Has anyone played with steering dampeners? I was at snoeshoe and they had the hopey display setup and got to talk to the guy about it and mess with the display and check out the team bikes they had setup with them. Seemed like it could be a real nice feature on a bike... Think its worth it or a waste? I'd be all over getting one if it weren't $230
Steering dampeners worth $230?
- Thread starter yellowfox
- Start date
Yeah I tried that thing out too. Pretty cool. But I like X-ups too much 
you'd think they would be more useful and almost a necessity on a dirt bike... who knows.
echo, when you get one does it elimante the possibility of an x-up? I didn't look at it to close but i know you can turn that adjuster knob to make there no dampening what so ever. Is there a piece inside to stop from a 180 turn or even a barspin?
echo, when you get one does it elimante the possibility of an x-up? I didn't look at it to close but i know you can turn that adjuster knob to make there no dampening what so ever. Is there a piece inside to stop from a 180 turn or even a barspin?
Here's a pic of the demo rig...
It was basically a treadmill with a bunch of terrain features bolted to the running surface. You would hold on to the front end assembly shown as the obstacles contacted the wheel. The difference in how easy it was to keep the wheel tracking straight between when the damping was off and when it was on was very noticeable. I thought it was a pretty effective demo but not having ridden with one in a real situation, I can't comment any more than that.
It was basically a treadmill with a bunch of terrain features bolted to the running surface. You would hold on to the front end assembly shown as the obstacles contacted the wheel. The difference in how easy it was to keep the wheel tracking straight between when the damping was off and when it was on was very noticeable. I thought it was a pretty effective demo but not having ridden with one in a real situation, I can't comment any more than that.
I think they started with road racing motorcycles. Nothing like your bars going lock to lock at 60 mph.
I personally don't like the feel of a steering dampener. They just make the front end feel dead. Very little trail feel and more effort to turn. I guess that is what they are designed to do though. And i can see where one would help in really fast rough sections. But i guess i prefer a more livley front end. A buddy of mine has a hopey and he swears by it. Problem is when he quits using it or turns it off he complains of the front end being twitchy, oversteering turns ect.
I like to race DH on a hardtail and i am just curious to see if this would make a difference. Thats where most of my abuse comes from is the front wheel tracking. Sometimes its hard to keep the front end pointed straight bombin through rock gardens. (ok almost all the time )
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Uhm - are you coming down this weekend???
Repeat after me:
Damper. D-A-M-P-E-R. DAMP-ER. Damper.
A dampener would be something that makes you wet.
I have to say, the demo I tried at Mt. Snow was pretty cool. I wouldn't put it on an all purpose bike, but a DH race only bike, I'd consider it...
Damper. D-A-M-P-E-R. DAMP-ER. Damper.
A dampener would be something that makes you wet.
I have to say, the demo I tried at Mt. Snow was pretty cool. I wouldn't put it on an all purpose bike, but a DH race only bike, I'd consider it...
Exactly.
I doubt it would "stop" me from doing an X-up, but it would make them harder. I mean the idea is to get the bars around as quickly as possible and hold it there as long as you can. Having a device that dampens the bars from turning, and is always trying to return them to the neutral position, doesn't seem to be a good mix with X-ups
Remember if you get one, you need a headset with deeper cups cause using a standard headset will usally lead to headtube ovalization.
you can turn the DAMP-ER completely off though. Not sure if you can still get a full 180 rotation with it installed though.Originally posted by Echo
Exactly.
I doubt it would "stop" me from doing an X-up, but it would make them harder. I mean the idea is to get the bars around as quickly as possible and hold it there as long as you can. Having a device that dampens the bars from turning, and is always trying to return them to the neutral position, doesn't seem to be a good mix with X-ups
Yeah, disabling it could work... I guess I just don't like that idea. Like when I had an XC bike with a rear lockout, I would lock out the suspension on a climb, then be 3 miles into the singletrack and realize I was still riding with the rear suspension locked out
You do have to pull out the cups.
And I believe the device will NOT allow a full bar rotation, but Brian is right, it can be turned off. However, on an all-purpose bike, I would think it would be turned off so much as to make it more of a hassle than it's worth. Added weight and complexity, another (expensive) thing to break in a crash, and having to check your headset more...
Getting massive headshake at 100mph makes bull riding look easy. I have an old video of the Isle of Mann TT where some dude gets bucked off of a Honda from head shake. Extremely violent, broke both of his wrist trying to hold on.
I do have to say that the thing weighs next to nothing. Really, you hold it in your hand and you can't believe how light it is.
Well, there's not much to it (it's just some viscous fluid in a couple adjustable sleeves, right?), and it's not a structural component so it doesn't have to be very strong. Assuming some quality machining, I'm not suprised its light.
I'd really like to throw one on a DH race bike and try it out for a bunch of runs - it's a great idea and a very quality execution. Unfortunately, I am lacking both a DH bike and the Hopey damper, so that seems unlikely
Thats the worse way to crash... It just whips you off.
If i had a race only Dh bike i would really consider but i agree it would be more of a pain installing it, and then only using it for racing. I hate dealing with pressing cups and all that crap anway.
It only happened to me twice and never at 100mph. It was scary enough at 40. Not much you can do, but hold on and hope it stops.
Last year MTB Action recommended using a steering damper to make a hardtail XC bike more comfortable for 24 hour races
There was one section of road that it would always happen to me, a rough section with ripple type bumps after a corner. If I accelerated hard out of the corner the bumps would get the front end shaking, just had to get off the gas a bit to smooth things out.
Well.. As much as I wish MBA would burn to the ground, I can see that being a good thing. Less effort spent trying to keep the front wheel tracking = more effort that can be spent elsewhere.Originally posted by Westy
Last year MTB Action recommended using a steering damper to make a hardtail XC bike more comfortable for 24 hour races
But you would also have to spend more energy when you did have to turn. I just started using wider riser bars for endurance events.
Yep, hitting a bump while accelerating.
You assume that teh effort needed to turn the handle bars is dificult. In reality the effort required to move the handle bars wich when we ride is very slow and very little side to side, is minimal.
It is meant to deaden the jerking away from center that people fight most of the time and don't notice it. Turning and general riding should be effected very little until you adjust it to be heavy fealing.
It only damps away from center not returning to center.
I rode a KTM 200 EXC last weekend in a nasty rain storm (see SM's race thread abotu the weather) and spent a good hour roosting through slop, roots, puddles, lodgging roads, dicing through trees......the only time I noticed the Scotts Steering Damper working is when I realized the nasty cross rooted mud infested trail I was riding on wasn't working me over more. It was my first time on the KTM (borrowed from a club member) but in all the years of riding motorcycles offroad I thought I should be fighting it more.
That simply wasn't the case.
How difficult would it be for manuf to do like Rotec did and make a mount for the Hopey (altough they are only one company) damper? It is there if you ever need it...I guess it adds wieght, but very little. It eliminates the headset issue/nonissue (with teh right headset.)
Just relating my personal experience with a motorcycle damper last weekend....I hoope to put the HOpey on my Rotec soon also.
I had a nasty head shake experience in a desert race.......
Came down a road that was slightly washed out and loose with sand. Breaking real hard for the bottom hairpin corner at an intersection. The front end compressed steepening the steerring angle and started to knife back and forth through the loose dirt. It started slow and became very quick...full lock to lock affair. I missed the corner but eventually brought the steering back. I took a couple seconds after blowing thru the intersection to get my wits about me.....and couldn'r beleive how pumped my arms were after that.
Some things just become burned in your mind and that was one of those moments.
First off, thanks to everyone who clarified DAMP-ER vs. DAMPEN-ER. I don't have a lot of pet peeves, but that's one of them.
I've been using the Scotts damper on 3 different off-road motorcycles over the last 5 years and wouldn't ride without one. Can't even begin to count the number of times that thing has saved me. But for MTB's, I would agree that aggressive DH racing is probably about the only type of riding in which I'd use a damper. Everyone's different, but for me the effort needed to keep a bike tracking straight in normal cross-country riding isn't tiring enough to justify a damper (not that it wouldn't be a fun gadget to try out if I had deeper pockets). Mostly because the speeds aren't as high (versus a motorcycle or DH'ing) and the mass of the front end isn't a whole heck of a lot (compared to a motorcyle). It takes considerable effort to keep the front end of a dirt bike tracking straight when you're hitting softball-sized rocks at 40 mph, partly because there's more mass to control, which is where a damper saves me energy. It's designed to dampen the kind of impact that's lightening-quick and violent, the kind of action that would buck you off the bike before you even knew what happened. I haven't yet experienced anything that violent on cross-country trails (even the steepest ones). Would still be a cool thing to have, though.
I've been using the Scotts damper on 3 different off-road motorcycles over the last 5 years and wouldn't ride without one. Can't even begin to count the number of times that thing has saved me. But for MTB's, I would agree that aggressive DH racing is probably about the only type of riding in which I'd use a damper. Everyone's different, but for me the effort needed to keep a bike tracking straight in normal cross-country riding isn't tiring enough to justify a damper (not that it wouldn't be a fun gadget to try out if I had deeper pockets). Mostly because the speeds aren't as high (versus a motorcycle or DH'ing) and the mass of the front end isn't a whole heck of a lot (compared to a motorcyle). It takes considerable effort to keep the front end of a dirt bike tracking straight when you're hitting softball-sized rocks at 40 mph, partly because there's more mass to control, which is where a damper saves me energy. It's designed to dampen the kind of impact that's lightening-quick and violent, the kind of action that would buck you off the bike before you even knew what happened. I haven't yet experienced anything that violent on cross-country trails (even the steepest ones). Would still be a cool thing to have, though.