Steering damper

check your pressures first.My Sprint is very sensitive to even a small drop in pressures.recommended for my bike is 36 and 41 but I have increased both by 2 psi and it doesnt white line any more.
how old are the tyres? are they squared off ? what avon tyres are they? are they a recommended fitment for your bike? ( I had avons on my sprint when bought it and it felt bloody awful, have PR2s on now and much better, apparently PR3 or 4 are much better still
when I had a cb750 with a damper on, it made the bike feel skittish,personally I dont like them ,prefer to have a looser feel to the steering.

 

most people swear by the michys. the back tyre being squared off may well be your main problem

 

When I had my tuned 2010 T100 I ran a couple of sets of Avon AM26 and found them to be all round excellent. The pressures were checked regularly though.

 

Tyre pressures are critical. I always ran the Bonnie a couple of pounds over spec and do the same with the Trident.

 

Steve it is interesting you run your Trident tyre pressures over spec a bit too as my Sprint handles like a different bike with a couple extra in, which i found out purely by accident. It handles absolutely crap with even a couple of pounds below the recommended pressure as well,it white lines awfully and wants to go in a straight line all the time

 

That is also true of the Trident Steve, it handles like a pig if below the recommended pressure settings, but a couple over transforms it. I first heard about increasing pressure by 2psi over book when I had the Bonnie but to be fair, it never affected the Bonnies handling like it does the Trident.

 

when I bought my 2nd hand "new" tiger the other day, I did the right thing and took her straight to a petrol station to check the tyres. they were both a bit on the low side so brought them up to correct psi. next day took her down to Gosport and took her on some twisties and fast dual carriageway, I was not happy with the handling, front wheel was trying to steer heavily into slow corners and when I took a roundabout at reasonable speed I drifted across into the inside lane!! I thought maybe it was all down to different riding position but then I'd tried the xc which was fine, maybe it was the different wheel size? Anyways when home I noticed that the wet mark on the tyre was quite wide so I put my trusty compressor on the tyres to check the pressure...it was about 7-10 psi low on both, must have been a faulty one at the station. Pumped em up, took her for a test ride round surrey, in the rain, and her handling was sublime, no white-lining , no drifting or over steer, almost got my knees down on some corners!! Actually that's a lie!! but all round so much better. I quite like the bike now

 

yeah they all get blown out of proportion

 

You dopey bugger

 

So when and how do I decide my tyres are squared, being as I understand the principle.

 

I would say more than anything it's the feel of the bike when you turn into a bend or series of bends. If it 'flops' in, you've got a squared-off back tyre. Also take into account the age of the tyre - if it's more than say 4 years old and it's 'floppin', definitely change it.