| Author | Message | ||
     Billybob |
i have ao6xb9xcityx am interested in installing a steering dampner this bike is very senitive.and the steering is very quick. almost to quick for me .Iam used to my old 99m2 cyclone what effect will a steering dampner have thanks | ||
| Slaughter |
Steering damper should NOT have any effect on steering itself. It's there to help prevent feedback between road/wheel/your arms - those pesky "Tankslappers" If everything is properly set on your bike -- you shouldn't really need a damper BUT if you do, I have heard good things on the LSL as sold by Al at American Sport Bike | ||
| Al_lighton |
Like Steve said, you don't install a steering damper to make your bike track straight or not wobble under normal circumstances. If you have those kind of symptoms, a damper will merely mask the problem and you won't treat the underlying cause. However, there are a host of situations where a steering damper can save your butt. Any time the front end moves out of alignment with the rear, the rake, trail, and other geometry design of the motorcycle will cause it to naturally go back to center. But if the cause of the alignment change is abrupt and/or too far (i.e., from hitting a road obstacle, or dropping the front end down not perfectly straight after wheelieing it up, intentional or not), the movement back to center can overshoot going the other way. With the wrong setup, or imperfect components (i.e., worn bearings, wrong tire pressure, cupped tires, etc), this can cause instability or oscillations where normal operation would not. I hit a large rock in the road a few years ago coming back from SPLASH. Dented both rims, threw me up over the bars but I never let go, lost all air in the rear, and sent the bike with a tank slapper careening into the oncoming traffic lane (with no cars, thankfully). When I came back down on the seat, the weight in the rear and the flat rear tire killed the front end oscillation and I got control before going off the road on the other side. Serious puckerage. A steering damper would have prevented much of the drama that day, as the rock wouldn't have let the steering turn so far off center to begin with, and wouldn't have let it oscillate afterwards. The bike got a damper mounted shortly thereafter. Watch the racers on the track. Some of their most harrowing moments are when accelerating out of a corner, and either the back end slides or the front end lifts and touches down not perfectly straight. The whole bike oscillates from it, and that is usually WITH a damper. Without a damper, many of those would not be so easily recovered. Those machines are usually set up pretty darn good, better than your average street bike to be sure. A steering damper is a safety device, not a band aid for fixing other problems. |
