A steering damper is like a shock for your bars. Over rough roads, bumps etc (setting down wheelie - not that I do 
)can shake the bars, causing a "wiggle" from left to right. Most of the time it's minor and many peopel don't think ya need one for a 600. I got one and love it though. Lots of bumpy roads around here. It absorbs the bumps that would otherwise jar the bars. I had a couple of real nasty ones before that were almost tank slappers.
A tankslapper (generally speaking) is exactly what it sounds like, it's when the bars shake violently from full-left to full-right, with the bar ends slapping the gas tank (if they can on your bike). There's basically no stopping those (once they start), it's hold on and pray ya don't get spit off, but ya WILL.
A lot of peopel whi say they've had tank slappers have in fact only had bad wiggles. Dampers will stop that. But they do take away some of the feel (depending how high you set the damping) maybe, and there's a tad more effort req'd to turn (again, depends how high ya set it). But the stability if offers and the planted feel of the front is well worth it IMO, not to mention the added safety.
)can shake the bars, causing a "wiggle" from left to right. Most of the time it's minor and many peopel don't think ya need one for a 600. I got one and love it though. Lots of bumpy roads around here. It absorbs the bumps that would otherwise jar the bars. I had a couple of real nasty ones before that were almost tank slappers. A tankslapper (generally speaking) is exactly what it sounds like, it's when the bars shake violently from full-left to full-right, with the bar ends slapping the gas tank (if they can on your bike). There's basically no stopping those (once they start), it's hold on and pray ya don't get spit off, but ya WILL.
A lot of peopel whi say they've had tank slappers have in fact only had bad wiggles. Dampers will stop that. But they do take away some of the feel (depending how high you set the damping) maybe, and there's a tad more effort req'd to turn (again, depends how high ya set it). But the stability if offers and the planted feel of the front is well worth it IMO, not to mention the added safety.
