What's wrong with the stock levers?

As for gearing, I went up two teeth on the back for my '01 900SS. I would think you would want to do at least that with an 800. You might sacrafice some top end, but who really needs to got 120+ mph anyway? Acceleration is more better than top end, IMO. Changing the sprocket is easy enough. The problem is that you will most likely need a new chain.

The first thing I would do is have the suspension setup for you. No other mod. will give you more confidence than a well setup suspension. Again, just my .