So my girl finally upgraded from her 07 Ninja 250 with wet noodle suspension to a 2016 390.

Holy shit what a fun little bike, it has the same if not more power than my old DRZ400E with 4x4 mod and full yoshi exhaust but in a smaller tighter package with much better suspension, brakes, and frame.

Anyways as I'm sure you guys with wives who ride 390's know the levers are garbage. Any suggestions on eBay levers that have worked for you? Also any other must have mods for the bike?

The german magazine Motorradd recently published an article on levers. They discussed the pros and cons of European levers like Pazzo, Titax, Gilles and others versus the cheap knock offs from Asia. They strongly recommended that critical components such as levers be bought only from known quality manufacturers. Many asian aluminium parts are made from recycled materials of unknown origin and grades.

We bought a brand new 390 Duke as an upgrade from her CBR250RR 4 cylinder Honda, main reason I went to the 1290 myself

The levers were one of the first things I changed on it & yeah sure you can listen to a magazine that advertises & endorses these $200 - $300 levers but really? critical components? they pull a cable or push a master cylinder piston, there is no real rocket science, sure there is plenty of real critical components I will not buy from China but I run the same chinese levers on my partners 390 & my 1290, they fit fine & are actually more comfortable than the stock levers on both bikes, they have been working fine for almost 2 years now
Some people have had fitment issues with some of the cheap ones but I had no worries, I did disassemble them & lube them properly at the pivot points etc before installing

Your choice really, I dont think you will lose any races fitting $20 levers lol>>>

http://www.ebay.com/itm/For-KTM-125-200 ... 5A&vxp=mtr

I have had cheap levers on my 1290 for over 25000 K's with no problems. They were so cheap at the time that I bought 2 sets and cut one set up to test the material. ebay site said they were 6000 series aluminium and they tested within the 6000 series specs. Design was also satisfactory.
I agree with Aphex that you should check out there assembly and lubricate where necessary.
To have people state that "Many asian aluminium parts are made from recycled materials of unknown origin and grades" is a bit misleading because china now make some of the highest quality aerospace grade aluminium in the world. I know this as a regular user of these materials and it a requirement for us to pretest for QA purposes.
Most aftermarket levers are probably made in china these days anyway because the big names are into making profits and manufacturing in china wether you like it or not is a fact of life for large batch profitable manufacturing. The only thing the big brand name lever suppliers would do is ensure the material specs are actually what the levers are made from!
As usual buyer beware

I'm not knocking Chinese quality.

I sell high quality Chinese stuff and compete against companies positioning themselves as American or European manufacturers who are actually sourcing everything out of China. But there are are certain things that I have a certain apprehension about in sourcing from there, and it doesn't stem from a lack of opportunity.

There are big brands who you would never suspect as sourcing from China because they oversee and control their manufacturing with the greatest diligence. But there are also many who tried to source from there and failed miserably, repatriating production. And then there are those who just want to make a buck.

Would you buy a set of carbon wheels made in China? No doubt that the day will come, but it hasn't yet. As a manufacturer or distributor, I challenge you to find an insurance company that will provide you with liability insurance for many of these products. E-Bay has no skin in the game.

I've mentionned in other posts that I believe that quality products from China are increasingly coming . That said, a failing brake lever never has a good outcome. If European lawmakers and enforcement are controlling the quality certification of critical components in random spot checks, I doubt that it is for economic reasons.