So in my endless journey of constantly changing out parts for one reason or another, I decided that I needed a new steering damper bracket. Since my stock clipons are long gone replaced with some Helibars, I have been using an aftermarket steering damper bracket (brand escapes me at the moment) that was included with the Helibars but thought it didn't look as "clean" as I wanted.

I found that Driven Racing made a steering damper bracket just for 04-08 R1s. Great! Looks much better than the current one I was using. So I placed my order. Fast forward about a week and it is time for the install. Well, first I immediately saw that it was too small. The damper bracket from Helibars was sized for fork tubes that were 54mm in diameter, the Driven one was measured at 49mm. WTF? Now comes the STUPID epiphany... let me try to install it anyways. :dundun: After trying to mount this thing to my left fork tube, it was really "tight" and started to mark up my gold anodizing. F@ck me! I took that crap off and put it on the shelf and called Driven. The guy said that they sold hundreds of these dampers and never had any calls saying that they didn't fit. I told him I could cinch the bolts down and it would fit but the bracket would and DID mark up the anodizing on the fork tubes. He didn't believe me and gave me the exact measurement of where the damper should be mounted (67mm from the bottom edge of the triple clamp on center). I put down the phone again and went to go look at the bike again. No way, if I mounted the bracket there... it would be able to mount but the bracket would scratch up my fork even more. Wish me luck in returning it. I can't seel

Going to order the Graves 54mm bracket and call it a day. Why didn't I just go with the Graves bracket in the first place? $$ I got the Driven one for less dough. Another lesson learned here. :lol

-Mike