Steering Dampers

[Tuffers]

I have the bog standard one on my Gixxer. I road my mates Fireblade to Donington on Sunday and as soon as I got on it, I noticed how light the steering was. When I got off it, I looked for the damper and there wasn't one. Do Hondas come with no damper and why? Great bike to ride and ace at turning in a tight space may I add.

[Kwacky]

What year Blade is it?

A few of them have an electric one which is barely noticeable at low speeds.

Which is why you didn't know it was there

[Tuffers]

It's an 09. As soon as I got on it, it was like riding a push bike, very strange how it felt so light. Stuck like glue in the bends though. Very nice bike to ride

[Kwacky]

We were talking about those steering dampers yesterday. The verdict was these are pretty much one of the best going. They build up as the speed increases so does the effect of the damping. It's a clever system. I think the only problem is when you use it for really hard riding. Track riders tend to bin them.

[Blade]

It's an 09. As soon as I got on it, it was like riding a push bike, very strange how it felt so light. Stuck like glue in the bends though. Very nice bike to ride

That's the mark 2 version of the HESD (see link below for more info) which is hidden under the plastic tank cowl on MY08 onwards. The mark 1 version fitted to MY 04 through to MY07 was visible above the tank.

As you say its a great system as you never actually noticed it working both at low or high speed, which proves its greatness IMO as you never notice you have a damper when not required but you also never notice that a damper isn't fitted when required as it just gets on with doing the job. The steering is light when required say for filtering in town but firm when required on high speed bumpy sections and you never notice the transition.

I know Honda are not popular with everyone but one thing there are good with is although they are sometimes slow to market with technology when it does come out it is right first time and not a crude, basic version which is continually refined


http://world.honda.com/motorcycle-techn ... sd/p1.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kingfixer]

I changed the damper on my blade track bike, only after being told by a few people that its better to do so ?, I fitted a GPR damper instead. I didn't use the Honda damper on track so never got to find out, but it tend to have my dampers on nearly full whack as I like the steering solid on track.