Anyone removed the WC steering damper?

Take it off and god forbid you have a serious accident where someone else is hurt you have given the insurance company a perfect excuse not to pay.
Worse if you are hurt by someone else , their insurance can use it as a reason to argue why you shouldn't get as much insurance

They will claim that it is fitted for a reason and can you prove hat it didn't cause the accident
Dont be soft....
 
Take it off and god forbid you have a serious accident where someone else is hurt you have given the insurance company a perfect excuse not to pay.

Worse if you are hurt by someone else , their insurance can use it as a reason to argue....

Did your mate tell you that?

Start with thinking about your first statement and now consider.... Is it a criminal offence to drive with excess alcohol in your blood ? Answer: Yes. If you do and you cause injury to another person, is your third party liability insurance invalid or reduced? No.

So, having established that drink driving (one of the most serious offences in the long list of possible motoring offences) is not cause enough to invalidate your policy, how in God's sweet name is removing a steering damper (a non-criminal or indeed any offence) meant to do it?

Still in some doubt? OK, let's continue on with your second proposition, probably best done by imagining a scene:

You are walking along the pavement and biker mate on his awesome 1200 GS WC steed (from which he has removed the steering damper that very morning) is somehow foolish enough to mount the pavement, hit you amidships and render you a quadriplegic demanding 24 hour medical assistance for the rest of your natural, amounting to um let's say.... £10,000,000. But hey, wait a minute, biker mate's insurer then goes, "No steering damper, no way we pay. Good day to you, Sir". As and when that happens, do you think - even for one tiny second - you'd be left suing biker mate for the wedge? Or do you think his Motor insurer will be stumping up the cash? Answer on a post card to the usual address.

Third Party Motor insurance is governed by the principle of 'Strict Liability'. Read on...

http://sixthformlaw.info/01_modules/mod3a/3_10_principles/16_principles_strict_liability.htm


:beerjug:
 
You won't invalidate any payments to third party's because insurance companies are obliged to pay by law - but I guess they could refuse to pay fully comp damage for your bike because you had modified it without informing them and were therefore in breach of contract.
 
Remind me to never switch my traction control and ABS off...... Or to remove the servo unit from some models of BMW bikes.

I'm surprised that PC Giles' insurer didn't write to inform him that they would withdraw cover from that day forward, when he reported to them that his clocks had been stolen.

There again, I'm surprised and not a little dismayed that an upstanding guardian of the law is riding around with no horn, in contravention of the law. He should at once arrest himself or at least withdraw himself from his doughnut ration for the duration.
 
.......or at least withdraw himself from his doughnut ration for the duration.

Such a Draconian measure would merely serve to reduce his efficiency as a member of Her Majesties finest Constabularians!

Much better to send him on a "doughnut awareness" course in an effort to increase the ratio between time spent enforcing the law versus time spent in local cafe consuming doughnuts!
 
Having had a year with the non-damped 2013 and 4 months on the 2014 'damped' bike, it's removal is a pointless exercise unless you are looking for just a touch more excitement through the steering, or you want to lighten the bike, Where the early bike had a slight tendency to feel at bit 'loose' around the headstock when accelerating hard at speed the later bike doesn't....that's about it!

It's a nicer bike to ride with the damper fitted, it feels more planted, but theres not a lot in it.
 
So you've taken the damper off your 2014 'damped' bike and then replaced it back again, to know this? Or are you just guessing?
 
I had the 2013 non damped bike and now have the GSA personally I don't think the damper is intrusive enough to warrant taking it off.
You can notice the steering head is more stable under hard acceleration but then that's what the damper is designed to do. This is my first bike to have a damper after 34yrs on bikes and I quite like it.

So my view is to leave it on

Terry
 
You won't invalidate any payments to third party's because insurance companies are obliged to pay by law - but I guess they could refuse to pay fully comp damage for your bike because you had modified it without informing them and were therefore in breach of contract.

Yes..thats a guess then.
 
I had the 2013 non damped bike and now have the GSA personally I don't think the damper is intrusive enough to warrant taking it off.
You can notice the steering head is more stable under hard acceleration but then that's what the damper is designed to do. This is my first bike to have a damper after 34yrs on bikes and I quite like it.

So my view is to leave it on
Exactly what the OP is looking for... a little less stability/taughtness especially at slower speed.
 
Martin,
Yes exactly...I am looking for a looser feel..... I am going to try it over the weekend.
 
I've just come to realise that in UKGSER speak "Planted" means slow and unresponsive.

Steve
 
I had a damper retrofitted to an early Suzuki TL2000S and was grateful for the sense of stability it offered. I don't have one on my 2013 LC and by comparison it really doesn't need one. Assuming the 2014 has the same geometry I reckon its superfluous.

Unless of course you intend to ride standing on the pegs using cruise control and hands off the bars over washboard surfaces. Then it becomes a lifesaver.
 
The whole point of changing to a good quality after market adjustable one is that you get the best of both worlds.
They are speed sensitive, not road speed but steering speed, so they are nice and free moving for your normal steering input but will resist higher speed movement such as tank slappers etc.
The reason BMW don't fit quality ones is cost, they have covered their legal butts so that's that.
 
I had a damper retrofitted to an early Suzuki TL2000S and was grateful for the sense of stability it offered. I don't have one on my 2013 LC and by comparison it really doesn't need one. Assuming the 2014 has the same geometry I reckon its superfluous.

Unless of course you intend to ride standing on the pegs using cruise control and hands off the bars over washboard surfaces. Then it becomes a lifesaver.

Can you remember which firm over bored your TL by 1000cc's, I'm interested in getting mine done, sounds like it'd be fum to ride.
 


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