I originally purchased the Scotts Stabilizer several months ago. At the time, I was informed by Scott's Performance Products that they were no longer making the "bolt-on" kit for the KDX models and instead would only be supplying the "weld-on" variety.
Initially I was very disappointed with this information only because I did not want to go thru the additional hassle of finding a reputable welding house, or the additional concern of what to do if said welding house messed up the installation (there was some light fabrication/modification required for the weld-on kit)
I made some inquiries, a few phone calls, questions at the local cycle retailers and no one seemed to have any info on welders with motorcycle frame experience that could do the work...
As a result, I continued to ride until the end of red sticker season and the stabilizer just sat on my workbench for a few months.
During that time though I was able to get quite a few more hours on the KDX and more experience on how the bike reacts undampened.
On a lark, I sent an email to Scott's asking if they reversed their decision and would make more KDX bolt on kits and low and behold! The reply I got back made it sound like they never heard of that decision before and they had loads in stock! LoL!
Happily I ordered one, got it about three days later, bolted it on in about 5 minutes and Voila! Installation complete!
Ok, enough of the weird background info... onto the ride report...
The terrain I tested the damper on was fairly rocky, with a mix of hard pack and light sand, with some nice short hill climbs of varying smoothness...
With the damper on the default setting (inbetween hard and soft) I noticed only the most miniscule difference in low to medium speed riding in the flat rocky areas. My main sense of the difference is that the steering was a hair slower and felt "tighter" as if the steerer tube nut was wrenched down far too tightly...
After a bit more riding I suddenly realized that the steering only felt tighter and slower that way when turning away from center... Snapping the wheel back to centerline was unaffected until you turned past center in the opposite direction at which time the damping effect came back on... Its extremely hard to explain but it made it feel much easier to "go straight" as if the damper changed the bikes geometry in order to give it a strong tendency to want to straighten out...
I'm still a big time novice and so I could not test what others here would deem "high speed", but I would assume the feeling (wanting to straighten out instead of following a steering tangent) would only grow stronger with more speed.
I picked a little loop course that went up a short hillclimb and down the same face, turn around at the bottom of the hill and then back up...
I've done this excercise many times before and because of the number of obstacles in the short climb and the depth of certain rain ruts, I always hold second gear and motor up dodging things I thought I needed to dodge. I would almost pin it in second while completely on the pipe and the back end pitching around behind me pretty good as I let the bike work underneath me all the way up and down...
Before the damper, I tried third gear on this climb and the ride always got to intense and hard to control and backing off caused me to lug in third and I would have to reselect second and continue... Its almost like, for my skill level, I needed a 2.5 gear for this particular section...
I rode around and around this loop many times and noted that hitting several ruts and larger rocks that would normally wrench the bars hard in my grip, that the effect was greatly lessened! and I had this huge smile on my face in my helmet thinking "this thing works great!"
My confidence built up tremendously and I found myself going noticeabley faster over the same terrain...
All of a sudden on one of the laps it sounded as though the motor was starting to bog... I rolled on more throttle and it got better (back on the pipe) but it seemed to bog much quicker than normal and I was at once concerned...
I completed the lap and on the flat clicked down into first... Which was actually second gear! I had unknowingly been ripping along in second/third and just getting on the pipe in third when I could previously (without the damper) only maintain what i thought was control, pinned in second!
Now my smile got even bigger! Because the bike felt so much smoother and less "twitchy" in the rough stuff and this gave me that mental confidence boost to ride faster (or maybe only the confidence to ride closer to what my skill actually is :) )
I love this thing! Just wish it wasn;t so damned expensive! LoL!
Feanor
Initially I was very disappointed with this information only because I did not want to go thru the additional hassle of finding a reputable welding house, or the additional concern of what to do if said welding house messed up the installation (there was some light fabrication/modification required for the weld-on kit)
I made some inquiries, a few phone calls, questions at the local cycle retailers and no one seemed to have any info on welders with motorcycle frame experience that could do the work...
As a result, I continued to ride until the end of red sticker season and the stabilizer just sat on my workbench for a few months.
During that time though I was able to get quite a few more hours on the KDX and more experience on how the bike reacts undampened.
On a lark, I sent an email to Scott's asking if they reversed their decision and would make more KDX bolt on kits and low and behold! The reply I got back made it sound like they never heard of that decision before and they had loads in stock! LoL!
Happily I ordered one, got it about three days later, bolted it on in about 5 minutes and Voila! Installation complete!
Ok, enough of the weird background info... onto the ride report...
The terrain I tested the damper on was fairly rocky, with a mix of hard pack and light sand, with some nice short hill climbs of varying smoothness...
With the damper on the default setting (inbetween hard and soft) I noticed only the most miniscule difference in low to medium speed riding in the flat rocky areas. My main sense of the difference is that the steering was a hair slower and felt "tighter" as if the steerer tube nut was wrenched down far too tightly...
After a bit more riding I suddenly realized that the steering only felt tighter and slower that way when turning away from center... Snapping the wheel back to centerline was unaffected until you turned past center in the opposite direction at which time the damping effect came back on... Its extremely hard to explain but it made it feel much easier to "go straight" as if the damper changed the bikes geometry in order to give it a strong tendency to want to straighten out...
I'm still a big time novice and so I could not test what others here would deem "high speed", but I would assume the feeling (wanting to straighten out instead of following a steering tangent) would only grow stronger with more speed.
I picked a little loop course that went up a short hillclimb and down the same face, turn around at the bottom of the hill and then back up...
I've done this excercise many times before and because of the number of obstacles in the short climb and the depth of certain rain ruts, I always hold second gear and motor up dodging things I thought I needed to dodge. I would almost pin it in second while completely on the pipe and the back end pitching around behind me pretty good as I let the bike work underneath me all the way up and down...
Before the damper, I tried third gear on this climb and the ride always got to intense and hard to control and backing off caused me to lug in third and I would have to reselect second and continue... Its almost like, for my skill level, I needed a 2.5 gear for this particular section...
I rode around and around this loop many times and noted that hitting several ruts and larger rocks that would normally wrench the bars hard in my grip, that the effect was greatly lessened! and I had this huge smile on my face in my helmet thinking "this thing works great!"
My confidence built up tremendously and I found myself going noticeabley faster over the same terrain...
All of a sudden on one of the laps it sounded as though the motor was starting to bog... I rolled on more throttle and it got better (back on the pipe) but it seemed to bog much quicker than normal and I was at once concerned...
I completed the lap and on the flat clicked down into first... Which was actually second gear! I had unknowingly been ripping along in second/third and just getting on the pipe in third when I could previously (without the damper) only maintain what i thought was control, pinned in second!
Now my smile got even bigger! Because the bike felt so much smoother and less "twitchy" in the rough stuff and this gave me that mental confidence boost to ride faster (or maybe only the confidence to ride closer to what my skill actually is :) )
I love this thing! Just wish it wasn;t so damned expensive! LoL!
Feanor
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