Rick DSport X2 Navajo
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EXIF
| Model | Canon EOS 7D |
| Shutter | 1/60 |
| Aperture | f/4 |
| ISO Speed | 400 |
| Focal Length | 28mm |
| Captured | 2014:06:12 11:23:48 |
Comments
I'm so glad you opted to install it. I've been preaching the merits of steering dampers for years...yet so many guys just don't know what they are missing. A few trikes don't need them at all, but most will benefit.
How much tension you running?
I have it turned as heavy as it will go.
For those undecided...any comments?
ok i asume that its to ruduce the easy play in the wheel. i no nothing about it could you fill me in. how would you know if your trike would benifit from it what are the advantages of having one and will it fit most trikes?
Fair question...and the only way is to try it both way and compare...such as going over lumpy terrain fast.
In some it's night and day and others not so much.
I've designed two front ends for trikes. The first had moderate rake, trailing links and undamped coil spring suspension. The second had fair rake and a substantial tundra tyre. It's an interesting exercise in compromise, trying to balance self-castering and turning, and guesswork on my part.
I think there are poorly designed front ends that need dampening (I know there has been a commercially produced trike that uses a rigid bar on takeoff and landing to lock the steering- obviously very bad engineering), and there are situations where even the best designs in the world could possibly use a little help from a steering damper. One is if the nose wheel is allowed to make contact with the ground when the trike is yawing during a landing (e.g. Incorrect pilotage in a turbulent or crosswind landing). While this is really a technique issue, it happens frequently enough. The other is running over a tussock/rabbit hole/cat at speed.
Youtube has a couple of clips showing the nosewheel-dropped-too-soon-while-yawing scenario where the front end has an impossible task. The poor front wheel oscillates from side to side at increasing amplitudes until the trike flips. Some dampening might have helped tame those oscillations while the trike slowed, or it might not have been enough to have helped.
My current trike has a good balance of easy steering and self-castering, but I'm pleased to have a steering damper on my trike for the day when I goof and that bit of help could make all the difference.
Good comments.
Thanks, good topic... and I forgot, I've seen a trike shimmy and flip when it blew the tyre on landing - maybe, just maybe a damper would have helped.
It would be a rare event indeed when they would ever make things worse. Do all trikes need one? No, but it would never hurt.
And some trikes badly need them...even though folks get used to coping with a squirrely nose-wheel.