Steering damper (aftermarket, 2014+)

Replacement steering damper for 2014 and later Urals. If you have a 2018 or later, you should have a Bitubo damper, and in our experience those are very durable, although we've heard reports of their damping being insufficient for some riders. The black ones from 2014-2017, however, like to leak oil, at which point they don't work properly.

This damper is long enough to work properly on the Ural, and it can be adjusted to a setting I would call "way too much damping", as well as to settings that I find appropriate. So if you like heavily-damped steering, this is for you. 

We can rebuild the original 2014-2017 dampers, but between the cost of the repair parts and the value of shop time, rebuilding runs about $80-90, so this replacement is more cost-effective, even though it always saddens us to throw out rebuildable parts.

And now for my reviews of alternative/competing products! There's one design that installs an automotive shock absorber between the top of your front-right shock absorber and the bottom of your front sidecar strut/bar. We dislike that design because it's non-adjustable, usually has way too much damping, and is a pain to install. (Or in my case a pain to un-install, because we always remove it from trade-ins.) On the other hand, that design does work on 2013 and earlier Urals if you find your friction-style damper to be insufficient. (There is also a kit from Ural to add hydraulic dampers to pre-2014 bikes.)

And then there's the adjustable damper replacement sold on a certain north-eastern website. We recommend against it because that one is literally too short for the Ural, and once you install it, the new damper becomes your steering stop. That's not a good thing, even if a lot people say they don't mind. In their defense, the website does say "Steering damper rod is slightly smaller than original". Anyway, ours is less expensive whilst also being long enough to work properly, so here we are.