I've been out for awhile and have put on a few mods. I'm still waiting on some parts and to put more miles on some of the other new upgrades before I write up the reviews. However, I've had the Factory Pro Shift Kit in for a handful of rides and thought I'd toss up some pics and my initial impressions.
The pic below has the Factory Pro parts on the top (both the installed pic and in the comparison shot).
And here's another shot of the kit installed:
Installation:Install was pretty straight forward as the parts you are replacing are easy to get to once you remove the clutch cover. One of the notable differences between the stock parts and the Factory Pro kit is the thickness and strength of the spring. It makes install a little tricky only because you have to compress the spring, keep the arm aligned to where it needs to go, while you screw in the anchor bolt. Forgive me if I'm not clear, but when you go to install it, you'll see what I mean.
So my work around was to use a small zip tie to compress the spring, line it all up and then start threading the anchor screw in about a turn and a half to hold it in place. Then I cut the ziptie, made sure it was all where it needed to be and torqued down the screw.
Install time for the part is about a minute if you have your spring install figured out. It takes longer to lay the bike on it's side, pull the swing arm and foot rest bolts and remove the clutch cover than it does to remove the oem parts and install the new shift kit.
Figure an hour and like I mentioned above, if you lay the bike on it's side, you don't have to drain/refill the oil.
Riding Impressions:You notice the kit immediately the first time you use the shifter. The shifter is a little firmer and the shifting has a more positive feel. So it's a touch harder to shift but when you do, you know the bike has changed gears.
I decided to pick up this kit as either it's me, my bike or a combination of the two, but I would find those false neutrals (mostly between 1/2 and 5/6) when shifting under power. After the second or third time this happened I was ready for it but it's still a bit unnerving to go from white-knuckled acceleration to rev/no power/over the bars/almost pooped my drawers in a split-second.
This kit seems to have cured that issue as I haven't found neutral unless I was looking for it since I put the kit in. This alone makes the purchase worth it for me.
I've only put about 300mi on the kit over 7 or 8 short rides but i thought the change was noticeable enough to post here and if my experience with the kit changes, I'll update.