Steering Damper

[rewindgy]

Anybody put a steering damper on their Nomad?

I thought about this at one time, but never did it.

IMO the only really good one is the Scotts Rotary though. It's expensive too.

[rewindgy]

Gave it an eyeball! Not sure if it will work on the Nad! Have not got a reply from them yet!

It would definately have to be a custom setup. Not for the novice to attempt.

[redjay]

Never had any "head shaking" from the Nad. Why the need for a steering damper ?

[ringadingh]

A lot of Nomads including mine will go into a wobble when you let go of the handlebars for a couple seconds. Its something that bugs me, but I havn't been able to stop it from happening as of yet. Im wondering if a fork brace would help ?

Originally Posted by Ringadingh

A lot of Nomads including mine will go into a wobble when you let go of the handlebars for a couple seconds. Its something that bugs me, but I havn't been able to stop it from happening as of yet. Im wondering if a fork brace would help ?

Good question.

Mine too will start to wobble if you either let go of the bars and let it slow down at the same time, or let go of the bars with the throttle lock on and then hit a patch of poor pavement.

I don't know if it would ever build into a total tankslapper, because I never let it get out of hand, but I suspect that it might.

Oh, yes...

I noticed that the tendancy was reduced when I added those chrome brake covers on the front.

It was certainly a bit of added weight, but I wonder if not just the weight, but some aerodynamic effects were thrown into play when I did that?

[rewindgy]

Unfortunately it is usually a combo of lots of things! On the old Ventures the only front tire that didn't do it was the Metzler ML2 - just about any other tire would have some kind of decel wobble. If you over tightened the steering head bearings they wouldn't but would then wear quicker!! It usually has to do with the unloading of the front end on a touring bike - mostly with a fairing of some kind. Usually windshields don't cause this! Didn't have the wobble before the full fairing - only after! Also notice it is more pronounced when 2 up with the trailer! Pretty much all of the people I ride with that have full dressers say they have the decel wobble somewhere around 40 Mph! Some worse some better. I thought the adjustable steering damper would be the ticket as you didn't put any strain on the bearings but could just find the resisitance needed to stop the little wobble. Got an e-mail back from Scott's and they said they don't make one for touring bikes but thought that they may look into it in the future as more people have been asking for it. Guess we will wait and see!

[cactusjack]

Originally Posted by Ringadingh

A lot of Nomads including mine will go into a wobble when you let go of the handlebars for a couple seconds. Its something that bugs me, but I havn't been able to stop it from happening as of yet. Im wondering if a fork brace would help ?

It's a motorcycle...you aren't supposed to let go of the handlebars.

Mine does it too.

[ringadingh]

Originally Posted by cactusjack

It's a motorcycle...you aren't supposed to let go of the handlebars.

Mine does it too.

How do I get the beercap off then?
Nothing makes sense to me with the wobble. The NEW tire made it worse, Ive checked the balance, tire pressure, rear tire pressure etc. and havn't found an answer yet.

[cactusjack]

Originally Posted by Ringadingh

[quote author=cactusjack board=nomad thread=5270 post=97212 time=1216322256]


How do I get the beercap off then?

With your teeth.

[ringadingh]

Originally Posted by cactusjack

With your teeth.

Good answer!

The new tire isn't flattened out yet. The tread is still tall & narrow.

[doctorgski]

I have always been told that running too low tire pressure in the front will cause what you are saying. And it did on my 2003 Goldwing.