the feeling of an aftermarket shifter is 50x better than the stock unit...even if you have the shift stops and everything, the sheer burliness of my pro 5.0 makes the stock shifter look like a pile of junk... it gives me peace of mind when i bang from 1st thru 4th... to know that im beating on the shifter, and not the internals of the transmission... my stock shifter springs were worn out and just disgusting... shifts with an aftermarket shifter are more responsive...
Ka0tyk, i agree with you. i removed the rubber damper and then did the aftermarket unit. night and day. you are right, just the robustness of the latter is awesome, let alone peace of mind.
BTW, at the bottom of your post, what do you mean, Pro 5.0 etc....?
Gearbanger - one item the "beancounters" look at very closely is the cost of the fix vs. the potential warranty cost if they don't fix, or if they fix marginally. Hissin's right I believe - I'd bet money that the rubber mount on the shifter from the factory's perspective has nothing to do with saving the internal tranny bits, and it has everything to do with NVH reduction - it's there to keep drivetrain-based, shifter-transmitted noise, vibration and harshness out of the cockpit. The aftermarket units have stops because they have good reason to suspect that people will be banging the gears and it's in their best interest to have that as a design feature - lest folks come back (at some point with a lawyer) and say "you didn't take into account damage to the forks with your design?" And the rubber's missing because it improves feel - at the cost of NVH - which there customer's are willing to sacrifice.