The short answer is that the steeper rake on a sportbike allows the sportbike to drop into a corner with a twicth of the wrist ... but on a high powered straight, this (Inherently unstable) setup causes the bike's front end to wobble. A steering damper calms down this tendancy. A steering damper will NOT prevent a severe tankslapper caused by serious rider error.
Cruisers have a longer rake - they are inherently more stable than sportbikes. You could leave your hands off the handlebars of a cruiser with a raked out front end, and it would remain travelling in a straight line. (Indian Larry used to even stand on the seat of his choppers and "surf.") Of course, the downside to a raked out front end is that the bike doesn't drop into the corners... many choppers even require you to muscle the thing into a corner.
Standard bikes (and many cruisers for that matter) have a nice middle ground rake on the front end, so a steering damper on them is really an unnecessary piece of equipment.
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
- Soren Kierkegaard (19th century Danish philosopher)
Like Tech said, it's most for the straights while on a sportsbike. And even then, it's for when you're going REALLY fast, and accelerating REALLY hard. For normal riding, it's mostly a "look at how cool the toys I put on my bike are," kind of thing. For taking your bike to the race track, it might not be a bad idea.
Of course I'm generalizing from a single example here, but everyone does that. At least I do.
Supposedly the stock 2004 zx-10r had this problem too, which is why they added a factory damper for the second year of its existance.
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
- Soren Kierkegaard (19th century Danish philosopher)
the ZX-6R had the same problem. Was known for getting the shakes coming out of turns. They have fitted a damper and new swingarm (taken off the ZX-6RR) for '06.
If you plan on doing any canyon carving or track riding a steering damper is a good idea. You dont notice it until it works, but when it works it can help prevent a minor shake from turning into a tank slapper.
I had to install one on my RD-400 and it's a great add-on. High speed wobble vanished and the bike was alot more stable on bridge spans with steel grates.
P.S. When you have it installed have your wheels trued/balanced. You don't want to add a device that may also mask other problems.
, but are these mainly for sport bikes, as opposed to cuisers...?
