More WER damper q's.......

[Scott in KC]

I did change the damper oil as we talked about in a previous post and feel confident that all the air is out. Set on full hard, with 7wt. fluid, I can definetly feel it working. BUTTTT! It is damping harder when turning right, than left. Quite a bit harder in fact. Turning right it will nearly stop and turning left it has some resistance, but will still blow right through the damping with some mild pressure on the bars. Any ideas? I did make sure the arm is at 90 degrees to the shaft and it feels like it's centered as far as when the damping kicks in from side to side, just that left turn isn't damped as hard. Could there STILL be air in there?

 

[Coach in ND]

My guess would be there still is air in the system.

Call he boys at WER and they'll tell ya how to take care of it.
www.WERPRODUCTS.COM or (908) 637-6385

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2001 KATOOM 400SX
1981 MAICO 250 ALPHA 1

 

[Scott in KC]

The default answer at WER seems to be "send it in", which ultimately I may do but want to try a few things first. I did readjust the arm length. In the 90 deg. position as the manual states, it did not feel like it was centering or damping evenly in the turn radius. I lengthened the arm a bit and got a little more even feel from side to side. I then went and rode some. I backed off the adjuster 1/2 turn and it really seemed to hold a line very well over rough ground and at higher speed it felt very stable, just wanting to point straight. Perhaps some of this is just me. It does say in the manual that if you can feel the damping action while on the stand, it's too much. But, my mind says if you can't feel it, it's not doing anything. I will ride it longer & harder this weekend and see how it fares. Thanks again.

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Scott in KC
Husaberg FE501E

"The Durango 95 purred away real horrorshow."

 

[Layton]

Scott,

The reason you should not be able to feel the resistance while sitting on the stand is because when you turn the handlebars the oil is forced from one side of the damper to the other through a very small orifice.

When you are riding the bike and something makes the front end try to deflect, the movement is much faster then you can simulate while on the stand. What then happens is that the oil tries to flow rapidly through the orifice but since the hole is small it hydraulically locks. This keeps the front end straight.

I’ve used this damper since 1993 and I set mine just as the book says. If you were to “feel” it all of the time it would wear your arms out after a while.

Hope this helps.

 

[dhoward]

Scott,
I just tried mine out last weekend. I thought, as you did, that if I couldn't feel it, what good was it doing. Went out last Sunday to St. Joe park. Lots of DEEP sand and a couple of pretty gnarley trails. I noticed a BIG difference in handling through the sand, and after I let some air out of the front tire (I had just mounted a new 756 and forgot to check the pressure after I seated the bead, DOH!) it handled great in the rocky, rooty stuff.
Kind of like a Thermos, "how do it know?"

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Dan
'98 KDX 200
St. Louis, MO

 

[Scott in KC]

Thanks. I guess I will give it some time on the trail.

dhoward-

How do you have your's adjusted? Can you feel it at all on the stand? Mine is about 1/2 turn out.



[This message has been edited by Scott in KC (edited 03-30-2001).]

 

[dhoward]

Mine's about 1 turn out. (I can still feel it a little, psycological, I guess!)
All in all I'm pretty happy with it.

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Dan
'98 KDX 200
St. Louis, MO

 

[tonyr]

I would say that you have air in the system.
In the last post I and others talked of a couple of ways to get all the air out. I had the same problems as you are experiencing, that what is led me to a different procedure.
If you change oil the way the manual states you NEVER get all the air out.

 

[Scott in KC]

Rockin' good news! The damper is ALL THAT & more. Got to spend the whole day yesterday on the tight rough trails and some ragged whoops. Huge difference! I did find that I was backing off the adjustment a little more. Once your rolling it doesn't take much damping to keep it straight. The problem I was having seemed to even out after a while and at about 3/4 turn out with 7wt. it was damn near perfect. Still a slight bit more damping on right turns, but not noticable on the trail. There were atleast 2 times where I would have gone down with out the damper (maybe more) it really instills some confidence in my lack of ability. :) Thanks again for the help. I will ride it a while and reoil it again & really working while submerged under the oil. I was leaving both the bleed screw AND the adjustment screw out while using the submerged technique....right or wrong??

 

[4banger]

I have 15 weight suspension fluid in mine at one turn out and it works great. I tried 5 and 10 weight, but 15 works better for me.

 

[tonyr]

Scott, I leave both the screw and the adjuster out.

 

[MotoEnduro]

Does installation of the W.E.R. damper require drilling a hole in the frame? Boy that makes me nervous.... it doesn't affect the strength of the frame, does it? thanks

'01 KTM 250

 

[Scott in KC]

MotoEnduro- You can either have a small bracket tacked on with a welder or get the kit from WER to bolt it on. The bolt-on is a U shaped bracket that fits over the steering head and one bolt that goes through the support spar, not the actual frame. I doubt that one small, round hole would jeprodize the integrity of the frame. Now, what I did, since I am cheap and ride a Husaberg (there's an oxymoron) I took the bracket that came with the unit (originally for a CR250) and cut the bracket side off of the U and just riveted it to the frame spar with some beefy rivets. So far so good, if I have a problem with I will just have a post welded on.

 

[MotoEnduro]

Scott, thanks for the help, I will get the mounting bracket. I guess if people's frames were breaking we would hear about it! I've never heard anything bad about mounting the WER's other than having to cut up the headlight shell a little.