Ralle Moto RM2 Steering Damper Review

Thanks for asking. I just saw your post now, since I have been in China (on a previously-scheduled trip, not in response to the earthquake) and have not been checking ADVrider.

My family and I are fine here in China, and we will be heading back to Tokyo soon. Also, based on comments on a Japan rider board, it seems like the guys I ride with in Japan are all okay, too. Fortunately for us, we tend to live farther south in Japan than the tsunami and radiation-affected areas.

Last year, I was planning a ride around some of the areas that were devastated by the tsunami, but put it off... now some of those roads literally no longer exist. I know a lot of Japan riders are planning relief rides toward some of the devastated areas, and I look forward to participating in them.

Hey rallen,

Any update on the new baseplate? Waiting to see what it's like before I order a kit.

Thanks

The original baseplate was fine, we are waiting on the new risers to remedy a few of the probs that popped up.

Not sure when they are coming, I'll post any info when I get it-

O.K. - We had a short window when the snow melted, and a buddy of mine had a new KLR shipped up that we finished putting together, and he wanted to go out and run the thing, so a short run it was, but it was better than nothing.

I have never ran a steering damper before, but this is my initial impression:

I set the damper on it's lowest settings, anticipating a little weirdness.

As I pulled out of the driveway and turned on the main road, I thought "Oh shit, its hard to turn". Then as I proceeded down the road, I thought "Dam, I don't have any feel from the front end".

As I continued to ride, it started feeling better. It had a very solid or attatched feeling to the road. Cornering felt like it was on rails.

At first I thought the damper in it's lowest setting was actually much harder to turn than I would have guessed. Instead of being able to whip the handle bar to where you want it, you can only turn it quickly, if that makes any sense.

After toying around with it, it seems that when turned slowly (probably normal riding speed turns) it is fairly easy, but if you turn it hard, the high speed damper action kicks in (as it should). I imagine it will take time to get a good feel for things, and being that I only rode a total of 40 miles on tar, I honestly do not have enouph experience to give any useful info.

I will project and say that the damper is working as it should, but I have a learning curve to get used to it. The good news is that I am moving from Montana back down to Arizona, and should get a ton of sand and rock action later in the summer.

I will keep everybody informed as to the status of the risers, but currently do not know any more than you do.

I was planning on riding soon, but we have ANOTHER storm coming this weekend with 5-9 inches of snow possible.

Dammit-

Another note, I noticed that the Ralle Moto web site has more info on the damper than when I purchased it.

This actually gives good info on setting the damper up and explains some things I did not know when I
bought mine.

http://www.rallemoto.com/contents/en-us/d40.html

A week ago, I mounted a RM2 on my '07 GSA Adventure, took my brother & I 'bout 2 hrs. Fairly straight forward, couldn't just tap the stem bolt out with a plastic hammer though. We pressed it out & the new one in. Didn't take much apart for the install either, just the horn n handlebars.
My TT 20mm risers don't work with it (had to build spacers out of hex nuts to get home). Just changed out for Rox 2".
I put about 200 miles on it so far, 7 different rides.
Love it when I'm moving, handles any road grooves or bumps at speed great.
Don't like it in NYC so far, I'm used to slow roll manuvering thru traffic & now have a new factor to deal with. Can't cut the bars back & forth in a hurry to squeeze thru tight spaces or to keep balance and have found myself dabbing way too much for my liking with a 400lb+ bike.
I'm working on being able to lift the damper off the mounting plate while leaving the bars & risers in place for local runs & dropping it back in place for long or dirt rides.
Headed to the pine barrens for the PB300 tomorrow, I'll let ya know how she handles the sand. I ran the Meteor MC ride there in Oct so I'll be able to compare to that.

Craigv, how much too short where the 20mm risers? I was hoping to use some of the Wunderlich 20mm risers and keep the originals, but it sounds like thats a no go. Do you think 40mm would clear, I haven't had time to measure mine as I am right in the middle of a move.

What little I have ridden with the original risers in the forward position has sucked (for me).

Put my RM2 in on my 09 GSA with ESA. Horn is not in the way here. Same triple clamp issue as Craigy. No way in hell this was coming out with a rubber mallet. Took it down to my BMW shop here (great, btw) and they heated it up and pressed it out and then put the new stem bearing in. If things don't line up as per the instructions you can rotate the teeth on the bottom of the RM2 with a screwdriver by placing the shaft of the screwdriver in the teeth and rotating the teeth while holding the unit.

Also, I had Wunderlich Vario risers and I ended up having to sell those to a buddy as they will not allow the RM2 to work. On my test drive anytime I rotated my handlebars full left my engine revved up. Too much tension on throttle cable. So off they came and I put the OEM's back on and it is fine. It is a snug fit but all seems to work fine so I'm ready for some serious trips.

Thanks for the updates from those of you who have ordered the RM2. Please keep them coming.

Rallen - the 20mm risers were about a 1/4" too short (we used hex nuts as spacers to get me home)
I put on a set of 2" Rox risers (50mm) and everything cleared and no issues with stock cables.

Jonesky- I don't think you're supposed to turn the 'teeth' on the bottom of the damper to get them to line up, you're supposed to set the direction of the teeth on the bolt. My understanding is if you turn the teeth on the damper, you will not have the damper centered, which means you will loose travel in one direction(which is bad) while gaining travel in the other (which isn't bad, but doesn't help anything).


After the PB300 this weekend in south Jerzee I've got new issues. I rode 50miles off road on friday to warm up and figure out settings on the RM2. Loved it, made high speed (35-50) sand lots of fun, didn't notice any help at low speed.
I rode about 125 miles on Saturday, was getting really confident at speed in the soft stuff. Towards the end of the day, running about 40mph I hit a soft patch without thinking, got bucked, had a tank slapper going for about 30yds, somehow fell back in the saddle & on the pegs and powered thru. Very unexpected at that point as I had ridden exactly the same for 100+ miles thru the same conditions.
Back at the hotel, Aaron asked "how'd the damper work out for you?", I replied "awesome, only had one scare" after he asked me how stiff I had it set (7 on left & 5 on right) I told him to feel it. On the centerstand, I weighted the rear of the bike & had him feel the pressure turning back & forth. No resistance at all!! I'm instantly under the front fender watching as he turns the bars & I'm watching the stem bolt nut turning with the bars both directions.
I find the socket, remove the horn, set to full damping on the rm2 & have the bars held straight ahead & crank down on the nut again with everything I can put on it. Test'em & we've got resistance again, but only for a cpl of back & forths then the nut starts spinning again. Try it again same outcome
I tightened it for what I was worth, lowered the settings on the rm2 to 1 on both sides & took off not to miss the days ride.
I rode just as good without the damper at similar speeds thru similar terrain. I want to fix this & keep the damper, but at the moment, I can't figure out what will hold this stem bolt in place from spinning with out a keyway or something. Some people said 'put loctite on it' & I can see what they're saying, it'll keep the nut from loosening, but I still don't know what'll keep the bolt from spinning.

As Paul Harvey says "The rest of the Story" - Or mine anyway

I didn't post any of this originally due to the fact that I knew I did not install the damper to exact specifications.

Shortly after putting the review up, I did what I normally do during winter in Montana. Get naked, put on a sombrero and hip waders, and sit on my motorcycle in the garage turning the handlebars back and forth like a monkey, pretending that I am running Baja (Yes, I know, but the winters are pretty long up here).

Anyway, as I was playing with the steering damper, I first noticed that there was alot of play in the center position of the damper. Then the damper went to zero resistance. Sure enough, the bolt was spinning.

When I tightened the nut, I only had a 3/8 inch torque wrench, and it would only go to 85 ft/lbs. The torque value (I got it off the torque chart from http://www.r1200gs.info/misc/torque.htmlom) is 96 ft/lbs. Hopefully thats right!

I was not terribly dissapointed at the fact that I had to tear everything down again because I wanted to replace the micro incapsulated nuts (steering stem and fork tubes) anyway.

The only options I can think of that might cause this are (but I could be wrong):

A - Bad design
B - Wrong torque applied
C - Bearing wasn't seated all the way and gave a false torque reading

What holds the bolt? The bolt is basically a shoulder bolt (see page one pics). It clamps on the shoulder above the threads, which is supposed to keep it from turning. I checked the original bolt with the new bolt (by eye, not with calipers) before the initial install, and it looked like it was the same. I don't know if it has enough "hold" for this purpose, time will tell.

I tore everything back down, but before installing the new nut, I retightened the old one to spec, and thumped the bolt head with a mallet in hopes of seating the bearing. I then replaced the nut with the new one and re-torqued. I used a long 1/2 drive torque wrench this time, but to get the wrench and socket to fit (ESA), I had to sand the end off the socket to make it short enough.

The "play" in the center of the steering was due to the coupler mounted on the bottom shaft of the damper being loose. I put blue locktite on it and tightened it up.

Right now everything seems to be working. I have not put the damper to any serious use as of yet, and probably will not be able to for another month or so.

PLEASE READ THIS:

When I was playing with the damper when the bolt was turning, somehow I managed to:

Turn the damper to full lock while it was working (bolt did not spin)
Then turn it to full lock the other way (bolt did spin)
When I tried to turn it back, the bolt grabbed and did not spin (damper was still at full lock for the opposite direction)

What happened? The steering locked and I was unable to turn it back.

No big deal in the garage, but very bad when running 80mph.

I made sure I have an allen wrench to take this thing off in the event that the bolt spun while riding.

DO NOT RIDE WITH THE BOLT SPINNING

Hopefully this project has a happy ending-

Vaughan, do you have any input on the bolt issue. I know your website states that the damper should be installed by a professional, but in the United States, we are ALL self deemed professionals.

Also, any word on the risers?

Ok, I installed one of the RM-2 dampers on my standard '11 12GS last weekend and can now offer the following comments based on my experience with the installation.

I know the included instructions are lacking in a few areas and one really important area is the large 14mm nut on the end of the bearing bolt as it is critical to the operation of the damper. I used a combination of the BMW service instructions for the r&r of the bearing bolt and the instructions from Ralle-Moto.
I know there has been some trouble with the large 14mm nut slipping on the end of that bearing bolt causing the damper to beome inoperative.
According to BMW, this nut (PN 31422330996 and $7!) is supposed to be replaced once removed because it comes with the "micro-encapsulated" threadlocker, although the service manager at SSBMW says you can just clean up the old one and re-apply red Locktite. I had already bought one so I used it in my installation.
This nut has to be torqued to the required 96 ft/lb (!) or it will not hold the torque applied by the damper. I also cleaned the threads on the bearing bolt with solvent to make sure of a good bond.
I used a 22mm socket on a ratchet wrench to hold the cross cut bolt head on the other end of the bearing bolt after indexing the cross cut as per instructions. I threaded one of the handle bar hold down bolts to use as a brace to hold the ratchet wrench and torqued away on the 14mm nut.

After all of the installion was finished I set the damper up according to the instructions (which were not included with the damper) from RM's website. Because I don't ride much offroad with the GS I set it up with the street seetings and did my usual commute between Tacoma and Seattle. Right off the bat the bike feels more planted and more like a much heavier bike feels at freeway speeds, kind of like my GT did.
I do believe this will be a huge improvement when riding in loose offroad stuff like sand or gravel, I know how much it helped my KTM to have a damper on it.
Another thing, this thing once installed is absolutely trick looking and the beauty of the way it works with the stock bike shows how very well thought out it's design is.
I think this thing is most definitly on the recommended or "buy" list for anyone who may own a GS.

For those of us who are not like how "BigDave" is described, this is also a safety item helping us control the beast in the loose stuff.

Scott

Vaughan contacted me and he said basically what is becoming apparent:

The bearing needs to be seated properly and the bolt needs to be torqued properly.

I did not originally post my nut turning experience (as mentioned in the other thread) because I knew I hadn't torqued the bolt properly. I did not want to drag Ralle Moto through the mud over my mistake.

However, I think this is good info for everybody to know. Take your time and do it right, or else have it done by the shop.

As far as the risers are concerned, for some reason Vaughan thinks his life and business are more important than catering to me, which is
bull#$%@ (just kidding). He is working on them, but unsure with his tight schedule when he can get them out.

Hahaha! good 1 Rallen! But you would be suprised how many people think that..... But like I said I wont forget you and I will try this weekend as we have a 5 day holiday over here this weekend it will be a good chance to get some extra work done without the phone ringing!! The first set will be on the first plane destined for Rallenville

Here is some good info that explains a few things like the high speed damper circuit and settings for different terrians. I don't think this was up when I bought mine.

http://www.rallemoto.com/contents/en-us/d40.html

Rallen, Any recent rides with the RM2 or is it off the bike?

It's on the bike and working, BUT

I am moving down to AZ next month, and have not been able to ride
because of having to get the house ready to sell, packing, ect-

Starting in June, I will be riding the crap out of it, and will be located in an area with awesome desert riding in the back yard.

I think the "El Camino del Diablo" will be a good proving track for the damper if I can get access.

After reading the info about the settings, it kind of explains a few things. I set the damper at what I thought was the lowest setting (1), but noticed the high speed was kicking in very easily making slow speed turns a pita. The "Neutral Setting" is 4/3, hopefully inbetween packing boxes next week I can get out and run some high speed gravel and give it a whirl-

Here is a photo of the Ralle Moto RM2 fitted to my Yamaha Tenere XT660Z. All up, I am very happy with it and the only recommendation that I could make is that the operating instructions be included when shipping. The information is published on the Ralle-Moto website but a small instruction leaflet will be great.

Hi mates,
I have a question to those who also have Ralle Moto RM 2 dampener on 800gs.
It is a great product but there is something that annoys me a little bit.

Even on the stiffest settings it seems to have a little bit of the "free" play (5-10 mm if measuring the edges of the handlebars - clearly can be noticed when shaking the bars left and right with a small amplitude). It is caused most likely by a tiny gap between the pin and the edges pin slot.

Does anyone have the same issue or your handlebars give you "dead" feeling when on 8-6 setting?

Any input will be very appreciated.