenly than you would think. I had it happen in a race car many years ago when someone inadvertently swapped the clutch and brake cylinder push rods over. I've also seen an incorrectly installed brake lever on a bike encounter the same problem and the rider flipped over the front wheel, which locked solid on the front straight at Hampton Downs earlier this year about 50m in front of me. (California Superbike training day). Luckily she didn't hit any road side furniture and she only broke her collar bone - and no I didn't install the lever!
Levers that do not pass industry design, testing and manufacturing standards are potentially dangerous. While someone may discover X brand of levers works well on Y bike. This provides no guarantee that their levers for Z bike will be correctly designed for another model of bike. Or it could be that they work fine on adjustment position 4 but are potentially lethal on adjustment position 3.
When you design and build a good product you are proud of it and you put your name on it. You hope that the quality of your product will then make your brand name a valuable and free marketing tool. Some where along the line of reasoning you have to ask the question, why wouldn't a manufacturer stamp their name on their product?
Come on guys it's your life we are talking about. A $100 helmet is suitable for a $100 head. The trouble with explaining this, is that a $100 head has no way of comprehending the ramifications.
Yes I do have a vested interest in selling branded safety products - but I could just as easily sell Cordura and cheap non branded levers.
BTW we do elect to sell some non brand name parts - but they aren't critical safety items.
Bookmarks