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the steering damper on my SD wasnt fitted when I bought the bike - I've only managed 60 miles on it and wasnt pushing it so no idea if it needs one... so whats the teams thoughts - are they essential or were they just a 70's fashion thing ?

Neil

I never needed the steeringdamper while pushing my Darmah, only more pushers :-)
If those first 60 miles were on circuit, You could've been pushing it :-)
When suspension and tires are all right, and the bike shakes it's head, You're WAY over any speedlimit (and that's about everywhere in the world then).
In other words : I don't think I ever needed it, and it broke after a few months anyway.

Enjoy it for what it was intended to do : a (fairly) comfortable bike that can be ridden hard :-)

cu
ducadini

cheers for that.. I've had the same thoughts from another longterm owner so I wont worry about it..

I had always intended to install a damper on my NCR Replica but never had found a 38mm fork tube clamp so I could do it (it has Ceriani forks so the triple clamP doesn't have a hole to install it in). I only recently found the clamps and so one and a damper is sitting next to my bike ready to install. That said, I have never really thought that I really "needed" one.... I will have it on it's lightest/loosest setting -just in case- and yes I have the dampers as well as the 38mm clamps in my shopping cart now and ride this bike hard.