Is This Bargain Shift Improver from China as Good as the Kraus EZ Shift?

By Richard Sachek - April 28, 2025

One YouTuber shows how you might save money on a popular accessory, but spend more time and labor.

We’ve all been tempted to save some hard-earned cash buying Chinese-made goods on sites like Temu, eBay, and Amazon. Whether it’s clothing, electronics, or, yes, motorcycle parts, the deals on knockoffs of popular products can seem too good to be true. But are they?

Recently, a YouTuber who runs the channel HDVIBE posted his install of the Kraus EZ shift, a billet aluminum extension piece that effectively lengthens a modern Harley’s rear shift rod for greater leverage. The EZ shift is offered for both Milwaukee-Eight and Twin Cam models with a promise of 20% easier shifting. As a bonus, it’s easier for riders to find neutral with the gadget installed. Rick from HDVIBE was highly impressed by the concept, declaring “it just feels much easier.” He continues, “it feels like there’s additional lubrication or something in the shift mechanism because [shifting] is just like butter.”

HDVIBE’s EZ Shift review went viral, but several commenters wondered why spend $92 plus shipping for the made-in-USA Kraus unit versus less than $25 for an identical imported product? With that in mind, Rick purchased two of the copycat EZ Shifts from two different eBay vendors and reviewed them both on his Street Glide ST. The results weren’t good.

Spoiler alert: it doesn’t fit

Fast forwarding to the good part, neither of the eBay specials from China actually fit. The channel where the transmission’s shift rod resides was too narrow, preventing the units from falling into place. Rick’s solution was to remove some material with a rotary sanding tool. But after 30 minutes of effort, the imported EZ Shift pieces still wouldn’t quite squeeze over the shift arm. In Rick’s estimation, they could have been made to fit with perhaps another 30 minutes of routing. That’s about an hour extra in total to make things right.

That said, the imported EZ-Shifts cost about $22 shipped while the USA-made Kraus piece is closer to $100 all-in. If you already own a tool to hog out the shift rod channel and have more time than money, the cheapo imported unit could work out. Also, some commenters claim they had no fitment issues at all with the imported parts. That could indicate inconsistent quality control and perhaps Rick was just unlucky. Ultimately, you’ll have to weigh time spent versus money spent for yourself.