Installing new Brake and Clutch Levers on Triumph Speed Triple 2006
In the past I have tried riding a friends motorcycle with shorty levers installed and really liked the "two finger" breaking and clutching feeling with a race style, shorty levers, and so several days after I dropped my bike in the parking lot while stepping in to a pothole and broke a piece of the front brake lever (my frame sliders saved everything else from getting damaged), I decided it was time to swap the stock levers for the race style shorties and that same day I was on e-Bay, placing an order for one of this good looking "Race style" shorty levers. Made in China and shipped from Hong Kong. I read some online reports that raved about quality of this "no name" levers and decided to place an order. With the order placed I received a communication from the seller verifying the exact kind of levers I ordered and my contact information and within a day an e-mail with a picture of the packaged and labeled product with shipping tracking number has arrived. Seven days later, well packaged levers showed up at my door. This E-Bay vendor is getting FIVE STARS rating all around from me. And did I mention that total price with shipping was about US$60.00 ? Similar levers sold here in USA cost close to US$200. If you want to know who the seller is, shoot me a message, or post a comment.
Once unpacked the new levers looked impeccable: Clean and even color (I ordered all black), smooth machining and nice positive adjuster lever clicks.
Here are some pictures of my old Levers:
Brake Lever
Clutch Lever
Replacing the front brake lever was the easiest. It literally took me 5 minutes.
First I unscrewed the bolt that holds the front brake lever in place. For that I used a straight blade screwdriver to hold the bolt from rotating and a 10mm wrench.
With the screw and the nut separated, I removed the old lever. Below is the picture of the old brake lever, the screw, nut, and the tools I used to remove the old and install the new brake lever.
Then I inserted the new brake lever in place of the old one, wiped down and lightly greased the bolt with a small dub of Mobil Synthetic grease, then inserted it in to it's original location and tightened the nut. Voila ! Brake lever done !
New brake Lever Front View
New brake Lever Rear View
Clutch Lever swap was a little bit more involved, as the lever was attached to the housing not just by a botl/nut combination, but was also held in place by the clutch cable. Keep in mind that Clutch cable HAS TO BE PROPERLY ADJUSTED after replacing this lever.
First I marked the current position spot and then loosened the clutch cable adjuster wheel as far as it would go hoping that it would be sufficient to remove the clutch cable from it's notch in the lever. As I discovered later this did not provide enough clutch cable slack and so I had to loosen the clutch cable at the transmission case location (pick below).
I removed the nut that holds a screw which in turn holds the clutch lever in place at the bottom of the housing (pic below).
Then I pulled out the screw
It was time to slacken the clutch cable near transmission's cover case (pic below)
I used 12mm wrench and an adjustable wrench to prevent the whole tube from turning as I loosened both nuts
I rotated both of the nuts towards the end of the throttle cable tube / tension mechanism and pulled the cable all the way towards the handle to help remove the end of the clutch cable from the lever.
It was difficult to work with the lever still attached to the assembly so I removed the bolt and the nut holding the lever in place and then after aligning the slit in the tensioner nut and the lever , I removed the remains of the lever assembly along with the cable from it' s housing.
Mental note - Don't forget to remove the clutch lever spacer from the old clutch lever assembly:
I reassembled the old clutch lever and put it aside. Pic below shows the old and the new clutch levers side by side with the retaining screw/nut and the insert/shim next to them.
I wiped off the old grease and grime from the clutch lever insert / shim and the screw and then applied a thin layer of Mobil 1 Synthetic grease to both.
Then I placed the cable nipple inside the lever groove and reassembled the clutch lever in place with the newly greased shim and the screw / nut combo.
Then I adjusted cable tension to spec. via the tension mechanism near the transmission casing
and fine-tuned it through with the clutch cable tension adjustment wheel/nut (it's the aluminum wheel serrated on it's external side through which the clutch cable passes on it's way to the lever.
used the information in the threads below for the final clutch cable tension adjustment.
http://www.triumph675.net/forum/showthread.php?t=41581
http://www.triumphrat.net/twins-technical-talk/145111-quick-clutch-adjustment-question.html
The whole job took me about 25 minutes. 5 minutes for the brake lever and 20 minutes for the clutch levers.
Went on the test ride and WHAT A DIFFERENCE in comfort and the ease of operation ! My only regret is not doing this sooner.
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Disclaimer
The content of this MotoHowTo.Com post is informational, not instructional. Improperly performed motorcycle maintenance, or repair may cause; accident, serious injury or death. If you are not a trained motorcycle mechanic, consider taking your motorcycle to a trained motorcycle mechanic, authorized dealer, or the after-market motorcycle parts installation facility.
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