Does anyone know why the Darmah was originally fitted with a steering damper? The only sensible reason I've heard was because the rear dampers were too short & that made it sit low at the back... Has anyone ever heard of one weave or wobble?
It was very fashionable in those days. The 900SS and 860's had one and they were the after market craze of the time on all bikes. If its set up properly you shouldn't need one.
Thanks for the info Paddy - yeah, I've often wondered why such a raked out stable bike ever had need for a damper. Perhaps the tyres of the day were poor enough to allow for such instability. I was spat off my V Raptor when it went into a tank slapper so it's always been summat I've being, lets say, cautious of.
Similar vintage but my Moto Guzzi Le mans has a damper fitted. It's a long raked out bike and always feels very stable so I often wondered if it was really necessary and then I discovered it didn't work anyway as it just runs free, no matter how it's adjusted. As I was in the mood for tinkering I set about replacing it with a working, more modern damper (old one is a rubber collar that contracts around the shaft when tightened just making it stiffer or would if it worked) and I had a spare 916 damper so made some new brackets to fit that, again thinking it unnecessary but a nice litte upgrade project. Then, last year I was overtaking a few cars and crossed into a diagonally, hatched section in the middle of the road and it suddenly developed the mother of all slappers, so violent it hurt my wrists and knocked the brake pads back into the calipers, I was lucky to stay on. Moral of the story being, even the most stable feeling of bikes can be an old slapper even with a damper, makes me wonder how it might have faired with the old non-working jobbie...
Ooo you bugger... not nice at all. I'd hazard a guess it was the old school front forks not being able to cope with the close together bumpy cross hatching combined with acceleration that left the tyre just skimming the tarmac gentle enough to start a snap. Tank slappers are just horrid and you do realise after hearing that, I'm now gonna have to fit one...
I have discovered that you can buy brand new steering dampers that are exactly the same as the OEM fitment. Not sure if they are exclusive to the Darmah. You need to look for "NHK ODM500" and these were apparently used on 1980s jap 4 cylinder stuff. I got mine form here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304674315032
