Looking for Steering Damper for a 1200 GS

[walycycle]

Anyone know who makes a steering damper for the 1200GS? did the search on this forum and the outfit mentioned in SA website is under construction.

thx

[JPB]

I've never come accross a steering damper for the GS and yours is the first enquiry I've heard of. Without wishing to sound unhelpful, why on earth would anyone want one - the GS is renowned for being very stable and tank slappers are virtually unheard of!

In any case, as I learned on a course a few days ago, tank slappers need not be a problem; they occur when something upsets the giro that is the front wheel and slapping is just the bike correcting itself to maintain direction and stability. For ANY bike the simple and safe (but admittedly counter-intuitive) way to deal with a tank slapper is to stay off the brake and keep the lightest possible hold on the bars. Do this and the slapper stops quickly and safely and the bike carries on as before.

Apparently there's a video clip of an incident at an Isle of Man TT when a bike gets airborne over a humpback bridge and on landing gets a massive tank slapper. The rider panics, grips hard and tries to correct the slapper, making it worse. He then tries even harder corrections and makes things worse still. Eventually he's thrown off the bike which, freed of inappropriate rider input, instantly rights itself and carries on down the road...

Your bike and your money, but IMHO there are shed-loads of farkles you could buy that actually might be useful!

[mikec]

I just installed one from Hyperpro, http://www.epmperf.com/steering-damper.htm.

In February, I was riding on Terlingua Ranch Road in Big Bend NP and went through a "washboard" section. My front end did the shimmy quite a bit and I mentioned it to a BMW rider I met in Alpine that night. He showed me his damper (on an HP2) and said that would take care of the problem. I haven't put mine to the test, yet, but you can adjust the dampening and really feel it in the handle bars. I hope it will be an improvement.

By the way, I asked my dealer to check the steering neck for tightness and he said it was okay.

Mike