Steering damper

[600 HO St_ours]

Did any of you ever tried fitting a motorcycle type steering damper to somewhat replicate the missing front wheel stabilizing gyro effect ???

I was thinking about it while riding my Hawk and noticing that the steering was influenced by unseen snow irregularity wich always kept me busy correcting.

It is a great toy but it feels like it needs some final touches.

 

[snowhawkaddict]

We were playing with a Scotts.

Never followed through but we figured it would have to mount sideways on the triple clamp.

Maybe the OEM unit on the 08/09 CR450 would adapt easily?

 

[600 HO St_ours]

I was thinking about one like this made by Scotts mounted on top of the upper tripple clamp it is also adjustable for low and high speed damping separately so it could be dialed correctly for this unusual application.

 

[RudeAwakening]

thats funny! i was thinkin about doin this aswhell! i wonder how the straight down ski mount would work by doin this? vs the trail adaptor!

 

[buffaloHAWK]

maybe an atv damp.

maybe one off an atv that mounts on the frame and the fork? ive been thinking about it for awhile too....i could take the scotts off my 250x for the winter unless an explorer shows up someday....

 

[snowhawk jockey]

We need a street bike(clamp on the fork, bolt on the frame) stick style dampers. It would be much easier to deal with mounting/routing a stick damper than a rotory head like GPR or Ohlins.

 

[600 HO St_ours]

"wonder how the straight down ski mount would work by doin this? vs the trail adaptor! "

I think that the geometry of the twin axis/trail adapter is qite good at replicating the geometry of a normal motorcycle wheel on the ground.

What is missing is some sort of damping effect making it stay where it is pointed.

 

[TCSKIBIKE]

I have never felt the need to have my steering stabilized the skis length as long as its in the snow seems very stable. What I have been thinking is to stabilize the Twin axis system, the rubber bushings leave much to be desired in controlling the movement and in certain situations a little resistance on the twin axis be good like when coming from fresh snow to a track the twin axis bends away from the track and knocks you back into the pow. In this case it would be nice for the twin axis to resist just enough for the inside edge of the ski to track up and over on to the track. In fact a GPR with a remote lockout would be awesome to control from the bar.

 

[600 HO St_ours]

when coming from fresh snow to a track the twin axis bends away from the track and knocks you back into the pow. .

Could it be that what you describe is actually the ski getting more resistance to go forward on the hard trail side and thus steering itself on the trail side making you lean on the pow side and giving you no choice but to steer on the pow side to stay upright ???

 

[RudeAwakening]

how dose the machine ride with out the twin axis? trail and pow

 

[buffaloHAWK]

im curious too about riding without twin axis...2moto claims his kit is better than adb because the ski is solid mounted and doesnt flex on the twin axis causing steering issues...maybe we can upgrade to the 2 moto ski kit on our hawks???

 

[RudeAwakening]

any one got pics of the 2moto ski setup

 

[roo]

2moto ski

im curious too about riding without twin axis...2moto claims his kit is better than adb because the ski is solid mounted and doesnt flex on the twin axis causing steering issues...maybe we can upgrade to the 2 moto ski kit on our hawks???

crank the hell out of your bushings and try to ride a wooped out rough trail at speed and you will get the picture. edge of ski will hit bump and not allow ski to rock. it will steer you in that direction or force machine to lean in opposite direction. takes lots of bodily force to keep machine straight. rode my 2moto 1st
ride with simmons gen 2, 2nd ride I had a fabbed twin axis on. much better on the rough. not that much difference in powder. what about a pin system to lock out twin axis? simple and fast!

 

[TCSKIBIKE]

Could it be that what you describe is actually the ski getting more resistance to go forward on the hard trail side and thus steering itself on the trail side making you lean on the pow side and giving you no choice but to steer on the pow side to stay upright ???

Yes the resistance forces the twin axis to bend away from the direction you want to go.

 

[TCSKIBIKE]

crank the hell out of your bushings and try to ride a wooped out rough trail at speed and you will get the picture. edge of ski will hit bump and not allow ski to rock. it will steer you in that direction or force machine to lean in opposite direction. takes lots of bodily force to keep machine straight. rode my 2moto 1st
ride with simmons gen 2, 2nd ride I had a fabbed twin axis on. much better on the rough. not that much difference in powder. what about a pin system to lock out twin axis? simple and fast!

A pin system would work but it would be nice to be controlled from the bar. So you can flick it on and off realtime.

 

[TCSKIBIKE]

Full time solid mount would not work for me on hardpack, as you lean you decrease pressure on the outside edge effectively reducing you grip in half.. It would also roll the carbide that is in the snow on its side.

There is a reason ADB made the twin axis because it works on packed snow and they were sick of everyone and there mother saying "Snowhawk suck on trail". I love the trails on mine!

 

[buffaloHAWK]

then why is the 2moto solid mounted ski better than adb as it says on their site?

 

[TCSKIBIKE]

Well I can see that a hard mount may be good in certain situations, like on an off camber trail. A hard mount will track across the the fall line nicely on one edge where as the twin axis bends to find the ski flat on the snow. This requires some serious body language and steering input to get the twin axis to track up accross the fall line.

Of course 2 moto is going to say theirs is better but each solution has its pros and cons. I will stick with the twin axis.

 

[cjgodden]

then why is the 2moto solid mounted ski better than adb as it says on their site?

If you read the review, Blaser himself admits that the explorer is easier to ride on the trail. He tries to make it sound like its paddle height, but that is not the case. I have ridden with the twin axis and solid mount. The twin axis makes your ride controllable on the trail. You know how the hawk drifts on the trail and you have to let it or else you end up with forearm pump and fighting the steering. Solid mount its 5 times worse.

 

[buffaloHAWK]

maybe 2moto is for the deep pow....i will also keep my twin axis for the hard pack trails that i ride in the east! its always interesting when 2(adb and 2 moto folks)people are fighting thier opinions which is better....wander over to the 2 plank forums...4 groups fighting! whos is gonna be the challenger to the hawk see we can fight too?!?!?!? im sick of watchin...i wanna throw some punches too!hahahaha