Greg,That's excellent feedback Martyn, I hadn't even thought of the loose stuff. Most all I know so far have indicated that they feel the steering damper is near redundant, as the steering now feels so much more stable. I know on the racer I set the hydraulic damper to it's middle position and never changed it, There was one corner about 2 thirds the way down the main straight at Lakeside called "The Kink" which you could take very fast and on full throttle if you had enough "Bottle" I don't know if I ever actually held it on full chat going through there, as immediately coming out the other side was quite rough I'm guessing because of ridges caused by cars. I am guessing that a stock front end Vincent would have almost certainly shook it's head Violently going through there, But I remember very well the racer getting shaken quite a bit going through, but never did it shake it's head. This was probably the track that I either raced at or held practice days the most, so I got to know the track very well. Lakeside is a very historic track here in Australia, and quite a dangerous track too, several people killed there over the years particularly on bikes. I didn't want that to happen to me, though I did get knocked off on my second ever racer there.............
I agree with you IN PRINCIPLE about the steering damper BUT having had an off as a result of violent head shake with a 'D' friction damper fitted and suffered the consequential broken bones etc. I consider a hydraulic steering damper prudent insurance - would not ride without one fitted. On my Comet I ride with my (Kawasaki) damper on its second softest setting and it seems to have no detrimental effect on the way the bike feels or steers, even at walking pace.
As we all should know, at any speed of head stem movement, like you get in a tank slapper, the standard friction damper does NOT provide any dampening no matter how tight it is - friction dampers ONLY work to supress slow speed movements. With hydraulic dampers, the faster the headstem/handle bar movement the greater dampening they provide.
Martyn