Hebie 696 steering damper

Please be fair and thoughtful in your opinions. No rants please.
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Greybeard
Posts: 1394
Joined: 1 Oct 2008, 6:48pm
Location: East Yorkshire

Hebie 696 steering damper

Post by Greybeard »

One of these - though it's not really a damper at all
http://www.hebie.de/en/parking/stand-ac ... amper/696/

I got one to fit on my 29er that I use to pull a BoB Yak on the shopping trips. I have a sidestand on the trailer and fitted the Hebie widget to stop the front wheel of the bike flopping over. It worked really well once I found a way of fitting the mounting block to the downtube securely otherwise it persisted in creeping up and reducing the tension. It's now held firmly in place with a small rivnut.
However, don't waste your money on the elastomer version. After just a few months the rubber pulled off the stud. I was amazed to see that the rubber was simply moulded onto a perfectly smooth rod with no pretence of anything to give it a decent grip.
I'm replacing the elastomer with a steel spring as fitted to the alternative version, which will hopefully last longer. Spare springs are available cheaply in Germany though the postage makes them prohibitively expensive.
http://www.hebie.de/en/parking/stand-ac ... amper/695/

The idea is a very good one, but the mechanical execution is appallingly shoddy. The Germans seem to be making a habit of this of late. I'll not bore you with the numerous and expensive problems Ive had with my VW T5, nor with the VW designed Skoda Octavia my wife bought new :x Thank goodness my Leica camera was made back in 1936 when they still made things properly :roll:

Steve
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