FE/FC 2015 FE350 Which steering stabilizer?

Last weekend I took my buddies KTM EXC-F 350 for a spin to feel out his new tubeless system he was running, but the thing that really struck me was his steering stabilizer. I couldn't get over how it eliminated the darting of the front end over roots and rocks. I'm sold and I'm looking to pick one up. Anyone running a steering stabilizer on 15 FE350? Which one? Likes/dislikes?

Thanks!

I'm running a Scott's stabilizer on my 14' fe350 and love it. It's one of the few that stabilize out but not back to center, so if you hit a tree and your bars yank right it has resistance but when you pull your bars back to center it goes back easy. I like it because it tends to keep me going straight and I don't get the fatigue of fighting the resistance in both directions, just my preference, I also have a mount on my other bike and with two bolts can swap it from bike to bike. I've used BRP mounts, dirt tricks mount and fastways mount and I by far like fastways mount for its adjustability and easier install. Most mounts won't let you set your bars in all the positions AND change the mount height but the fastways one will. Just my opinion I'm sure their are many others that will work.

I personally like GPR but both are nice to have

Plus one on the Scotts. Put a BRP submount on and you have the perfect setup.

Thanks for feedback everyone, strongly leaning towards the Scotts.

I have a Scotts, but don't forget to check out motosportz

I know this setup is nothing like the Scott's or GPR, but I picked up a Showa 24mm steering stabilizer for $80 a while back that I was going to mount on my 250SX but never did, so I'm going to try it on my FE. The Ride Engineering mount is somewhere around $150 so I figure for under $250 its worth trying.

It can really depend on the type of riding you do. For me, the Scott's didn't work. If I was turning right and something snatched the bars left, there was no damping until it hit center. I prefer damping in both directions. I use the Fastway/Pro Moto Billet stabilizer and love all the adjustments it has. I have the slow speed set to full light. I basically only use the high speed for those hits.

Use a Scott damper on my 990 and also had one on my WR, Im sticking to Scott. I have only tried the GPR one and between the two Scott suits my riding better. Will definately fit one on my 501 when I have some $

I use the Scotts damper and run a BRP Rubber submount. With 65mm riser built into its design. Which works out much better for me when standing. The BRP has rubber isolaters built into the bar mounts. The set up comes with different density bar mount bushings and reduces vibration on my FE 501 tremendously. By far the best set up and no sharp edges on anything like some of the others have. It has more adjustment range than the others also in my opinion. with regard to turning motion. Mine came with the hardware to space the instrument cluster up higher as well. A new reduced head top nut for the stem was provided free and the larger knob for the right hand fine adjuster was also included free of charge. The left knob is for hard sharp high speed hits the right knob is for fine adjustment like when you drop into a high speed sand wash. to keep the bike going straight an reduce the side to side motion and reduce arm pump.

I believe that only a street bike should have dampening action/rebound back towards center as the bike is leaned much more into turns. not turned while sliding like a dirt bike. Street bikes would have this rebound damping action for like when pulling the front end at speed and setting the wheel down at speed with the front end turned slightly. Without it, it would go into a speed wobble from the steep steering head angle as the forks compress.

IMHO a dirt bike shouldn't have this return to center rebound dampening action at all because it makes it easier to make corrections steering the bike in turns while sliding the rear wheel of the bike. The bike wants to go straight so it returns back to center easier.

You can see an adjustment screw there on the side with a flat head and a dot. That controls how far of a sweep the dampening affect is. It has 4 sweep positions of dampening from the center to 4 positions right and left. If your bike has a total turning sweep from right to left of say 90 degrees. The adjuster allows or applies dampening with this adjustment of 34degrees to 44degrees to 54degrees to the last position of the full sweep of 90 degrees. This last 90 degree position wouldn't be used on a dirt application. I like the Scotts much better than my GPR it and I got it through "Jeff Slavens Racing". No fuss and no attitudes, great service. I love it.

I have a GPR on my other bike A G450X with a Submount and have swapped the damper itself between front ends on that bike with just the Submount change to fit the KTM different front end and trees I upgraded that bike to run.

Never tried the "Fastway Dampers or mounts. I here they are very good too.

I can't give any comment on the actual operation of the Motosportz damper either (which I had initially inquired about purchasing at first). I tried to buy one myself through every avenue possible, posted a request to purchase on a thread, sent emails, Business phone calls, PMs on this forum and was told the mailboxes were full. So when making phone calls I couldn't even leave a message at the business contact number. I never got any response back from any of my inquiries. So finally I was told a few weeks later after I had already fitted the Scotts/BRP set up. Directly that the owner of the company didn't respond back because he personally would rather not do business with me, openly right on this forum.

And we are asked to support these businesses. Which I do and don't have any problems with buying product from "ZipTy and 7602 racing". 2 of the major sponsors.

So there you go. Go with the BRP/Scotts. You won't have any problems getting parts if you need them and it is a well thought out product and it performs and works great.

Everyone who rides my bikes in the sand washes here can't get over how they rail through the sand and rocks without any hint of the front end getting jerked or pulled around by the pounding.

Now it's just up to you to decide who you want to do business with.

Thanks for that informative reply!

You let people ride your bike???
I have pics of people riding my bike!

Scotts is the best is you don't mind the bars raised (see Tim's post). For some people this is not an option. Therefore, the GPR unit comes into play. The major difference is the wheel returning to center automatically. Scott holds the patent on this. So all other stabilizers have to be dampened back to center.

I like the neutral feel of the "Scotts Damper" better than my "GPR Damper" and my "GPR Damper" was swapped from the BMW G450X Submount used on the stock 27mm offset trees to a set of 22mm KTM offset trees when I installed a set of WP 4860s to replace the stock 45mm Zokes.

Re-use of the GPR damper required just the bar/submount to be changed to be used with the KTM trees because of the different KTM hole spacing width for the bar mounts.

It's pivot is dead center over the steering stem nut. So its on a GPR submount too, which raises the bars a bit also now on the KTM trees. Just like it did on the BMW trees. But that's OK and good for me. The difference of height was the additional post spacer I put on to raise the post so it was just above being flush with the top of the arm before installation and it was only about .200 thick or less. You can see the second spacer on the post under the arm on the GPR in the picture.



The 3rd photo below is again the "Scotts" set up on the FE501. Showing the larger adjustment knob on the right side now installed. Its much easier to get at with a glove on, then the stock pointer type adjustment knob shown in the Photo on my earlier post.




Nothing else really needed to be done to do the GPR damper to do the swap for the complete front end Mod on my G450X. Even the dampers arm is the same. Only one spacer sleeve dropped onto the post, which I had already was needed to re-use it on the different fork set up and the specific KTM part numbered Submount. So it was, Easy Peasy !

They both work well but I can feel the difference on the GPR when returning back to center. If it's adjusted to tight when I get up out of the sand washes where I have adjusted it to dampen the most. I'll feel its resistance to return back to center when I get back up onto hard pack so I have to back it off.

The "Scotts Damper" once set up I can run it nearly anywhere and hardly ever touch the knob on it. Once you run a damper, I wouldn't own a dirt bike without installing one. Hey maybe that's just me but its just like part of the rest of the suspension that goes up and down. It is part of the suspension for it turning back and forth.