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Steering Dampers?

Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:14 pm

This may sound like a silly question, but what do steering dampers do exactly?

I have seen them on heaps of the bikes on Ebay but have no clue what they actually do. :?

Re: Steering Dampers?

Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:55 pm

it attaches to your steering column, or front fork to your frame on older bikes.
it has oil and a piston and you can adjust the rate of which oil flows around the piston which gives you a softer or harder steering so in turn you can get better handling at higher speeds to your liking,,,, basically reduces the impact of hitting a pot hole mid corner at the handle bars.
the newer bikes have a speed controlled dampner fitted, that makes it harder to turn the steering the faster you go, where at stand still its as easy of if its not there ;)
hope this helps mate
cheers Tim

Re: Steering Dampers?

Sat Jul 26, 2008 12:51 am

kawasaki250 wrote:it attaches to your steering column, or front fork to your frame on older bikes.
it has oil and a piston and you can adjust the rate of which oil flows around the piston which gives you a softer or harder steering so in turn you can get better handling at higher speeds to your liking,,,, basically reduces the impact of hitting a pot hole mid corner at the handle bars.
the newer bikes have a speed controlled dampner fitted, that makes it harder to turn the steering the faster you go, where at stand still its as easy of if its not there ;)
hope this helps mate
cheers Tim


Or if you ride an 06/07/08 10 they tame a fair amount of the inherant head shake under hard accel..[farkin savage without damper].

I went a step further by running the billet anchor and tank brackets to eliminate flex and changing the fluid weight in the damper[Ohlins]

Down side is that if you try to pull into a servo etc after a fast run with the damper set tight it'll scare the shit outa you when she tries to highside you at 5km /hr if you forget to back it right off!!!
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