I understand. I have an Aprilia RS250 Race Replica I ride on the road and the occasional track day. It is sublime. Those that push it to its limits fit a steering damper. I tried one and it made normal riding a pain, so I removed it. Different strokes for different folks and those in between make their choices. I will be fitting one of Norman's steering dampers on my Shadow rebuild because I have a) been thrown over the handlebars of a Series C, b) watched someone being thrown over the handlebars of a C and C) don't want to do it again.
I'm with you on this Al. around 5 years back out on my Comet with original configuration girdraulics, series 'D' friction damper, Ikon front shock, just touring a country road and had a massive tank slapper. I woke up in the ambulance some 30 minutes after the event!
My Comet is now fitted with the modified steering head, thornton front shock (unfortunately Thornton are no longer in business) and a hydraulic steering damper (Kawasaki). At all times I ride with the steering damper on its stiffest setting.
With that setup I still experience the occasional mild head shake, but that's all it is - no tank slappers!
The key to this is how the two types of steering damper works.
The original friction dampers provide maximum damping when the friction pads are moving a very slow speed and as the speed of the friction pads increases (like with head shake) the damping effect becomes progressively less.
Hydraulic dampers are exactly the opposite. At low damper movement the damping effect is low but as the speed of the damper rod movement increases the damping becomes progressively heavier - exactly whats needed to control head shake and tank slappers.
Attached is my steering damper installation.