steering damper ... which?

[inte]

Never used one before, but looks like now's the time ...

Initial setup isn't a concern (welding vs. bolt-on), I just need something that can be (relatively) easily transferred back & forth between the YZ426 & 640 Adventure.

[craigincali]

Scotts and GPR are held on by 2 bolts. Doesnt get much easier than that..

[AMAL]

I have a Scotts. I had it on my 300 EXC, and will be installing it on my 450 EXC. It is an amazing and worthwhile device! It is expensive, but it is worth every dollar IMHO!

[Tim]

I have a Scotts. Which ever you go for I would get one that can have adjustments made whilst riding at the turn of a button.

[meat popsicle]

Everyone says Scotts is the standard by which all others are judged.

GPR and Emig also make nice units but I dunno if they are as easily transfered.

RTT makes a schweet lookin unit, but I have heard they are doing that microsoft-style "beta testing" (for sale but unreliable).

Good timing inte! I would like to hear some people discuss why they want a steering dampener or why they do not (some say they don't...). What's it good for and when is it bad? Anyone?

[AMAL]

Originally Posted by meat popsicle

I would like to hear some people discuss why they want a steering dampener or why they do not (some say they don't...). What's it good for and when is it bad? Anyone?

Have you ever driven a car without power steering on a bad road? You feel all of the bumps and pot holes jerking the steering wheel out of your hands and rattling your teeth. The steering damper can make a bike seem like you put power steering on it. You don't get tired as easily. It is great to have when riding fast on rough terrain. You have control instead of the bike controling you. You don't feel all of the chop through the handlebars that you are riding across. It gets rid of forearm pump big time! It increased my riding time more than 2X before I started getting tired. The problem is realizing when you are tired! On the wrong bike; that can mean trouble. I know about that aspect too!

[neduro]

Originally Posted by meat popsicle

Good timing inte! I would like to hear some people discuss why they want a steering dampener or why they do not (some say they don't...). What's it good for and when is it bad? Anyone?

It's good for everything except supercross. It's bad for supercross. Any questions?

Seriously, there is no downside that I have ever found, aside from a lighter wallet. But the upsides are huge- it takes a huge amount of work out of riding anywhere that rocks and so forth want to twist the bars back and forth (which is pretty much everywhere off-road) and it has no negative impact on tight handling.

My XR damper finally lost its seals in Baja and pumped it's oil out. After 20k miles with it on, riding without it was a very sad eye opener to how great a job it does- you don't notice it's there, it's just like all those rocks moved out of the way for you.

[Tim]

Originally Posted by meat popsicle

I would like to hear some people discuss why they want a steering dampener or why they do not (some say they don't...). What's it good for and when is it bad? Anyone?

Well firstly and most importantly that gold finish on the Scotts adds some serious bling to your bike


I have never had much "feel" for the finer points of a bikes handling but I can tell you that the damper makes the biggest change to a bike.

We've all done it - fitted some of the latest killer mods to the bike and then ridden down the road thinking "Can I feel any change....I think I can....well I'm not sure.....yes, it must be better 'cos it cost enough!" Well with the Scotts you really can feel it.

The first time I hit some dirt with my Scotts fitted I thought "well now I'd better turn it (the damping) up and see what it does and it did it, just like riding down the street.

I did a week of varied trail riding last year and was not able to use the damper as my link arm fixing nut had fallen off - and boy did I suffer, it made everything such hard work.

As for the people who claim not to like/need dampers, well I can only assume that they have either not tried one, tried one that was set up wrongly, either too weak or too stiff or are riding gods who (unlike me) don't need all the help they can get.

[DevDel]

There is no guarranty a Scotts will fit both bike without changing the actuator arm on the bottom of the damper. They are different depending upon the bike.

For future reference only, don't try to use a street unit in the dirt, they are way to stiff. A dirt unit might be okay on the street on it's stiffer settings

Scotts are awesome though.


Dev

[meat popsicle]

Originally Posted by Fat Head Fred

There is no guarranty a Scotts will fit both bike without changing the actuator arm on the bottom of the damper. They are different depending upon the bike.

For future reference only, don't try to use a street unit in the dirt, they are way to stiff. A dirt unit might be okay on the street on it's stiffer settings

Scotts are awesome though.


Dev

that makes sense that they would differ as the steering head and such would be different. good point.

i thought the reason you would not want to use a street version in the dirt is because they dampen (damp for Chrissy ) back to center whereas the dirt versions only dampen away from center. Correcto?