R1300GS steering damper

[Bootsgsxr750]

New to the forum stuff. I have a 2025 R1300GS, came from a line of R1250GSA R1200GSA etc. The steering damper is either defective or just useless! There is no resistance at all when quickly turning the bars from lock to lock. I haven't compared it to another 1300, but side by side with a 5yr old 1250 there's a considerable difference. No leaks or signs of damage. Anyone have any similar issues?

 

[pbbanks]

New to the forum stuff. I have a 2025 R1300GS, came from a line of R1250GSA R1200GSA etc. The steering damper is either defective or just useless! There is no resistance at all when quickly turning the bars from lock to lock. I haven't compared it to another 1300, but side by side with a 5yr old 1250 there's a considerable difference. No leaks or signs of damage. Anyone have any similar issues?

Have you had any tank slappers ?.
You shouldn't necessarily need to feel any resistance when moving the steering slowly it should only come in to its own if the steering moves really fast, like when\if the bike got into a state where it may become unstable.
If you wanted to feel it's action you'd probably have to either take the damper off and see if you can push it in\out or jack the front of the bike up and try and turn the bars across really quickly.

 

[Bootsgsxr750]

Have you had any tank slappers ?.
You shouldn't necessarily need to feel any resistance when moving the steering slowly it should only come in to its own if the steering moves really fast, like when\if the bike got into a state where it may become unstable.
If you wanted to feel it's action you'd probably have to either take the damper off and see if you can push it in\out or jack the front of the bike up and try and turn the bars across really quickly.

Yes, jacked up and turning bars quickly gives absolutely no resistance at all comparing it to another bike side by side. It may as well not be fitted at all.

 

[Bubb]

Mine seems the same…. But then again, I’ve not had a tank slapper to test it ( and hope that continues)

So I’m not worried about it!
If I get a tank slapper, and the steering damper doesn’t do anything to stop it, THEN I will complain to bmw.

 

[J biker]

Cant feel mine either. Second R1300gs, and feels exactly like the last one.
In context, I could get the 1200 and 1250 to shake the bars a bit. Never happened yet on the 1300 and I do push on a bit.
I dont think there is a problem.

 

[Bootsgsxr750]

Cant feel mine either. Second R1300gs, and feels exactly like the last one.
In context, I could get the 1200 and 1250 to shake the bars a bit. Never happened yet on the 1300 and I do push on a bit.
I dont think there is a problem.

Good to know, I did unbolt one of the torx bolts and pushed the ram in and out, it does have some dampening, so it's probably just the way it is, a wee bit feeble compared to my old 1250 and 1200!

 

[pbbanks]

Good to know, I did unbolt one of the torx bolts and pushed the ram in and out, it does have some dampening, so it's probably just the way it is, a wee bit feeble compared to my old 1250 and 1200!

Get an Ohlins adjustable & then you can tighten them up but I haven't had any issues with head shaking. Sure BMW will have tested that aspect thoroughly as they had bad PR when a tester was killed due to a bad tank slapper on an older 1200 model. Think at that time they didn't have a damper as standard.

 

[Granada]

Sure BMW will have tested that aspect thoroughly as they had bad PR when a tester was killed due to a bad tank slapper on an older 1200 model. Think at that time they didn't have a damper as standard.

That's right. The first year of the LC (2013) didn't have one.

I bought one of the first of these, without ever have ridden one. It was my first GS and was following the news closely. I decided to mount an after market steering damper (hyper pro) after reading these tank slapper stories.

The next year they came standard with a damper.