Favorite aftermarket head steady

I am starting to get ther itch to upgrade! I havent looked at all the different kinds there are out there but I want to see what the board members here rate their experience on the different head steady kits on the market.


So what do you have and tell me how you like it...

Colorado Norton sells a really nice heim joint arrangement. I believe our Jimmy Comstock makes them for Colorado Norton. It looks clean and easy to install and may weigh less than the more typical isolastic jumble you have probably seen.

If it were me, I would make my own, either heim joint or teflon puck/slider ala Herb Becker. See Doug McRae's post on the subject. Eloquent, simple and robust.

Personnaly, I would not return to the isolastic style after market head steady; I had one on my Commando racer. The weight, size and complexity is not needed in my not so humble opinion.

I recommend the Dave Taylor Head Steady with the Mark3 type optional spring for further support.

I ran it for years and is a huge improvement from the stock setup, and at less than $200 is the least expensive ready to install helm joint type after market head steady.

Handling is immediately improved as the head/motor cannot move side to side anymore, while still being free to rotate for and aft, and up and down.

I am familiar with the CNW head steady at over twice the price, yes it appears more "robust", but I don't think that really matters, unless someone does a study 15 years from now to compare both the Taylor and CNW to determine if one needed a part replacement earlier than the other.

Yes! The study! I will put that on my list of things to do, right below learning to speak Portugeuse fluently.......backwards.

Agree on "robust" as it really does not take much considering Norton used a pair of rubber pillows.

You have a link for the Tyalor head steady. You have my attention.

Very happy with the CNW/Comstock version. It uses sealed, greased miniature tie-rod-type joints that have zero slop for the foreseeable future, and the design and finish of the bracketry is tops. Sure isn't cheap, but it sure is nice. It fit beautifully. I don't know if wear on an exposed heim joint would be an issue. And it looks like I'll never know...

I have tried the "dave taylor" type headsteady and removed it after one run re applying the stock 850 type on my 72 750. The DT headsteady offer no vertical support and would/should require other links at point around the cradle.

I finally went and got the PR headsteady from Norvil and I know I will never have to look back. There is/was the a vernier type from Old britts which I consider another viable option.

http://www.norvilmotorcycle.co.uk/headstead.htm
061484SS

1up3down said:

the head/motor cannot move side to side anymore, while still being free to rotate for and aft, and up and down.

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I do not believe the motor was meant to move side to side, fore and aft, nor up and down. Holy crap, what a ride that would be.

Proper mountings will allow the motor to be unified to the rest of the frame system yet remove the vibration to its optimum. That is all the iso system was meant to do.

Now, if you are going racing, well, that would require a new topic.

Can only speak for my DT with spring support option. Had to file down alluminum frameclamp to fit the small frame tube. The instruction sheet was a tad confusing and having a missing paragraph top of page due to sloppy photocopying didn't help inspire confidence when assembling. Still don't comprehend the spring support setup too so will continue to play with adjuster nut each time tank is off. Each time tank is off also the idea is to put a drop or 2 of fine machine oil to each ball end so I purchased a squirt-bottle of NRP Zoom-Spout oiler for this. Specifically for linkages , paraffin based. The GOOD news is it transformed the handling of Crazy so that laying her over in turns was wonderfull and solid. Wow.

I guess that you have no clue as to the movement in the isolastic's. the whole premiss on the isolastic's is to allow up-down and for-aft with NO side to side and the rod link or comstock stop's the side to side movement AT the head.

pvisseriii said:

I do not believe the motor was meant to move side to side, fore and aft, nor up and down.

Click to expand...

Up - down Good. Sideways BAAD.

bill said:

I guess that you have no clue as to the movement in the isolastic's. the whole premiss on the isolastic's is to allow up-down and for-aft with NO side to side and the rod link or comstock stop's the side to side movement AT the head.

pvisseriii said:

I do not believe the motor was meant to move side to side, fore and aft, nor up and down.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I guess I should have suffixed this with "in any appreciable amount".
Free to move, no. Allowed to move, yes, but only to the point to counter vibration. This is a dampening issue and when removing one of the three dampening points, you surrender the work to the other remaining points.
Does this really seem to be a good thing to do?

Hmmm..

Get the Comstock one. Any part that he makes is better than anything out there!

To start it should be free to move up-down-for-aft and NOT allowed to move side to side. Anything you can do to stop the twisting force of the rear wheel trying to stay vertical when the bike is moved to a less than vertical position is a good thing along with stopping lateral movement be it less clearance in the iso's or a rod link is also an improvement. just look at what herb Becker has done to stop lateral movement on Doug's bike. as you question, the rod link is free to move for-aft and up-down but NOT side to side so the iso's are going to work as designed to quell vibrations but should show an improvement in handling as all lateral movement is eliminated. as an example, on my bike I have NO abutment caps, shims, vernier adjusters on it, just a rod link on the front mount and a rod link headstaedy with NO issues and less maintenance trying to keep the front mount with in spec with no appreciable increase in vibration.

pvisseriii said:

I guess I should have suffixed this with "in any appreciable amount".
Free to move, no. Allowed to move, yes, but only to the point to counter vibration. This is a dampening issue and when removing one of the three dampening points, you surrender the work to the other remaining points.
Does this really seem to be a good thing to do?

Click to expand...

I guess I'll have to throw in my experience here. Came from the early 69 headsteady which is just a rubber mount to the frame like the exhaust. After many looks at the commercial ones, deciding I didn't want to spend nearly $400 on the CNW one which seems to be the most esthetic one in that vein, I made one from aluminum stock ala the Mike Tagliari with a little modification. I also added the spring. I can only say it improved the vibration at the low end, probably from the spring and since I don't really push my bike I can't speak to the handling. But it was fun to make and install. Plus no heavy duty power tools. Used a cut off saw with a carbide blade to cut the aluminum.

I have heard that the proddy racer steadies are better, ala ludwig, Old Britts, Norvil, etc. The ludwig one would be real easy to fabricate for a decent price.

I just didn't like the way the DT mounted, otherwise I would have gotten it.

I can only say I'm glad I improved mine, even the 75 boxed head steady with the spring would be an improvement over the original.

the-keith1069-headsteady-t5862.html

www.britbike.com/forums/ubbthreads.php? ... 352&page=1

Dave
69S

You are going to very happy with the improvement in handling with any one of the headsteadies (sp?). I've had the Norvil, Dave Taylor, and a Jim Comstock's heasteady. They are probably equally effective in getting the job done but each one of them has issues.

The Norvil is a PITA to get set up. The crucial factor is that the side plates need to be square with the endcaps so that when you check the clearance, like servicing the other iso's, it's uniform all the way around. The plate is attached to the frame at the welded in lug and the clamped on bracket. It is attached to the iso by the though-bolt. For the plate to be square then, the length of the lug, the clamped on bracket, and the combined length of the steel part of the two bushes in the iso have to be exactly the same. And they have to be oriented so the are centered in the frame to within a couple thou. Mine didn't come that way so it took some filing and shims, make that a lot of filing and shimming.

The Dave Taylor heasteady uses 5/16" rod ends. They wore out after around 7,000mi. They should be sealed and packed with grease. They would probably last longer if they were 3/8" too.
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/a ... ckkey=4183

Jim's headsteady is a more developed piece in every way. There is one thing to pay attention to. The mounting bolts have a taper that fits into a taper in the aluminum bracket. If you over tighten the nut it will pull the bolt through the taper in the bracket. Jim Fixed it with a threaded steel insert, for free.
edit: It was obvious that I screwed it up, he didn't bring it up. Most people can't pass up low hanging fruit like that.

Dances with Shrapnel said:

If it were me, I would make my own, either heim joint or teflon puck/slider ala Herb Becker. See Doug McRae's post on the subject. Eloquent, simple and robust.

Click to expand...

Ludwig made a nice headsteady using the pucks. I ran across some posts but they all had expired photobucket pics. You might be able to find something. Ludwig hasn't been active on the list for a while.
There are quite a few nice DIY heim headsteady threads. You might want to think about using a larger rod end and seals.

+1......."Get the Comstock one. Any part that he makes is better than anything out there!" plus it uses the existing mounting hole on the support tube part of the frame. And if you get the polished one from CNW it is really purrrrrdy!! We all want Matt to still be around tomorrow, right ! It's not like we have bike payments to make, so you could look at it like it was one months payment. I'm gonna install mine just as soon as I pay off my american express bill, ...ah hell who am I kidding .....I'm more broke than the law allows ,,,,,,,,,but one day.

rpatton said:

Ludwig made a nice headsteady using the pucks. I ran across some posts but they all had expired photobucket pics. You might be able to find something. Ludwig hasn't been active on the list for a while.

Click to expand...

The britbike/ludwig link I posted above seems to work with pics on my computer anyhow. I used the Taglieri steel version and Swooshdave's thread to make mine in aluminum, although I simplified the mount to the frame with only 2 L brackets facing away from each other bolted directly to the upper heim mount. I used unsealed 5/16" joints, but I doubt if I'll get 7000 miles on it in my life. They would be easy enough to replace anyhow. It might be one of those 5000 mile wear items for a few bucks.

Dave
69S

ok good replies! I appreciate the feedback. I will do some more research and try not to get sucked into the first cool thing I see.