Pete;65800 said:
I am thinking about the value of getting a steering damper. I am medium pace most of the time...sometimes go a bit quicker. My bike is a little older i guess, i ride 05 te450. I am thinking of getting one when i order few other bit n pieces.
1. Under bar vs regular. Is the only real difference the bar height? I prefer not to raise the height of my bars at all if possible. I prefer to keep my original 05 bars. They are so comfy and have survived a lot of crashes.
2. I dont need or want an $800 kit. Whats a realistic cost for good quality? Which brands to consider and which stay away from.
3. Motosportz have a good deal on them for Huskys. Is this product honestly worth buying?
Any other medium skilled/paced riders moved to a damper and liked it? Which one and why did you like it?
Really keen to hear from anyone running the 45mm zokes who got one.
You bet it is, it's one of the best values on a premium damper that you're going to find. I'll find the write-up I did on it and and give you a link.
10-30-2009, 12:01 PM
rajobigguy
Moderator Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: So.Cal.
Posts: 1,049
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Here is a copy of a review that I did on the Motosportz damper. It might be of some help if the discount isn't enough to convince you to open the purse strings or you're on the fence about needing one.
I purchased a steering damper for my TE610 Husky and wanted to share my thoughts with everyone.
Although this report is pretty specific to the 610 I believe that much of it would be pertinent to other bikes.
Right out of the box there are a couple of things that I noticed.
1. This thing is a work of art, gorgeous by any standard. The machining and finish is aircraft ( maybe aerospace ) quality.
2. Very light weight. Actually it is surprisingly light. I would have thought that the additional hardware needed to adapt to a 610 would have made the unit heavy but it is probably one of the lightest dampers that I have ever seen.
Installation:
Coming up with a clean mounting solution for the 610 took a bit of creativity on the manufacturers part. The 610 has almost no room between the gas tank and the head stock and until now the only viable alternative to mounting a damper was to purchase one from one of the other companies, change to an after market gas tank and do a bit of fabrication to mount the stationary pin. Motosportz has come up with a clamp that attaches to the upper headstock mount and goes around the factory gas tank.
The damper itself is a relatively simple mount up. All that is required is to remove the two top handle bar clamps and install the damper mount in thier place. The damper is secured to the mounts by two screws in a sliding bracket. The stationary pin mount requires you to remove the gas tank and slip the yoke of the clamp over the nose of the tank and drop the tank back into position. There are a couple of things to watch out for here. It seems that Husky may weld the hold down bolt for the gas tank in a nominal location rather than a precision one. I would recommend doing a trial fit of the clamp without the gas tank in position to make sure that the clamp is not rocking on any excess weld on either the headstock or tank hold down bolt. That was the case with mine but was easily rectified once I understood what was going on. It only took a few swipes with a heavy file to to smooth the mounting surface. I have since talked to the people at Motoportz and they said they would include a recommendation to do a trail fit in the instructions.
That brings us to the next point which is dealing with the people at Motosportz. What a great group of guys they have there, very helpful, they are real riders who understand what our needs are and share the same enthusiasm about bikes that we have.
Performance:
It took a few days before I had the opportunity to get it dirty but in the mean time I did do some street riding and even there it made a difference.
While the big Husky is a very stable bike to begin with, adding the steering damper allowed me to raise the fork tubes in the triple clamp to the next notch with out losing any high speed stability. Being able to tighten up my steering radius without losing high speed stability justifies the purchase all by itself but it doesn't stop there.
At lower speeds in the sandy stuff it is less of a fight to keep the bike pointed in the right direction and it tracks better in the rough at higher speeds. I tried bouncing sideways off some sharp edged obstacles and it is much less of a chore to recoup. Turn-in is much smoother and more predictable. It seems to have a non linear resistance built in to the sweep and gets progressively easier the farther away from center that you move.
The adjustment is a single lever and can go from almost nothing to really stiff. I found that running mine in the midway point was about right for me. It probably has more adjustment than most people will ever use but I guess it might be nice to have in some situations.
Overall this is an outstanding unit and if you are looking for a damper you should consider Motosportz.
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I'm just here to help
I want in! This looks like fun…Motosportz sent me a Damper claiming to have a clamp for the IMS tank. Kelly never did get it together and I forwarded his Damper to another customer for a full refund plus shipping. Motosportz/Kelly ROCKS in the customer service department. (No idea how the damper works as I never got to try it out).
