When I bought my 2014 Honda VFR800 Interceptor, it came with little history. I bought it from a dealer where it had been traded in for a Harley-Davidson (quite a shift in riding style). If the sales guys knew much about its previous life, they weren’t letting on. The only flaw I could find was a bent brake lever, as if it had been tipped over. But oddly, there were absolutely no other signs of a fall. No scratches anywhere.
The curled brake lever didn’t bother me much until my RevZilla colleague Spurgeon pointed it out. Then I couldn’t unsee it.
The stock brake lever on my Honda VFR800 Interceptor is better than many. It offers five adjustment settings for reach. The slight damage was no problem, functionally. But I decided on an upgrade.
Functionally, there was no reason to replace the brake lever, much less both levers. But I’ve always been curious about the ASV sport levers, which come in a variety of color combinations of levers and adjustment wheels. The VFR stock levers were adjustable, unlike the plain levers that come stock on many motorcycles, but they were bare metal and offered nothing special other than the adjustment. I convinced myself to try the ASVs.
Some people buy the ASV levers just to upgrade the looks of their motorcycles, and they definitely are nicer. If you have a bike without adjustable levers and the reach to the brake or clutch isn’t comfortable for you, that’s another reason to buy the ASVs. I’d also read reviews saying they improved feel, and that was what was most appealing to me. The VFR generally exudes quality, but one of the most important touch points in terms of providing that feeling of quality is the controls, and I thought there might be room for improvement.
The ASV F3 sport levers come in a variety of colors and you can choose a contrasting color for the adjustment wheel. This is the regular length clutch lever I put on the VFR800.
I ordered a set of F3 Series levers directly from ASV. The cost was $200 for the pair and shipping was free. For my bike, I had the choice of the F3 levers, which are made of forged aluminum with a polished, anodized finish, or the C5 levers, which are made of CNC-machined aluminum and have a matte finish. The F3 levers come with a three-year warranty against breakage and the C5 levers, which cost $35 more each for my VFR800, come with a five-year warranty. Unlike regular levers, which will usually break if the motorcycle falls over, the ASV levers are spring-loaded, so instead of breaking they will bend back out of the way.
In addition to the many color combinations, ASV offers options of both regular length and shorty levers. I chose black levers with a red adjuster wheel and regular length. I typically use two fingers on the brake and four fingers on the clutch. For that reason, some people choose a shorty brake lever and a regular clutch lever, and ASV allows you to mix and match, but I decided to get both levers the same length.
Installation was a 10-minute job once I got past the initial confusion (more on that below). If you do any work at all on your motorcycle, you can replace the levers. Undo the mounting bolt, do a bit of fiddling to get everything lined up, and tighten the bolt. About as simple as modifications get.
The sealed ball bearings in the ASV levers provide better feel than the stock levers — which weren’t so bad to begin with, in the case of the VFR800. Materials and finish also suggest quality.
So how do the ASV sport levers work?
Feel and effort were the two areas I was hoping for improvement and I believe the ASV levers provided advantages in both. Admittedly, feel is very subjective. But the shape of the levers gave me a bit more leverage and made the clutch pull feel slightly lighter. (I’d often wondered why the hydraulic clutch on the Interceptor couldn’t have been given a lighter feel.)
Even more importantly, for me, the feel of the ASV levers was superior. Smooth engagement provides greater feedback on what the brakes are doing and where the clutch begins biting. Again, the difference is very subjective, but the ASV levers felt of higher quality to me than the stock pieces.
If you are buying ASV levers to replace levers without adjustability, that might be the biggest factor for you. In my case, the stock Honda levers already offered five settings for adjustment. The adjustment wheels on the ASV levers run through a range of 180 clicks, allowing much finer adjustments than the standard levers with five stepped settings.
I bought the VFR800 because it most closely met the definition of the sport-touring motorcycle that I needed: Comfortable enough for travel, still fun to ride when I get to the good stuff. And its all-around capability is even more important now that it’s functionally my only motorcycle for the moment. Because it met my needs as it came from the factory, I’d made no modifications before fitting the ASV levers. They are the only aftermarket parts on the bike. But I do feel they are an improvement.
Just one complaint
The one complaint I have isn’t with the levers at all, but with the instructions. The time it took me to install the levers was almost as long as the time it took me to figure out that the problems I thought I had, thanks to the instructions, weren’t really problems at all.
First I opened the clutch lever, saw a list of models it is supposed to fit, which included earlier VFR800 models but not mine, and then read this advisory: “If your motorcycle is not on this list, this part #CRC545 is not the correct part for your Motorcycle.” Then, on the reverse side of the instruction card, was another warning: “IMPORTANT: YOU MUST INSTALL THE CORRECT TAB or PAD FOR YOUR MOTORCYCLE.” (The shouting is ASV’s, not mine.) That warning was accompanied by illustrations of four different bits that were not included in my box. Did I miss a warning on the web site that I needed to order an additional adapter?
A little bummed, I opened the brake lever and immediately saw this step: “FOR HONDA MOTORCYCLES ONLY – INSTALL BRAKE TAB.” Again, there was an illustration of a tab to bolt onto the lever but that tab was nowhere in my package.
After several minutes of squinting closely at the little photos and examining the levers more carefully, I realized that the brake tab was already attached to the brake lever and the correct pad was already bolted onto the clutch lever. And after I installed the clutch lever, it worked perfectly, despite the fact that VFR800 models after 2008 were not included on the list.
In other words, ASV had already gone the extra step in customer service by sending me levers that were set up perfectly for my motorcycle but they didn’t take the easier step of updating the cheap piece of cardboard with instructions that came in the package. That simple update would have saved me half the installation time and would have saved you seeing these last five paragraphs of explanation in this review.
The ASV levers are spring-loaded so that they can bend backwards. This makes them a lot less likely to break in a simple tip-over. ASV provides a three-year or five-year warranty against breakage, depending on model.
Are ASV levers worth the price?
The ASV levers are not cheap, but I think they’re a sensible upgrade for riders who are replacing levers that are not adjustable and don’t provide a comfortable reach to the brakes or clutch. Many riders with small hands, including many women, may find greater control and safety with adjustable levers.
The improved feel is an advantage a lot of us will appreciate, though balancing that small and admittedly subjective improvement against the cost is a matter of personal perspective.
If you need to replace a broken lever, the ASV sport levers also become more attractive. Yes, they cost more than the stock levers, but they provide better looks, better feel and greater adjustability, and you’re going to spend part of their cost no matter what you buy. Plus, the ASV levers are warrantied against breakage if the bike tips over — which is most likely what caused you to have to replace a brake or clutch lever in the first place. That resistance to breakage is a reason many off-road riders choose ASV levers.
If you’re buying the ASV sport levers for looks alone, well, for me it’s hard to justify the cost solely on the basis of appearance, but that’s a personal decision. If all you really want is the look and you don’t care about the improvement in feel, there are Chinese knock-offs available through the usual Amazonian-type sources that cost a fraction of what the ASV levers cost. I’ll leave it to you to decide if that’s something you’d want to buy.
For me, the ASV sport levers provide a small but tangible improvement in feel and comfort that I’ll notice every time I use the controls. Which might be dozens of times a mile in the city traffic I have to negotiate every time I leave home.
