has anyone installed a steering damper on an F2? I'm upgrading a few things, seat and LSL handbar kits, mainly. got to looking at other peices and found them on ebay for around $50. I'm thinking it might help smooth the steering after the extended bars are on it?

experiences?

 

Are you doing the super bike kit? If so, the upright change in the ergos will make the front end light. Plus, the bars are wider, which increases the leverage, and that will make the steering more sensitive. If you do a lot of "spirited" riding, a damper will really go a long way.

If you strictly commute on main roads, you may not notice a huge difference.

 

My 94 F2 track only bike has a steering damper. Love it, love it, love it. Wouldnt do track days without one. It slows down the "snap" when the *** breaks loose, hopefully giving you a microsecond to catch it. I would also get a little handle bar shake when the front end came off the ground, I had it on the lowest setting from being in the garage at home and forgot to turn it up when went back to the track. I put it on 4 or 5 from the lowest setting up. No more headshake.

 

Where I live has a wealth of great twisty roads. they are in bad shape though because of the winter and salt, lots of pits. I am a spirited rider though not overly so. The LSL kit is the Superbike kit, I didn't find a choice..

upon further research the Ebay ones are a bust because there is no bracket kit for them. Daytona makes the whole kit and it's not made in China, although $200

it's good to know there's possibly more stability with them, I'll keep looking

Thanks

 

The F2 and F3 were/is/was one of the more stabil bikes out there. You probably wont need a steering damper even for spirited street riding but if you would need it for spirited street riding you should probably be going to the track instead.

 

agreed. but you know it's tough to resist.......

 

Conrice, what kit do you have and does it fit the LSL kit?

thanks

 

I have a Daytona steering damper on my F3. I do not trust riding a motorcycle without a steering damper. Most suspension properly set up will address any shakes from the front but sometime you hit that imperfection in the road that get the bike really twitchy. I live in NYC, and our roads are really bad. I went down once because I hit a major pothole in the road that sent me into a major tank slapper I couldn't recover from. Moving forward I'm an advocate for dampers

 

I rode a bicycle in NYC when I lived there. can't imagine a moto although I can imagine the fun/challenge

does this seem like a good deal?
Honda CBR600 Daytona Steering Stabilizer Kit - 17-107 by Daytona

also, do you think it will work with the LSL setup?

 

I like that design. It's what I had planned on making for my bike. I'm going to be using the eBay damper and making my own mounts. Having the body-of-the-damper mounts use the tank bolts and the damper rod mounts via a bracket that is pinched on the fork *should* take the top tree out of the equation. The whole assembly turns with the triple tree. So as long as it clears the tank, height wise, you should be in business.

While I haven't ever used an LSL kit, the dirty bars I used on my fighter were essentially the same bend your LSL kit has. It will handle completely different because of how much more upright you'll be sitting. Like I said, that combined with the increased leverage will make the front-end easily upsettable and a damper (while it won't keep the front wheel down) will help keep you confident and settled when the front end gets light (and it will).

Install the bars and go for a ride. You'll see what I mean. Unfortunately, when I first used dirty bars, I hadn't expirienced what a damper could do for me. Now that I know what a damper can do, it's high on the priority list.