Chinese Steering Dampers?

[Brandon]

I want to get a sterring damper but dropping $700 on a Ohlins one is definitely not in my price range. I did run across some on eBay and they're like $50! Here's the link to one: bit.ly. Is this too good to be true? Are they safe to use?

Edit: the link shortened a TON when I posted it but it still works.

 

[jbwaterman84]

Looks like a damper to me but I don't see any hardware for actually mounting it to the bike.

 

[Carlos840]

I would be a bit scared putting my ability to steer in the hands of a 50$ made in china knock off..

 

[Brandon]

Yea it did state that you would have to get the hardware separate (which is totally fine with me). Now that I think of it...how exactly do you mount the damper with the stock bar and hold downs and all?

 

[Carlos840]

Usually they have some sort of bracket that attaches to the tank bolts...

Something like that:

Dimotiv Steering Damper Mounting Kit Bracket Yamaha FZ6 04 13 | eBay

 

[lawlberg]

Yea it did state that you would have to get the hardware separate (which is totally fine with me). Now that I think of it...how exactly do you mount the damper with the stock bar and hold downs and all?

Like this:

 

[Brandon]

Dang that's a pretty crazy setup haha. But how do you guys feel about that damper? I know next to nothing about dampers so...

 

[mnuttall87]

Matris used to make a kit with the bracket and a damper that ran for about $300, but I don't think they have a US importer anymore.

 

[JeffSez59]

You don't need a damper unless your doing high speed track time. There's really no need at all if your just using it as a street bike. All it's going to do is make it harder to steer at lower speeds.
Steering damper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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[lawlberg]

I'm of the same thoughts as you, it looks too good to be true. But the mechanics of a damper are pretty simple, use oil to slow down the motion of the bars. As long as you have the mounting hardware set up well, the worst thing that can happen is it doesn't damp it, and then you're back where you started.

That being said, there was a post on a CBR forum where someone tried out one of these, and though the mounting hardware needed a bit of tweaking to get it to work right, the damper worked as designed and seemed to do everything it was supposed to. It's something I'll be seriously considering as well pretty soon. Though I would advise scouting out these, as not all ebay crap is made the same. Contact the sellers, see if anyone has a warranty, get a better mounting bracket and you'll have fewer headaches.

 

[lawlberg]

You don't need a damper unless your doing high speed track time. There's really no need at all if your just using it as a street bike. All it's going to do is make it harder to steer at lower speeds.
Steering damper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk

There's reason to do it on the FZ, especially mine.

Spirited cornering in the twisties can sometimes leave me with a loose feeling front end, especially if the road is rough. Add in potholes, the possibility of someone being a hoon and pulling wheelies, and idiots like me who shorten their front forks to fit clip ons onto their FZ and you have a great reason for using a steering damper before you throw track riding into the equation.

 

[mnuttall87]

Can we hear from someone who has had a steering damper on their FZ6? [MENTION=2579]Motogiro[/MENTION], you had it at one point right? Pros/cons/etc rather than the "you don't need one" reply which I see far too often?

 

[Brandon]

Okay perfect. I probably won't be getting anything any time soon but I just wanted to see what you guys thought

 

[lawlberg]

This:

http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-general-discussion/24246-anyone-ohlins-steering-damper.html

 

[Motogiro]

Matris used to make a kit with the bracket and a damper that ran for about $300, but I don't think they have a US importer anymore.

I had the Matris and it worked great! Too bad they stopped making them but I would still do a search for them because maybe they started making them again.

You don't need a damper unless your doing high speed track time. There's really no need at all if your just using it as a street bike. All it's going to do is make it harder to steer at lower speeds.
Steering damper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk

Agree. Generally speaking average riding you don't need one

The Matris was adjustable on the fly so I could dial it quickly. My SV1000 has a damper as factory equipment. Some folks ride in other conditions than track and I have to say that I've had a good experience with dampers on the roads I ride. I rode the FZ6 with and without the damper and it made a good difference riding South Grade on Palomar Mountain. It made steering more steady and never impeded quick steering inputs.

 

[Water Bear]

My guess would be that a steering damper is a literal damper.

To very simple approximation, a damper provides an amount of resistive force proportional to the speed at which your wheel is moving left to right.

In other words, if your front wheel is wobbling back and forth then a steering damper would be useful to you. The back and forth motion will be resisted by a drag force from the damper proportional to the speed at which the wheel is moving left to right, thereby damping out that motion. If you were to look at a graph of the direction of your front wheel, you would see something like a sine wave for an oscillating wheel, and a sine wave whose amplitude was decreasing exponentially for a damped oscillating wheel.

If your front wheel is not wobbling left to right, then the damper will do absolutely nothing except make sudden left-to-right transitions harder.

Edit: It is very possible that if the damper provides a very low drag coefficient then the effects of the damper wouldn't be noticeable unless the front wheel was moving very fast from left to right.

 

[Brandon]

My guess would be that a steering damper is a literal damper.

To very simple approximation, a damper provides an amount of resistive force proportional to the speed at which your wheel is moving left to right.

In other words, if your front wheel is wobbling back and forth then a steering damper would be useful to you. The back and forth motion will be resisted by a drag force from the damper proportional to the speed at which the wheel is moving left to right, thereby damping out that motion. If you were to look at a graph of the direction of your front wheel, you would see something like a sine wave for an oscillating wheel, and a sine wave whose amplitude was decreasing exponentially for a damped oscillating wheel.

If your front wheel is not wobbling left to right, then the damper will do absolutely nothing except make sudden left-to-right transitions harder.

Edit: It is very possible that if the damper provides a very low drag coefficient then the effects of the damper wouldn't be noticeable unless the front wheel was moving very fast from left to right.

Well I know what the damper does and all, but I was wanting to know if the ones on eBay were legitamit or not

 

[Water Bear]

Well I know what the damper does and all, but I was wanting to know if the ones on eBay were legitamit or not

About that...your guess is as good as mine.

Good luck! :thumbup:

 

[Brandon]

So I don't know what happened...but the steering damper I was watching on eBay somehow had the decimal moved over! Hahaha. Like I mean it was $48.00 and then I looked back at it and it's $4.80!! I bought 2 of them to say the least...

 

[Motogiro]

So I don't know what happened...but the steering damper I was watching on eBay somehow had the decimal moved over! Hahaha. Like I mean it was $48.00 and then I looked back at it and it's $4.80!! I bought 2 of them to say the least...

Put your phone on the charger!