Steering Damper Questions

Note - I mention GPR and Scotts in this response and these are my opinions and observations only.

What you guys are feeling and talking about is high speed verses slow speed. A GPR is almost entirely low speed. You will feel that in the bars as a heavy stuck in molasses feeling. I do not prefer this (because I ride mostly tight woods and find it intrusive / tiring) but is probably good in dez and sand where you get big slow wobble. Scotts is more of a high speed damper. You will not feel it at the bars as much yet when you hit something in the trail it will have damping to avoid the bars kicking. Ours is closer to a Scotts but we do some internal tricks on the damper body design that allow it to feel nice and smooth / natural while providing the damping force needed. We spent a lot of time on feel as I don't like how some feel, especially in the tight stuff. We build countless designs and had a lot of people try them early on and got feed back to which they liked. It was kinda fun and we were at version 6.3 when we nailed what most liked.

One big difference between ours and both the GPR and Scotts is the position sensitive part. On those designs you get to a point in the sweep where the damping falls off immediately. Then when returning the bars from full lock to center again you hit the wall of damping again. On ours we designed it as a gradual release and then comes back gradually. I am talking about where they all transition from damping (center to a specified degree of turn in) to no damping (to the far outside near full lock). this makes our smoother in transition IMHO.

One of ours mounted, when on the stand people would say, it does not have enough damping. Richard from house of horsepower had one of the test units early on. He ran it at a local and very popular 24 hour race. I saw him before the race and he flagged me over and said "hey, I think there is something wrong with the damper" and wiggled the bars on the stand. He said "no damping, I'm going to have to run this thing full on" (this is an open fast and very choppy grass track). I said no Richard, run it about half way up or you'll have to much. He did not believe me. He did his first lap (21 miles) and came back, hunted me down and said "WOW, you were not kidding, I had way to much damping and knocked it back to about half or so. yep, :>).

Ours is VERY adjustable. At the lowest setting it is almost all high speed. You will feel very little resistance at the bar but will handle deflection issues. At the mid point you still will not feel it at the bars but will have noticeable damping while riding. At full on it starts to add to the low speed damping and will be good for sand and places where big wallowy (technical term) issues arise. 95% of the time our customers end up right at half way or a little more. This provides a lot of damping but does not impair the feeling of your steering.

I agree with Scotty, some people use them to mask suspesnion issues. I do believe though past that they provide security, less fatigue and a smoother steering bike. Many customers Email me and say it feels like power steering. Smooths it out and takes all the loose nervous feeling away. Even on bikes that are inherently stable they can make you feel a lot less exhausted at the end of a long day. You can grip your bars looser, pick lines across rust and trail trash EZer and get deflected a lot less. I do the Idaho City ISDE Qualifier once and a while (great race. 120 miles a day for 2 days and semi grueling) and almost everyone runs them no matter if they have full factory suspension or not. It just makes for an EZer and safer day.

More info here on ours if you care...

http://www.motosportz.com/MZ-SLD-info.htm

Thanks.

Yes, don't use a damper to mask a problem. If you experience things like high speed stability problems then you should work those things out first. What I find most useful about a damper is that it makes the wrestling match between you and bars much easier at low speeds in the rough stuff. That is particularly true of a heavier bike like my 610. Some of the added benefits is better tracking at higher speeds in soft sand. Thats why I like the Motosprtz damper, the single lever adjustment make for quick "on the fly" adjustment to suit the terrain.

So could a dampener prevent tank slapping on a freeway?

Is is dampener or damper?

Damper

BTW I like them on DS bikes especially with knobs on as it makes that light wandering feel on street go away. Makes the bike more smooth and controlled on the highway when big trucks go by, tire grooves and puddles etc.

It's also nice to have if you're going to venture past the century mark.

WOW

BTW did i send you a longer adjustment knob? If not i have them as they are EZer to get to in that mounting.

I'll take anything that's free.
BTW the 126 mph was an eroneous reading but the bike has seen a gps verified 117 and feels much more stabil than any dirt bike has a right to be at that speed.