Product Review of:

Scotts Steering Damper courtesy of Me!
(JeF4y)


I almost made it through assembling the whole bike
when it dawned on me...
"Hmm, gear way down, come out of corner, whack the gas, front end
lifts, front
end touches down, bars go lock to lock 5 times a second, Jeffy goes
flying".
This thought haunted me pretty bad. I then knew I'd need a steering
damper.
Looking into dampers, I found they ranged
from $150 through the mid $400's.
I was going to go with a cheaper one until I thought that I'd be
replacing it
every crash. So now I was limited to "top-mount" or "rotary" dampers.
Looking
at the narrowed selection, I was into the mid $300 range and up. I was
repeatedly
told that the best on the market was Scotts Rotary Steering Damper.
Focusing on the $420-$450 Scotts, it's
easy to tell why this is regarded as
the cream of the crop. Top mount which will most likely survive
numerous crashes.
High and Low speed adjustments, damping motion range adjustment, and
all of
the adjustments are infinite. Plus you can adjust the sucker on the
fly! Well,
that settles it. Looking as to where I can buy one, I found (if you've
read
any of my other reviews, you've guessed it) http://www.hi-sideracing.com

came in the lowest at $420. I ended up trading a guy some street
take-offs from
the F4 for the Scotts Damper.
A matter of days and it's here. Pull it
all out and here's what's in the box.




Everything was well laid out and seemed very straight
forward. Start pushing,
pulling and turning knobs, then look at the big red letters on the
manual that
say "read page 7 BEFORE turning any knobs". Looked at page 7 which
just warned
that the knob will come off if cranked counter-clockwise too much.
Whew.
Head out to the garage with parts under
one arm, directions and phones under
the other and the digital camera in my mouth. First thing was to pull
the steering
head nut and replace it with the supplied nut. This proved to be a
difficult
task. I bought $300 or so worth of metric tools including sockets up
to 29mm.
Well, that stinking nut must be a 32mm or so, it's HUGE. Couldn't find
anyone
with monster sockets so it was either drive 60 miles round trip to
Sears or
find something to suffice. Sure enough, them Vise-Grips will fit! Man,
Honda
must have put this nut on with a 4 foot breaker bar! It was ON THERE!!
I checked
the manual as the instructions state to "tighten replacement head nut
to stock
torque value", and the manual says 79 Ft-Lbs! Well, (1) I don't have a
socket
for this to even begin getting a torque value, (2) the replacement nut
is about
3 grams of aluminum. The directions repeatedly say "call with any
questions",
"don't be stupid, call!", "we're here to help you"; so I do just that.
Scott
from Scotts performance (coincidence in name or the actual "man", I
don't
know) told me that it's best and safest to bring the nut back to stock
torque
values, and of course the use of loc-tite is not an option (it's
mandatory).
I questioned whether the replacement aluminum nut would withstand the
high torque
value and he replied that they've been tested well beyond the 79
Ft-lbs stock
torque value. He also commented that in a pinch, this nut can be
simply tightened
down to 20-30 Ft-Lbs with *most likely* no ill effects, but stock
value is best.
Not having a torque wrench, or socket of this size, I opted for the
loc-tite
and "snug down well" method.
Okay, that's settled. Back to the
directions, step 1 says "apply loc-tite to
EVERYTHING, we promise you that if you do not, IT WILL COME LOOSE".
That's convincing
enough for me, so I use the supplied loc-tite and snug down the new
steering
head nut.
There's this "ring" that fits over/around
the new nut which has 6 holes in
the side for set screws which hold the damper to the nut. Loc-tite
them, start
them in the holes, drop the top ring on and tighten accordingly.
There's also
a nub underneath the "ring" which fits in the groove in the factory
triple clamp.
This went very well. Here's a pic



Okay, nut and ring in place, now pull the 2 factory
tank bolts and drop on
the supplied "post" with supplied bolts (of course, using loc-tite)



A little white lithium grease in the post hole, drop
in the pin, and mount
the damper with the 2 (supplied) bolts.






After I got it mounted, I continued reading the
settings instructions which
say that the low speed adjustment should be factory set at 8 clicks
from full
clock-wise stop. I wanted to see if it was set there so I started
clicking clock-wise.
8 clicks no stop, 15 clicks no stop, 20 clicks no stop, 25 clicks no
stop. Time
to call again. The woman said keep going until it stops. Well, 29
clicks and
it stopped! Backed it out 8 and things should be normal.
I lowered the bike off the front end stand
onto some blocks and wood placed
under the headers so I could freely move the front end. This thing is
great.
Works well on the stand, and I think will work superb on the track.
Time will
tell.

UPDATE!
In October, I had the opportunity to put
the Scotts to the test on a private
track in Minneapolis. It performed flawlessly. The best description I
can give
to say how well a damper works is simply that it gave me no hint that
it was
even there, but there were no shakes or "shimmies" in the front
whatsoever.
There was recently a very large thread
that took place on the CBR
LIST regarding "do I need a damper or not". My answer to this
question is
pretty straight forward. A damper provides a specific service to rider
and bike.
However, MOST OFTEN times, changes in the riders techniques (stop
gripping the
bars too tight, trying to man-handle the bike) will overcome common
shakes.
A damper is pretty common on altered bikes (race bikes), big torque
bikes (VTR,
TL, etc), and bikes with a lot of HP and steep steering angles (R1).
However,
the average street 600 simply doesn't need it.
Before you spend $400+ on a damper, spend
$15 on yourself and decide whether
you really need it. Buy Keith Code's "Twist of the Wrist II" from
Amazon.com
or other book retailer and READ IT. Once you read the physics aspects
(very
clearly explained and easily understood) of what a bike does and what
it requires
from the rider and the negative effects that the rider brings out of
the bike,
then decide whether to spend the money or not.
As Keith Code writes, "The most adjustable
portion of any bike's suspension
is the one that sits on top. The rider."


Check out my other Scotts Performance Product
Reviews. espero estar no sitio certo! achei este acessorio interessante!
acho que vai ficar um pouco grande