Its dampner time
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,036
Likes: 19
From: Savage, MN
I wish they had a better location to mount them. I love the look of them on sport bikes and they do help but I am just not riding hard enough to need on on the HD and looks wise not my taste.
Road Warrior
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 1,739
Likes: 10
From: Suffolk, England
I've had a couple of steering dampers on bikes over the years. Always on sports bikes though.
Times when I felt the need for them was on lighter, fast bikes where the front end gets light or is likely to leave the road. Then there's the risk of the bike starting to shake its head.
On a Dyna? Can't really see the need. Front end is just too heavy and planted. The exception to that might just be the models where there is a big difference between front and rear tyre width. This tends to do screwy stuff and a damper might help a bit. But if you have a bike like that then you chose the wrong one to be riding hard anyway.
Times when I felt the need for them was on lighter, fast bikes where the front end gets light or is likely to leave the road. Then there's the risk of the bike starting to shake its head.
On a Dyna? Can't really see the need. Front end is just too heavy and planted. The exception to that might just be the models where there is a big difference between front and rear tyre width. This tends to do screwy stuff and a damper might help a bit. But if you have a bike like that then you chose the wrong one to be riding hard anyway.
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 2,938
Likes: 4
From: NC
That damper body is the same damper unit marketed for various applications like ATVs, Jap bikes,etc etc....
I have had 2 of those dampers. One on my TRX250R ATV and the other on my TRX400EX ATV. Mine came from Gary Denton Racing but PEP and Lockhart Phillips marketed them as well I think.
I found that the damper had a great range of adjustability and never leaked. I never had any issues with either of the 2 I owned on my ATVs. They are rebuildable as well and can be tuned using various weights of suspension fluids. Although I never found the need to as they had such a broad range of tuning as is.
My buddy had that same damper on his vintage home built GSXR1340 and he had nothing bad to say about it as well and he could do nose wheelies on that bike from 100MPH to 0 on that pile of crap.
I have had many sportbikes and all but two came from the factory with a steering damper. One of those two bikes tried to spit me off via a nasty tank slapper.
If my Dyna ever tank slaps it will have a damper as well, although I will probably drill and bolt the damper directly to the lower triple clamp instead of that bracket they supplied. This will allow me to pick a spot that provides the best angle for the damper using all of the available travel of the damper.
I hope that helps the fellas here that were needing a review of that unit.
I have had 2 of those dampers. One on my TRX250R ATV and the other on my TRX400EX ATV. Mine came from Gary Denton Racing but PEP and Lockhart Phillips marketed them as well I think.
I found that the damper had a great range of adjustability and never leaked. I never had any issues with either of the 2 I owned on my ATVs. They are rebuildable as well and can be tuned using various weights of suspension fluids. Although I never found the need to as they had such a broad range of tuning as is.
My buddy had that same damper on his vintage home built GSXR1340 and he had nothing bad to say about it as well and he could do nose wheelies on that bike from 100MPH to 0 on that pile of crap.
I have had many sportbikes and all but two came from the factory with a steering damper. One of those two bikes tried to spit me off via a nasty tank slapper.
If my Dyna ever tank slaps it will have a damper as well, although I will probably drill and bolt the damper directly to the lower triple clamp instead of that bracket they supplied. This will allow me to pick a spot that provides the best angle for the damper using all of the available travel of the damper.
I hope that helps the fellas here that were needing a review of that unit.
