Steering damper - whats your setting?

[Guest Britcheflee]

Backed it right off today and really noticed an improvement particularly at slow speed turning - prior to this I was fighting to turn the bike and it felt very unstable at slow speed - it is much easier to manouver now. Maybe its just me but I also feel that this bike does not have a tight turning circle either.

 

Lee

[Steve G.]

My early framed '01 with the Bitubo. Fiddled with it when new, found it downright dangerous at very slow speeds when cranked up high, and now that I've softened up the suspension, it is spun to zero effect. On the rare occasion that I get a chance to run extended distance at quite high speed [certainly not here in Canada] I will reach down while riding and click it 2-3 times. Never any more!

Not a super stable bike like the later framed models, it is very acceptable now, and have adjusted my riding input to this bike which settles the bike nicely.

Ciao, Steve G.

[Guest ratchethack]

It might be helpful to point out that steering dampers do have a valid purpose. There's a reason that so many mfgr's go to considerable trouble and expense to install 'em (it ain't for anything like a bling factor), but they have no value whatsoever at low speeds and therefore aren't properly used at low speeds. In fact, as has been pointed out, they considerably hamper parking-lot maneuvering. They're properly used for high-speed stability and insurance against the onset of chassis oscillation. A little mastery of the obvious here - in order to get to high speed and return successfully, you have to pass through low speed both before and after. That's why steering dampers are made so easily adjustable on the fly with the left hand.

 

'Nother words, properly used, it's not a "set it and forget it" device.

 

From some of the posts, it seems that because some don't like steering damping at low speeds, they may have either incorrectly concluded that they don't like steering damping at all, or equally incorrectly, they may have decided it only provides negative value - without having evaluated it's use at the speeds for which it's exclusively intended. Just a thought.

 

In this case, I don't b'lieve YMMV.

[staedtler]

what's the setting on this dude...

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7...39&q=ghostrider

[Bbennett]

Backed it right off today and really noticed an improvement particularly at slow speed turning - prior to this I was fighting to turn the bike and it felt very unstable at slow speed - it is much easier to manouver now.  Maybe its just me but I also feel that this bike does not have a tight turning circle either.

 

Lee

67973[/snapback]

 

I almost did not buy my V11 due to the lack of a good turning radius, and the fact that I hear a scrape when the bike is against the steering lock. I a mtold this is a design defect. To be fair, I do not think the V11's turning radius is bad compared to many other bikes - but I am still often against the locks - should prob grind 'em down

[bigbikerrick]

It might be helpful to point out that steering dampers do have a valid purpose, that's why so many mfgr's go to considerable trouble and expense to install 'em (it ain't for anything like a bling factor), but they have no value whatsoever at low speeds and therefore aren't properly used at low speeds.  In fact, as has been pointed out, they considerably hamper parking-lot maneuvering.  They're properly used for high-speed stability and insurance against the onset of chassis oscillation.  A little mastery of the obvious here - in order to get to high speed and return successfully, you have to pass through low speed both before and after.  That's why steering dampers are made so easily adjustable on the fly with the left hand.

 

'Nother words, properly used, it's not a "set it and forget it" device.

 

From some of the posts, it seems that because some don't like steering damping at low speeds, they may have either incorrectly concluded that they don't like steering damping at all, or equally incorrectly, they may have decided it only provides negative value - without having evaluated it's use at the speeds for which it's exclusively intended.  Just a thought.

 

In this case, I don't b'lieve YMMV.

68013[/snapback]

Hey RH, I guess honda pretty much made their new cbr 1000 idiot proof when they installed an electronically controlled steering damper that increases and decreases the damping rate according to the speed of the machine,automatically. but like all technology, I guess it would really suck if the control system went haywire while riding........ Give me the old school Guzzi shite anytime, Ive got nothing better to do with my left hand anyway while im riding the goose, HeHeHe.

[Guest ratchethack]

Ack! I'm with you, Rick. I'd put auto-steering damping in the same category with linked brakes, but even moreso. Yep, it's yet another thing with wires that can go wrong, and when it does...Can you imagine what an intermittent short or intermittent ground might be like in a bumpy high-speed sweeper? Keep the damned ECU away from my chassis, please, and leave it in the fuel injection where it belongs.

[DeBenGuzzi]

what's the setting on this dude...

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7...39&q=ghostrider

68014[/snapback]

Why do european sirens all go uhhh-ahhh- uhhhh-ahhh that is sooooo annoying It bust really work I'd pull over to so they'd shut the damn thing off.

Oh and how hard would it be to keep up with that Z3 on anything bigger than a moped I mean its quick but bikes can almost always take the better line or the tighter turn or the smaller squeeze, Whats he riding anyway honda?

[gthyni]

Why do european sirens all go uhhh-ahhh- uhhhh-ahhh that is sooooo annoying It bust really work I'd pull over to so they'd shut the damn thing off.

Oh and how hard would it be to keep up with that Z3 on anything bigger than a moped I mean its quick but bikes can almost always take the better line or the tighter turn or the smaller squeeze, Whats he riding anyway honda?

68036[/snapback]

 

A Z3 M Coupe is something completly different, 325 bhp and M-sport chassie

Bike is a GSXR1000

 

And both guys are infantile idiots IMHO

[DeBenGuzzi]

dam straight, But I'd like to see how the New Zo6 stacks up. its like an affordable Mclaren.

[Ouiji Veck]

 

And both guys are infantile idiots IMHO

68044[/snapback]

Right.

Dumb & dumber

[Steve G.]

Why do european sirens all go uhhh-ahhh- uhhhh-ahhh that is sooooo annoying It bust really work I'd pull over to so they'd shut the damn thing off.

Oh and how hard would it be to keep up with that Z3 on anything bigger than a moped I mean its quick but bikes can almost always take the better line or the tighter turn or the smaller squeeze, Whats he riding anyway honda?

68036[/snapback]

In fact I'm impressed that the bike was able to more or less keep with the car, in the corners that is. Cars have an incredible advantage in cornering capability compared to bikes. Of course there is no denying the big gixxer when the road straightens out. A new Corvette would be a different story, but an open class bike would still chew it up and spit it out. Did you see how many times the bike had to short shift, in fact put on the brakes once it had quickly reeled in the car.

Ciao, Steve G.

[dlaing]

I have a 2000.

I set the bitubo to minimum unless exceeding 99MPH, in which case I just give it two clicks...just for insurance, even though it "feels" stable with it off.

Much more than two clicks and I worry I might lose it pulling up to the gas pump

[Guest ratchethack]

So Dave - you're one of the crowd with the broken left thumbs?! Seems to be a bit of an epidemic...

[dlaing]

My problem is a broken memory

I might give it more than two clicks if I could reliably remember to unclick it.