Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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DY M AG W H E E LS C E O C H R I S S H E L LY P94 INTERVIEW tion as well—is a move towards Resin Transfer Molding. How long does it take to make a carbon wheel in total? That was one of the things BMW were very vocal about that they could pump out wheels quickly. How long would it take for you guys to make a wheel? There's pumping out wheels very quickly, and there's pumping out wheels really quickly. There are parts of the process that they clearly do very quickly. Our total process is very slow. It takes about eight hours per wheel, per dye, to make a wheel today. But we're about to transform that with the way we're going to make our wheels, when we get them down to minutes. But then, of course, what you've got to remem- ber is it's not just about making the wheel. Then you've got all the finishing and the coatings and all the assembly stuff. That adds a lot of labor and time to the process. How have you found the take- up rate of aftermarket wheels in production motorcycle riding? Not in terms of racing, because racing it's an obvious choice, but in terms of production bikes and street riding? I would say 75-80 percent of all our production is going into af- termarket for the carbon wheels, where with our forged aluminum wheels we're about 75 percent racing. There are two reasons for that. One is that carbon wheels and magnesium wheels are banned at WorldSBK level. A lot of series around the world, like the TT, British Super- bike, Japan Superbike, they've all banned magnesium and carbon on the grounds of cost. Therefore, forged aluminum wheels are very, very dominant in racing, whereas in the aftermarket, people are looking for something different. Obviously, they're more expensive, but that's where we see people looking for the carbon-fiber wheel. The benefits are substantial but the costs are increased. Structurally, is the carbon wheel inferior to the forged aluminum wheel? No. It's purely around cost. All the testing we've done on our carbon wheels proves our wheels are as strong or stronger than the aluminum equivalent, but between 25-50 percent lighter. We look around the market- place and we have a lot of re- spect for what the BST guys do, they've got a really good product there. They've done prepreg technology, with low cost labor in Africa. They've done a good job. We left a big gap for a mo- ment when we disappeared from the market, and they've really cleaned up. We've had to fight our way back into the market. We've done testing with guys like Jeremy McWilliams, the former MotoGP and WorldSBK rider. Leon Haslam and the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team are currently leading the 2018 British Superbike Championship using the UPX7 forged aluminum wheel.