Steering Damper Failure?

Hey All,

Was on the bike today, out for a ride, tipped the bike into a corner and
felt something 'let go' steering went real loose... Sooooo much easier to
turn the bars now...... Its a GSXR750 92' fitted with a Steering Damper...
When i got home i removed the Damper.... how much of a difference do these
things make exactly? as ive never ridden the bike without it... now the bike
seems to want to just fall into the corner.... (even with it on)... i can
move the rod in and out of the housing without any trouble but there is
still a resistance there... no sign of oil or broken seals on the rod at
all....

Suggestions?

-Whitey.

 

If you take your hands off the bars when you're riding in
a straight line, does it want to wobble it's head? If so,
does that bother you?

GB

 

Yup, it does... and no it dosent bother me.... I ended up taking the stupid
thing off... much easier to ride now.. did 600kms today so im thinking
theres no problem with the bike..

 

just be careful later on when you

are fanging it and hit a bumpy/shit road

i presume suzuki put it there for a reason

dc

 

noted.... well, thats the next question.. did they come standard?
dosent say anything about it in the workshop manual.

 

im pretty sure most if not all of the gsxr1100 and 750's came with steering
dampners

also if you have the bike insured and you take dampner off, you may give the
insurance reasons to say "see ya"

lot of people leave them on and turn them down to the lowest setting, those
thatn vcan be adjusted , unlike the poxy ones o fthe tls - but you could get
them rebuilt with lighter oil in them

 

I know >||< that much about Japanese sports bikes, but ISTR that the
GSXR750 came without a steering damper, but one was fitted PDQ to cure
an occasional rather startling head shake.

OTOH I could be talking through mu arse.

Moike

 

hmmm.. not too sure about that. I think lots of Gixxer owners fitted them,
but don't think they were a factory item. I know my 93 GSXR1100 neither had
or needed one, but then it was a bit porkier than the earlier 1100s.

Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

Yeah, most definatley. Ive already had that happen to me, and that was with
it on. I just couldnt see it 'going on me' without some sort of oil or a
broken seal or some sort of tell tale sign.... [strange]

 

My 90 GSXR750 L had a damper fitted standard , I removed it and fitted a
White Power I had at the time.

 

.... how much of a difference do these things make exactly?

I had a GSXR1100K... 1990 model. It came with a damper and when it leaked a
bit of oil and wasn't working properly I ditched it. The bike was heaps
better without it. I fitted an Ohlins rear shock and spring which lifted the
rear about an inch. Even then the front end never gave any particularly
troublesome shakes.

Cheers Frank.