have an 03 450, 20% track riding the rest on rocky hard terrian. the front end feels twitchey sometimes. still havent got used to it. does anyone out there use a stabalizer and if so was it worth the 500 bucks.

Sorry, I'm not going to answer your question, I want to add to it, since it is a very good question. One I have been meaning to ask...

My question is what exactly do they do? Do they give your bike a kind of "Power steering" feel, or what?

I've got a Scotts and I usually run it at a light setting. What they do is slow down the turning of the bars. You can set the thing to a hard setting and you will feel lots of resistance in the turning and on a light setting you barely feel it. More importantly what they do is keep the bars from getting ripped to one side or the other when you hit a rock or something. I have also noticed that it helps me a lot in the whoops by not letting the arse end come around to much when you get a little squirly.
I love the stabilizer and will put one on every bike on a go forward basis.
B

I use a W.E.R. stabilizer on my '02 CRF 450 and love it. Great on rocky, rutted, rooty trails. Cheaper than Scotts because you don't have to replace upper triple clamp. Mounts on lower triple clamp. Have to trim # plate though.

It's cheaper than Scott's, because it's cheaper than a Scott's! It has nothing to do with replacing a triple clamp( which you do not have to do). I have the Scott's and love it!! The dealer I ordered it through told me , the people that have them love them, and the people that don't have one can't come up with the $400 plus, he was right,scrape up the dough, you'll like it! Your forks use suspension up and down, a damper is suspension from side to side.

This is all very interesting... I really had never thought much about them. I know guys use them and like them, but they seem like they would make one faster based on more control... do all of you that that statment is true or not?

Before I had a stabilizer I couldn't understand why you would need one, now I don't ride without one! the first ride or two it takes some getting used to, and you have to find the settings that work for you and the terain your riding. The guy that said GPR's are cheap just feels bad that he paid $150 more than he had to. I love my GPR. After 2 years of hard core desert racing It works like the day I got it, and i like the large dial so you can adjust on the fly. The Scotts is great, but the dial is notched and if you turn it on the fly and it stops between setting it stops working. The GPR is just progesively tightens as you turn it no mater where you stop it. GPR's coustomer service is awsome! they will also go through it and change the oil and check the seals for you free of charge, I think it's about $80 to rebuild the scotts. As far as changing the triple clamp on the CRF you just need to change the bar mounts. DH1 has some great products wwww.dh1racing.com and fastway has an awsome new one I saw that is adjustable so if your runing offset bar positions you can adjust for it.

It's funny how everyone with the GPR brags about the service they get, maybe the Scott's doesn't need all that service??

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How so? Got any specifics or are you speculating? I too use Scotts, but would like to hear from you on why the GPR is 'cheaper' since my brother-in-law is considering a GPR.

has anyone here tried the RTT stabilizer?

What about buying an Ohlins? I don't see anyone ranting about them but they are EXACTLY the same as a Scott's -minus the name (Scott's doesn't actually MAKE them, people).
My advice:
Buy a Scott's or Ohlins. Who cares about service when it works so good?

Yea, Scott's charged me 10 bucks for a longer pin. That makes them really, really bad for customer service? Somehow I don't think they really care too much about charging for it.
I don't care about the ten bucks (Cheaper mounts would be nice).I've lost that much on poorly engineered products and I find the (Ohlins) Scott's damper to be a VERY fine piece of machinery that works as promised, is adjustable on the fly, and keeps the bike going straight in all types of terrain.

someone out there HAS to have the RTT stabilizer... anyone?

"The Scotts is great, but the dial is notched and if you turn it on the fly and it stops between setting it stops working."

That's not correct. It works just fine between them. The notches just help you know how far out it is adjusted. The longer I have it, the less I adjust on the fly, although I do make adjustments now and then. I really don't think a larger knob is necessary. Scotts makes one you can buy.

Make sure your damper is not acting as the steering stop. They warn you in the directions. Mine was real close and I plan to do some welding to the stops on the frame the next time I take it apart to grease the steering head bearings. Would have done it initially, but I don't weld that well and was anxious to get it going. I think that's what happens to a lot of dampers that fail.

I love mine and would pay for one again if I had to. Haven't tried the other brands, but I'd definetly check into them before buying one.

Here's a pic of my setup.

http://www.abqjohn.c...nkpic/scdmp.jpg

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The Scotts does some things that the GPR does not:

1) Only damps away from center. The GPR damps in both directions. I don't have much seat time w/ the GPR but I think this an important distinction. I like the "it steers itself" sensation you get from the Scotts since it allows the bars to return to center position w/out any damping/resistance.

2) Has adjustable sweep. Not a big deal, but a feature I do use.

3) Has hi/low speed circuits. Probably not even worth talking about.


Also, you can mount the Scotts backwards and clear many (if not most) crossbars. This is good piece of mind if you are worried about your face harming the damper in a face-damper collision. Scotts now offers a WER-like lower triple clamp mount (not for all bikes, actually the CRF was the first to have this option) to get the thing completely out of your way.

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If you can clean an air filter, you can "rebuild" your own steering damper. I hope.

I did not read all the posts so excuse me if I say something that has already been said.

I am very happy with my GPR> I like the FREE liftime rebuild/update program they have. I also like what it has done to the bike. I ride mx 100% and I could not imagine riding w/o it. I am sure it moakes more of a differnece in the desert at 100mph but it does great doing 50mph down the straight at my local mx track. I have not tried a scotts but I am sure it is a great product also.

Well heres my opinions. I have had both the GPR and the Scotts. The GPR works but the Scotts is better. I have run stabilizers on my last two bikes but feel the CRF450 doesnt need it. Yes it gets a little loose at speed but thats no big deal. That is nothing compared to stop to stop headshake. As far as tracking through rocks and roots yes it helps but I can go just as fast without it.
Is it worth the money you ask? It really depends on your definitionm of worth and your value of money.

In my above post, I should have said the GPR was less money because it is less money,I didn't mean to say it was cheap. I was trying to tell the guy that you didn't have to replace the triple clamp. I am the type of guy that believes you get what you pay for. I am the guy that buys the Sony over the RCA, the Accord over the Taurus and the Scotts over the GPR. This why they make white and chocolate milk, to each their own. "It only takes a little more to go first class".

Ok wait a minute, I guess I need to be more specific. I should have said the CRF does not need a stabilizer for MX or trail riding. If I had a bike for high speed desert, no matter what kind it was it would need a stabilizer. I personally wouldnt buy a 2 gallon, low oil capacity, close ratio MX bike sensitive to overheating such as a CRF for the desert. Would you?

I also have a scotts,use it on every bike i owned.i had no problems with customer service because i did not need any service,three years no problems.what ever you buy just buy a stabilizer they do make a difference and all are worth the money.cfr does have head shake!

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If you ride trails like we have in the North East and other parts of the country which have an abundance of rocks and roots then it only take once to have your bars ripped out of your hands while 4th gear tapped before you get a stearing dampner.

Scotts is the way to go. If you sell your bike you can take it off and buy just the new mount for the next bike and pop the dampner on the new bike.

I have one dampner for all 4 of my bikes and just switch from one to the next leaving the mounting bracket on. Two screws to change the dampner and your done.

Plus servicing and rebuilding is pretty easy to do yourself so I've never had to use Scotts service.