| OK, so questioning an expert like Shazaam is putting me on pretty shakey ground so I'm ready to be corrected/beaten up, but it's that last paragraph that I'd like to take up.... and it's not a disagreement as much as a lack of understanding!
A tank slapper occurs when the front end shakes left/right/left/etc until it finds its resonant frequency, causing it to become violent. Adding a damping force to this shake will interfere with that resonation and help prevent the build-up to the optimum frequency for the violent shake to occur. So whilst the damper doesn't do anything to re-centre the wheel, it does help prevent it happening, so if you want to increase the tendancy to shake (i.e. steepen the steering angle), then you should also increase the resistance to this by turning up the damper. Right?
I don't see how winding up the turning resistance on the damper can have any noticable impact on change of direction, as this is determined by the geometry of the bike and not the force needed to turn the handlebars. Just a small movement on the bars is enough to get the bike from one side to another, and once the initial force is applied then the damper gives no further restance in keeping the bars turned. The only effort required on the riders part is to resist the bikes natural desire to bring the front wheel in line with the back, and therefore bring the bike upright, so surely an increase in the steering damper would only assist the rider in holding the bars in the turned position?
Go on Shazaam..... tell me what I'm getting wrong!!
I do agree that it's better to have the stability on the road in favour of quick turning, but so far I don't find any noticable reduction in stability... and maybe I won't, because my road use is very limited and nearly always slow and sensible (honest!). If I was a fast road rider then I probably wouldn't have gone for this mod, but the track is what I bought the 996 for so the track setup needs to used - can't wait for Cadwell again!  |