Billet or forged hand levers instead of cast aluminum?

[A_Steel_Horse]

Anyone know of a compatible hand brake/clutch lever that will work for the GS500 that is a bit stronger than the cast pieces that shatter like glass when you accidentally put your kickstand in soft soil right next to asphalt and drop it at zero miles an hour? Yeah, you can guess what happened to me today 

[fred]

Well, if the lever shatters, it saves everything that it is connected to. If you get a stronger lever, won't you just move the weak point to the part the lever is connected to? That seems like it would be more of a pain to replace... Doubly so for the brake side, wouldn't you rather replace a lever than a master cylinder? Those suckers are expensive...

[The Buddha]

Well ... I could make them for ~35-45 or so each ... If I make a 20 lot ... So prolly 75 bones for a pair.
And ... it will just about be 20-30% stronger ... so you drop it, it will break ... just how hard you drop will have to be a bit more defined.
Now I can make them shorter ... like a trigger grip, but again they will break if you clobber it hard enough.
Cool.
Buddha.

[werase643]

or buy a GSXR clutch perch
then buy the el cheepo gsxr sets on flea bay

[ohgood]

soft bits are made to be broken. see the second post in this thread.

as far as 'billet', man, that's so far from a description of what metal actually is, i don't know where to start.

i could make some out of D-2 (tool steel, strong/tough as hell) and harden it to rockwell scale C 62 (hard as hell) and you could punch holes in concrete with it. only problem hand is, it would punch holes in your tank, your arm, you pelvis, your femur (strongest bone you got!) and anything else in the way. you could likely destroy your head tube bearings before the lever failed.

what you want is to put the heavy lead bar ends back on, another set of stock levers will serve you well.

best thing you can do is get in the habit (and muscle memory) of putting down your kick stand WHILE you turn the key off.

i've thrown mine down on both sides, within 5 minutes. i know the feeling. then i went right out and practiced slow-speed stuff (8's and u-turns) and putting down the kick stand.

muscle memory ftw.

[The Buddha]

or buy a GSXR clutch perch
then buy the el cheepo gsxr sets on flea bay

Tried this already ... does not work on clutch, the cable will clobber the dash ... the gs cable goes steeply away from the bar ... good reason for that ... the GSXR, kat series have guages in the fairing and they want the lever to stay close to the bar, the GS has guages on the triple and need cable away.
And yes ... ohgood and fred are 100% RIGHT ... how many times have you dumped the bike and especially the clutch ... the perch shears off and lever stays mostly intact ... yes even the labor day crash my friend had did that. So ... forget it, shorter levers maybe .... not stronger.
Cool.
Buddha.

[GeeP]

Drill or notch your levers about 2" in from the ball.  If the bike goes horizontal, it snaps off the outboard two inches, leaving you with a short, but functional lever.

The alternative is CRG spring loaded shorty dirtbike levers.  Some guys love 'em.  They're basically an aluminum lever about half as  long as the normal lever with a spring loaded perch.  If the bike goes horizontal, the lever rotates around the perch, preventing damage.

Don't get me started on the "B - word".