Ever felt your front wheel snatch away from you when hitting greasy roots, or suffered arm pump on prolonged descents littered with rocks and drops? If so, the Pademelon steering damper might be a product worth investigating.
The system is designed to damp the twisting forces put through the front wheel when riding, so they’re less severe at the grips. In theory, this calms the ride feel, stabilises the handling and makes the wheels feel more ‘connected’ to each other.
It uses a hydraulic rotary vane damper. This contains a ‘paddle’ that moves with the handlebar and pushes through a viscous fluid, which provides the damping.
All this is built into a unit that sits within the steerer tube of your fork. An arm holds the central shaft of the damper in a fixed position, while the damper body is attached to the steerer.
A dial on the top enables you to adjust the resistance by altering the internal oil-flow speed. The damping can be varied from little-to-none to a level that makes the steering noticeably stiffer – up to a point in the bar’s rotation.
It’s an expensive system, at £424 / $560 / €499, and bike compatibility and the fitting process require some thought. However, on the right trails, its performance benefits are clear.
Pademelon Steering Damper installation
I installed the Pademelon on my Last Glen long-term review bike, a 150/160mm-travel trail/enduro rig with an IS41/IS52 head tube.
In order to function, the external parts of the damper need to rotate with the steerer tube, and so are bolted in place with a nut on the inside of the tube. This was fiddly to fit – it took a bit of trial and error to get my longest socket extender up the steerer and ensure it was fully engaged with the nut, before torquing it to the correct tightness.
The central vane has to remain static with the frame, so the damper arm exits the top of the unit and is held steady by a mounting post. This is connected via a bracket to an adaptor cup, which sits in the frame’s upper headset bearing race.
Said adaptor has its own bearing race for your upper headset bearing. Fitting it raises the stack height of your frame by around 8mm.
A knurled dial on the top of the unit enables damping adjustment, with etched ‘+’ and ‘-’ markings to guide.
The installation process takes time and concentration, especially if you’re not the most mechanically gifted. However, the instructions are detailed and easy to follow. It took me a solid hour to fit the unit, taking into account the time taken to press the adaptor cup into the head tube (for IS headset frames) and remove the fork’s star-fangled nut.
You also need to carefully measure and cut the mounting post to the correct height for your setup.
The damper unit can’t preload the headset bearings, so this must be done as part of the installation process. Fortunately, the kit includes an expanding-wedge preloader. Once this is used and removed, the final fitting steps can be completed.
Before purchase, it’s important to identify the correct damper and mount kit for your bike. Pademelon has a pretty comprehensive bike-fit finder to guide you.
Dampers are available for zero-stack/external-cup or IS headsets, and single- or dual-crown forks, the former with either a 42mm or 50mm offset.
Mount kits are sold separately, to suit a huge range of headset dimensions. Prices ranged from £74 to £100 at the time of writing.
Pademelon also offers a number of 3D-printable ‘sweep clearance’ tools, in case you’re unsure if the unit might interfere with your steerer and stem combo – a neat touch.
It’s worth noting that once the system is installed, swapping stems or changing their height using spacers is no longer a 30-second job.
Pademelon Steering Damper performance
The Pademelon’s damping is effective between 0 and 37.5 degrees to either side of straight ahead – 75 degrees in total. Beyond these points, no damping is applied, so the system has no effect in tighter turns. Rotating the bar back to straight also encounters no damping.
There’s an impressive range of adjustment on offer. With the minimum damping applied, it feels as if there’s none, while with the full amount added there’s a noticeable amount of resistance when turning the bar.
That’s not to say it’s hard to move, but there’s a more solid feel to the steering and the bar won’t flop from side to side by itself. It certainly doesn’t impinge on your ability to steer while riding.
This adjustability is key to the Pademelon’s performance, in my opinion. There were situations where I didn’t want the damping, and some where it greatly improved the ride characteristics of the bike. Being able to toggle it on and off, on a trail-by-trail basis, was great.
As a general rule, the more technical, steep or rough the trail, the more damping I wanted. On smooth, even, fast terrain, I preferred the feel with less or zero damping.
The overarching feeling for me while riding with the Pademelon in its more damped settings was one of calmness.
On fast and rough tracks, the damper filters out a good portion of front-wheel pinging as it glances off rocks or roots. This means the wheel seems to track where you’re going better, with fewer high-frequency rattles from side to side. It’s easier to keep it pointed where you want it to go, and there’s a resultant reduction in arm fatigue.
In the woods, I also found the bike coped with wet ‘sniper’ roots better with the damper in its higher settings. They seemed less able to snatch at the front wheel, leading to fewer sketchy moments and better line-holding over repeated roots.
On steeper, steppier terrain, again the Pademelon boosted performance. Front-wheel landings with the bar loaded and a bit of a turn in the trail are dispatched with less jarring and a more secure feel. The wheel feels less likely to tuck under and throw you out of the front door.
Much like Canyon’s KIS system, the Pademelon seems to link the wheels’ contact patches better. It feels, especially in flat corners, as though the front wheel pulls the rear round with it, helping the bike to arc through a turn smoothly. That connected feeling is amazing in the right places.
There are, though, areas where I didn’t love the Pademelon’s impact. On less technical tracks, the resistance to turning the bar is more noticeable – because there’s less ‘stuff’ going on – and I found it distracting at times.
Occasionally, and again on more mellow terrain, the resistance to the bar’s twist was more than I was subconsciously prepared for, leading to the odd moment where I messed up my lines.
The system’s tunability is key here. The ease and range of adjustment meant I often altered the damping mid-ride if I knew a particular track was coming up. If it was steep and janky, I added more damping; smooth and mellow, less damping.
The adjustment dial is a little stiff, but thanks to the knurled edge, it’s easy to operate with gloves on.
While much of my testing resulted in riding the system at its extremes, I suspect most riders will find a setting midway in its range and leave it there, for the most part – perhaps adding damping for the occasional trip to the Alps or a bike park.
In the middle of the damping, the worst of the front wheel’s jitteriness is filtered out, while there’s still ample support through chunkier sections of trail – just not as much as could be on offer.
The system’s presence is most noticeable when you jump off a bike with the Pademelon fitted and onto a bike without steering damping – the instability and unwanted inputs become instantly more noticeable.
Pademelon Steering Damper bottom line
The Pademelon is an intriguing product, but one that’s probably best-suited to those looking to eke out the maximum performance from their enduro or downhill bike.
It’s expensive, fiddly to fit and the gains in speed are arguably marginal, although there are some who will benefit from them.
The on-trail feel is great, though – the added calmness, stability and reduction in fatigue put the Pademelon’s performance beyond question.
