Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1024856
DY M AG W H E E LS C E O C H R I S S H E L LY P96 INTERVIEW We tried them. This year's Pikes Peak International Hill Climb doubled as something of a testbed, as we got a set of Dymag CA5 carbon fiber wheels to play with (we also have a set of forged alumi- num wheels going on a Kawasaki Z900RS, stay tuned). Unboxing these wheels, it strikes you almost impossible something could weigh so little and still maintain the structural integrity required to safely negotiate Pikes Peak. Pikes allows teams to use carbon wheels, one of the few racing orga- nizations to do so, so we laced them up with new Pirelli slicks and headed to the mountain. The initial feeling was one of sheer vagueness. The Super Duke was still running the same suspension set- tings we dialed in with the standard wheels, which was the absolute wrong direction for the carbons. The Super Duke would neither turn, stop or handle in anything like a confidence-inspiring fashion, and the more adjustments we made, the worse it got. We were nearly maxed out on our rebound damping circuit, and the bike felt wooden. Following a disastrous fourth run on the first day of tire testing at Pikes, I came back in and we took two turns of preload out of the fork, one out of the rear, and pulled the compression and rebound adjusters back to a medium setting. From there, the softer settings of for Super Duke made for a much, much more enjoyable ride. Suddenly, with the suspension able to work and soak up the bumps better, the benefits of the wheels began to shine through. The KTM would change direction in the hairpins easier, but it still took a while to get my head around the overall feeling of lightness coming from the steering. The second day of tire testing, we had the settings somewhat in the ballpark. Team tech Nate and I just added a touch of rebound here, a click of compression there, and by the end of the day I was two seconds off my pole time from 2016 at a 4:16. The KTM got better and better with the Dymags the more we played with the suspension. By qualifying, I knocked out a 4:11.311 for pole, three seconds up on my 2016 time and was absolutely loving the new wheels. From the rider's seat, the number- one feeling comes in the substantial- ly increased agility and side-to-side performance. You can brake later and turn harder than before, and I feel the KTM pulls slightly harder from the bottom-end with less weight to shift forward. It's a serious modification, espe- cially for the money, and I wasn't prepared for just how much the suspension would be affected by the fitment of carbon wheels. For sure, they are worth every penny, because bikes are so fast now it makes much more sense to take weight off rather than put money into the motor. Plus, they look stunning. Beautiful, isn't it? Pikes Peak is one of the few races in the world that allows the use of carbon fiber wheels. It took us a while to get the Super Duke handling correctly with the Dymags, but the lighter wheels eventually made a huge difference in how quickly the bike would change direction.