Really interesting and way above my capability. Big respect for those who can like you. I would appreciate it if you could elaborate on the use of the steering damper a bit more in the various terrains you encountered. I have one on my 640 but am really not sure how to use it properly.
I am not sure what the rules are, but this worked for me. I set the steering damper exactly in the middle. Day 1, SS1, super rocky riverbed terrain, I stiffened it up one full rotation. Amazing! I am no stranger to rocky terrain and frankly I love it because of the technical challenge. With the steering damper it made it trivial. My heart rate never went over 150. I got lost with some other guys and I was gatvol. I had to backtrack over the same rocks and stiffened the damper one more rotation. I was flying over the rocks! No jerking whatsoever. Back up on the mountain, I toned it down again, back to "zero"/middle/centre. Technical "slow" sand, like on Day 2 SS1, I set it to zero and then anticlockwise max(negative). I ride sand almost every weekend and I want full control over the steering - I stand up at low speed sand riding.
Then I joined up with the Amageza 2013 champion, still on sand, but high speed, and I quickly set it back to half way + one full rotation clockwise. At very high speed you don't want tank slapping, it worked for me. I left it like this for the remainder of the race, which included uphill rocky tracks and high speed jeep tracks, as well as some super high speed gravel national roads with the odd sand patch.