| Author | Message | ||
     Gentleman_jon |
 One of the occupational hazards of owning a Buell seems to be the uncontrollable need to mess with a motorcycle that is perfectly good the way it comes from the factory. Oh well, C’est la vie. Anyway, I was pretty happy with my Storz sidewinder steering damper, with my own “backwards “ mount, but when I spotted a Ohlins 2003 long throw damper on eBay, I just HAD to have it, know what I mean? These seem to go for $150 - $200 on eBay. The fact that no one makes mounting hardware for this lovely piece of gear only made the project more interesting. ( I know, I gotta talk to someone about this.) The advantages I foresaw for this install were as follows: 1. The prestige, real or imagined of having an Ohlins equipped Buell. ( God help me if I see a pair of used Ohlins forks and shocks for the nine:-) 2. Minor performance improvement due to the fact that the Ohlins is a slightly heavier duty unit with a separate oil passage. 3. The ability to use a longer front arm to keep the damper parallel to the bike at full steering lock. 4. Greater reliability: the Storz had begun to leak, and needed a $42 rebuild by Storz. I feel all of these goals were met, and the unit worked perfectly at a recent track day at Loudon. Combined with the upgraded suspension, the bike had never felt better. On the outside chance that anyone in the world might be interested, the parts I used are as follows: 1. Ohlins 2003 Steering Damper. This is their longest throw unit, I believe about 5 7/8”. Any shorter will not work in this type of set up. List price $325 2. Front fork Bracket. 54 mm by Atttack Performance. $24.00. I had this item split for easy installation by my local genius old word machine shop. Ohlins also supplies a 54 mm front fork bracket, ( part no. 2235-17). but the Attack bracket has a longer arm which I prefer because it keeps the damper parallel to the frame at max . steering lock. 3. My own rear mount, originally fabricated for the Storz from brass strap. 4. I used nylon washers liberally to space the heim joints from the mounts. I used 8mm stainless Allen head bolts front and rear with nyloc nuts. 5. Naturally, I removed the Ohlins sticker. The astute reader might be wondering if it might not have been simpler and cheaper to have just bought a LSL steering damper in the first place. The answer, of course, would be yes and no.  (Message edited by gentleman_jon on April 30, 2006) | ||
| Cataract2 |
Whoa, time to clean the bike dude. J/king. Nice write up. | ||
| Steve_larson |
Or, just buy a Hyperpro damper and put it on...  | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Actually, I believe there are now 4 steering dampers, with mounting kits, available for the Buell. 1. Storz side mount 2. LSL Steering head mount. 3. Hyperpro Steering head mount for R and S , ( S mount recently developed and in short supply.) a. CSC b. RSC note: Hyperpro also supply a long throw model (160mm), for side mounting. Guess that just about wraps it up for steering dampers | ||
| Xbjelly9s |
Anybody got pic of the hyperpro head mount on a S? | ||
| Buelltroll |
Ohlins DOES make forks n shocks for the 9. The R&T kit will bolt right up I believe. I was saving for the 2199$ crunch but I lowsided a cpl weeks ago n it put a nice 500$ dent in the pile. | ||
| Tq_freak |
4. I used nylon washers liberally to space the heim joints from the mounts. I used 8mm stainless Allen head bolts front and rear with nyloc nuts. The Chassis shop or other race car fabrication places offer what they call "Mis Alignment Washers" for heim joints and they space them out perfectly and actually get a wider range of motion out of them. side note, I like the damper and its on my LONG list of stuff to add later | ||
| Hkwan |
The location of the dampener in the pic off of the first post is not ideal, isn't it? The extreme heat from the pipe will cook the oil inside the unit which causes frequent change of oil of the dampener. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Actually, the damper is not as close as it may appear in this photo, and it does not get very warm. Good observation though, I was worried about that myself. | ||
| Brineusaf |
Looking nice... looking forward to seeing in person. Hey by the way, I tried to attend the Bike Week just north of frankfurt, about 2 hours away; on the way there it started to pour, but i was past the halfway mark. so i continued, but when i located the area... everyone was gone, it was the 2nd to last day, what gives!? anyways, had a nice ride there and back.( i took the toyota, not the bike) i reset the odometer after filling up, and when i pulled in the garage it was just a lil over 300miles. Kind of irritated that I spend like 6 hrs on the road for nothing. |
