GPR Stabilizer

I installed the GPR stabilizer and it calms the bike down considerably at higher speeds on the freeway. Previously it felt twitchy at 70 or above, now it is dead stable. It took a bit of tweaking to get it right, as originally I had one of the pinch bolts too tight (the one that goes through the post) and it introduced a slight low speed weave. From GPR: "if the pin is too high it will cause the damper to have a binding feeling."

What setting you guys are using most of the time on pavement for high speed weave ? and which one for off-road (eg. sand) ? For the time being I'm mostly using 4...

Same here for now, mostly 4 for street riding. I have to play with it more in the dirt to see what I like. I'm guessing I'll run more like 2-3 in the dirt.

I played with it having the bike up on a stand so I could move the forks freely. It seems like there is a large jump in dampening at 6. From 1 to 5 it's pretty linear then it makes a huge jump stiffer at 6 then gets progressively stiffer to 8.

What I didn't expect is you can continue to rotate the knob and it cycles back. That caught me by surprise riding at night and cranking in a little extra dampening after following some big trucks. I rather wish the knob stopped at 1 and 8 and really wish it had detentes so you could adjust by feel at night.

I've noticed the bike is more stable with some weight on the back, I didn't expect that. When I ride with the rotopax on it's much better.

I set mine on 4 and it seems to work well.

One question - With my bike, the throttle cable is stretched to the limit and when I turn the bars all the way to the right it revs the engine a bit. Has anybody re-routed the throttle cable with the GPR installation to give it bit more slack?

I didn't seem to have that problem. I didn't reroute it but seem to have sufficient slack at full right lock to not cause the cable to pull tight. I have the GPR 3/4" riser and stock bars. Maybe you can just double check the routing in front of the steering stem? It's kinda congested in there so maybe one of the other cables/wire looms is getting in the way. I sorta recall moving that stuff around a bit to optimize it.

Just did the GPR install on my Terra this afternoon. Done in an hour, with virtually no cussing or swearing. Took it out for a comparative test-run, and where she was formerly a twitchy, weaving damsel in distress, she is now a suave confident Italian Supermodel, willing and able to go-at-it at breakneck speed. Amazing transformation and cannot recommend this mod enough, to anyone who has been put off by the light-footed weaving and wobble she used to do above 110 kph. Got the unit from ktm-parts.com for $495, and consider this a great life-insurance policy.

Yes, I'm very happy I did this upgrade, I felt it was critical as I found the bike would want to go into a tank slapper quite easily in stock condition. I never got into that situation but close enough to widen my eyes way up, after which I placed an order for one.

I'm finding the #5 setting just about right for all around riding. Now as you say, it's much better at higher speeds or in turbulent air off the big trucks.

That was a good price, I paid more than that. Mine was $611 shipped, dang...... you scored.

Going to put a few miles on the Terra this weekend and look forward to having a proper play with the settings. Danketchpel, you got some great pictures from West Cielo Road. Man, I love that part of the world! I get to visit LA a couple of times a month and we stay in Woodland Hills. Have a GS waiting for me at the crewhotel and always head for the hills for a sleep-out. Have you done Refugio Pass road, northbound from West Cielo Road, as it drops into Santa Ynez? There's a sign saying it is "CLOSED" but I take it to mean that they just don't maintain it!? It is perfect for Dual Sport bikes, even though I'd rather have my Terra there, than the big and heavy 1150GS. We should hook up for a ride some time, if you're so inclined? Thread drift corrected- back to steering dampers...;-)

Yes, I rode Refugio road during the ride I shot the pix. The shots with the tree cover is Refugio Rd.

I rode it 2 up with my wife on the Stelvio. The ride into Pendola Ranger Station is nice also, good for big bikes.

Yes, we should hook up when you're in town for a ride. Send me a PM when you're in SoCal.

I actually had the same issue but with my clutch cable. I forget what direction it was but the clutch slipped at full lock. I was able to reroute a bit and it did the trick.

Is it possible to use the unit with a different submount on another bike (i have a yam wr250r) and was just looking. Or are the units bike specific re damping . Pictures from the net suggest some variation in the unit. It would seem easy to just change unit from bike to bike aftr submount etc installed.
Btw when you take off main steering yoke how do people hold the bike up . Interested because i am not strong , have only 2 arms and have no roof beams ." My bones are old and my back is weak"....sigh . Or am i missing something obvious.

I suspect you can swap the dampener to other bikes as long as the mounts are compatible. You'd need to confirm this with GPR but I know the Scotts dampener can be swapped around. I don't think they build bike specific dampening into the units.

When I did my install I raised the bike on a motorcycle/quad floor lift (from Harbor Freight) that lifts the bike by the skid plate. I don't have any pix of the Husky on the stand, but here's a couple of my KLR on the same stand. I lift the Husky the same way. I works well as you can work on the front or rear suspension.





For dropping the steering stem to grease the bearings I slowly unscrewed the bearing adjustment ring and let it drop down a bit, that's the easy part. You can grease the bearings without pulling it completely out, you just need about 2" of drop. The trickier part is getting it raised back up enough to start tightening the bearing adjustment ring, that took a few tries and some patience. A helping hand would have made a world of difference.

Managed to get GPR stabilizer on, a little bit of power filing...all good. And yes the bolts provided are too long. (Btw time for the US to go metric).

Looks like 1-4 settings fairly redundant for road. I think highest setting could be a little more damping for deep sand. Probably restricted by engineering limitation.
Nevertheless it does give added security when ruts and uncertain tracking comes to play.

5.5 is enough to control the high speed weave on my Strada. At 6 it's much stiffer and affects low speed riding. I just did a 1000km weekend to the Victorian Alps with several other bikes, all capable of 100+ bhp. I could keep up everywhere and often exceeded 140km/h. The bike does move around at high speed due to frame flex (my friends noticed), but the flex never developed into a weave, thanks to the GPR. Once the bike settles into a curve at any speed it's reasonably stable, the instability is worst in a straight line at high speed.
I think the weave is due to insufficient torsional stiffness in the frame, which develops oscillation (weave) when the resonant frequency is reached at some speed in excess of 120km/h, depending on many factors (wind forces, road forces on the wheels, location and size of masses etc) that tend to excite the oscillation or change the resonant frequency. That's why it changes when the forks are dropped in the triple clamps, or barkbusters are installed, or front tyre pressure is lowered. IMO the right fix would have been a trellis frame, or twin spar alloy frame, since the bike also needs to go on a diet. Something more rigid and lighter. The weave is such a safety issue that a recall should have been done to retrofit a steering damper.
blacki

I have noticed our stock rear spring is ridiculously light. After having my rear shock with a stiffer spring installed has totally changed the handling. On the highway it is way more stable. I live in the desert with winds of 40 to 55 mph are common. The GPR stabilizer helped tremendously with high crosswinds. But with the stiffer rear spring I have been setting the stabilizer to the lowest setting. My normal cruising speed on the highways are 75 to 85 mph depending on traffic flow.

Baddrapp. You mind sending a link to the spring and/or company you used? I weigh 175 and the stocker suits my needs pretty well most of the time. Above 75mph the front does like to get wobbly though.

I'm a worryer...looking at BigDogs website and reading all these threads, I wonder how the GPR kit clears the little oil breather pipe at the top of the downtube, inboard from the steering head.
It looks pretty close.
Even BD didn't show that in his pics.

O.K., no more worries.
I have a GPR V4 on my KTM.
This new one is pretty stiff even on low, and the adjuster knob is really hard to turn.
Anyone have a, um, stiff knob?....

Your theory about the cause of weave is very close to mine. I believe it's the swing arm, but the notion that other factors excite the oscillation is spot on in my view. I think a simple carbon fiber brace under the swing arm to stiffen the "legs" of the swing arm would do the trick.