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Steering Stabilizer?

8785 Views 16 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  JohnC
Forgive me if this is in another thread, I feel like I had read it here somewhere before but now cannot find it. Im looking at the necessity of a steering damper for the N1K since it does not come stock (so stupid). Has anyone installed one on this bike or perhaps gotten into trouble because they didnt have one on a more aggressive ride or rough road?
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Where do you ride that you feel the need for a damper?
I added a Scotts to mine, and its awesome....

Traditionally, we think of this as an item we feel we shoud HAVE to need, before getting one...Once you try it, you realize they are awesome and a very nice addition.....needed or not. I love mine, and ti wont go anywhere,. If I switch bikes, I'm keeping it and adding to the new bike.
Well I can get the bike well up over 100 mph so Id say thats cause enough for a damper. Even at low speeds, say 45 mph, in a tighter turn on rough or bumpy roads my understanding is this could be a potential for a tank slapper situation which a damper would prevent, correct?
I;d say anywhere a tankslapper is possible, but the Scotts does so much more than that.
To be a little more descriptive...If yoru riding down the freeway, legal speeds, on a concours 14. It has such a nailed to the road feeling. Safe, secure and steady. Barely disturbed by the wind. Comfortable and safe comes to mind...

On the other side is a sv 650. Very light, and poorly suspended. It gets bounced and does nto like crosswinds.

The damper, my scotts anyway, will pretty much turn the sv into the concours 14. It is that amazing, and I wont go without one again. It pays back so much more thna just preventing tankslappers.
I was looking at the Scotts and [email protected] are they expensive! I didnt notice they made one for the N1K however. If they do could you post a link?
Scotts does not..officially. A few of us found a guy, in Thailand, who made mounts to do this. There is a major language barrier in working with him, so........really, your probably better off trying soemthign else.

Awesome stuff, but lots of drawbacks in working with him.
I ended up buying a GPR unit, so far they are the only company that I know that makes a kit for the N1K for now.
I'll bet the gpr is amazing , too. The scotts damper mount is VERY difficult to find, so you made the right choice.

Give us your impression after you ride wiht it. People, myself included, jsst dont get these things are we are so uninformed abotu what they do.
Personally I don't like steering dampers very much. To me, and this is my very humble opinion, they make things go numb too much. If your bike's suspension is well sorted a steering damper shouldn't be required, particularly for a longer wheel based bike like the N1k with less aggressive steering geometry. Again I stress this is just my very humble opinion.
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Let us know how the GPR works for you.

I've had Scotts on a few of my bikes, but after contacting them, a Ninja 1000 mount is not in the near future.
Ressurect post

To be a little more descriptive...If yoru riding down the freeway, legal speeds, on a concours 14. It has such a nailed to the road feeling. Safe, secure and steady. Barely disturbed by the wind. Comfortable and safe comes to mind...

On the other side is a sv 650. Very light, and poorly suspended. It gets bounced and does nto like crosswinds.

The damper, my scotts anyway, will pretty much turn the sv into the concours 14. It is that amazing, and I wont go without one again. It pays back so much more thna just preventing tankslappers.

Hoping to see a few things here on this topic. 1) Has anyone tried the GPR damper and has it been comparable to Scotts? I have seen inconclusive evidence on this thus far. Also, RCannon, do you have the contact info for this guy in Thailand? how much extra did you end up paying for this additional modification to the Scotts damper after shipping and labor were factored in? Did you just get the damper for the Z1000 and have him convert that? Thanks for the info!
Sir, I'm sorry for never answering you. I missed your post.

The scotts damper needs no mod to work. Its the mounting hardware he built for me. I ordred it, and months later it showed up. I bolted it on, and thats it.

I'm not going to post his contact info. Not to be a jerk, but he does not speak english and is not set up do do business with us. Scotts wont build a mount, so lets use gpr.

As far as how it works, its amazing. You want one, and its awesome to have. I'd imagien GPR will accomplish the same thing.
Let us know how the GPR works for you.

I've had Scotts on a few of my bikes, but after contacting them, a Ninja 1000 mount is not in the near future.
The GPR unit works fine for me. I originally had a Scotts unit that i removed from a GSXR that I sold, but after finding out that the mfr. wasn't going to make a mount for the N1K I opted on selling it & buying the GPR. I was looking into contacting the guy who makes the custom mounts overseas but I didn't want to deal with the bs of waiting a long time to get the mount.
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Here are pics my GPR unit.

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Couple notes on this one. I've not had a GPR on the Ninja 1000, but I've had GPR units on two of my track machines, and they're an excellent damper unit.

I do in part however agree with cowasockee. A long-wheelbase machine like this with the suspension sorted really should need one unless it's being tracked. I've never felt the need for one on any street bike.
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