Sunline Folding Shift Lever Review

By Michael Hannas

Although often overlooked on the mission to add performance to your dirt scoot, your shift lever is one of the parts of your motorcycle you actually use the most.  While some people spend their hard-earned dough on things like a shock bumper that only comes into play once a lap when you case the big triple or a bling bling oil cap that you only actually use when you change your oil, the pros know that spending a little cash on your controls pays off in comfort and speed.  If you are comfortable on the bike you can go faster for longer, period.  Since you use your shift lever thousands of times per ride, unless you are one of those crusty Vets on a big-bore four-stroke with the uncanny ability to ride the whole track in third gear that is, it is good old fashioned common sense to try to get the very best shift lever you can for your ride.

Since the stock shift lever on my KX450F had been bent since pretty much the first ride and the pivot holding the shift tip on the lever was so worn that the tip rattled like an angry diamondback’s tail at every blip of the throttle, I scrounged up the $30 and ordered up one of Sunline’s sweet-looking OEM replacement forged aluminum folding shift levers to try. Although not as fancy as some of the other more expensive aftermarket replacement shift levers on the market with their different size and color shift tips, the Sunline lever looks factory with its satin titanium-anodized finish that also prevents corrosion and its burly knurled gold and silver shift tip. Thankfully Sunline also seemed to use a stronger return spring in the folding tip design compared to the stocker that should resist the rattles a little better, and the pivot looked to be made of quality metal that should also hold up longer than the stock one did. The length and bend of the Sunline lever was identical to stock, which was ideal since the stock lever location was perfect for my size 9 before it was bent. Those with larger-than-average feet may be better off spending a little more on one of the other levers on the market that have different size shift tips and lever lengths to help you get that size 14 boot under the shift lever.

Mounting the Sunline folding shift lever was as easy as taking the old one off and sliding the new one on. Just remember to take the pinch bolt all the way out before you try to take the stock lever off; you will struggle for a few minutes until you figure it out if you don’t.  Don’t ask how I know. The Sunline lever has a stronger and easier to tighten pinch bolt compared to the stocker, which makes things nice when you have to remove the lever next time as well. Just make sure you check your lever placement, although with the large size of the teeth the shift shaft has it is pretty obvious if you get it one notch too high or low. Tighten her up and you are ready to “make shift happen”, as Sunline’s advertisement states.

So how does she work? Well, I was impressed with the performance of the lever with solid shift action and a nice positive feel from the knurled folding lever tip, making the big KX shift like brand new. The knurling on the tip also helped in super sloppy mud to make sure my slimy boot actually grabbed the lever and the next gear. I’ll often use the inside of my boot instead of the top of my foot to sort of slap the lever up into the next gear, usually coming out of left-handers, and the extra bite of the knurled tip helped with this procedure especially. The Sunline also exhibited none of the shakes and rattles that the stock lever did after a few rides, which in itself is worth the admission price for me. As far as overall performance goes, I would definitely say the Sunline folding shift lever is an improvement over the stocker.

My only squack with the Sunline lever is the durability in crashes. Now granted, I may be expecting too much out of a simple piece of forged aluminum, but I like to drop my dirt bike now and then, usually at least once a ride. It would be nice to find a lever that can withstand the abuse a little more without bending. The Sunline was in my experience no better than the stock lever in this regard. It did hold up fine to its first major test: repeated uh, set-downs, shall we say, directly on the left-side when attempting a nearly impossible hillclimb on a rainy chocolate pudding-mud day. I thought then I may have finally found the elusive unbendable lever, but was proven wrong when the Sunline failed test number two: a relatively easy second-gear low-side in the sand on the MX track. The minor fall tweaked the lever in towards the case quite a bit and made shifting a pain in the foot for the rest of my motos that day; although to its credit the Sunline did not break and was still usable. While not such a big deal at the moto track, this is nice when you are still thirty miles from the truck and daylight is getting ready to check out for the night. The Sunline may have better durability than the stock lever considering vibration resistance qualities, but it didn’t meet our expectations as far as crash resistance, so we’d have to call it even.

The next time you bend your stock shift lever, the Sunline folding shift lever is worth a look. The Sunline is easy to mount and offers killer looks and better performance and vibration resistance than stock. Although the Sunline is not unbendable by any means and not much stronger than stock, she still serves up an acceptable level of crash resistance for the price. While my search for the unbendable shift lever continues, thanks to the Sunline folding shift lever, my search for the next gear has ended.

Go to www.sunlineracing.com for more info.

Report Card: Sunline OEM Replacement Folding Shift Lever

Install:              A

Style:                A

Durability:        C+

Performance:   A-

Value:               A

2WheelTimes.com Moto GPA = 3.60