Dymag the hard way...

[northwind]

I had a bit of a flutter on an as-new Dymag on Ebay a while back... It'd had a tyre on, but no marks to show for it, and when it arrived there's no indication of ever being fitted- no balancing weights, grease or threadlock, scratches or marks, it's basically as new. Buying used mag wheels is a total gamble, but in this case the risk seemed pretty small. Might get it checked out anyway.

Only trouble is, it's for a Fireblade... Hmm. 25mm axle, check. Total width's just 8mm less bearing to bearing than an SRAD wheel, which is what I use. But there's no 320mm Blade discs (what I need for my current GSXR front).

SP-1 discs are 320mm, and most recent Hondas have the same 6-bolts discs. Does it fit... Yes.

How do they line up with the GSXR calipers? Well, better than the GSXR ones did- no spacing required Popped a tyre onto it last night and knocked up a couple of rough spacers out of an old GSXR part. And by pure luck, BBS used the Dymag gold to powdercoat my wheels last time round so it's a match

So:







First impressions... Well, I fitted a new rear tyre at the same time so I've not done any hard riding on it, just the ice cream run to Glasgow along the motorway and a touch of ever so slightly twisty riding... Well, look at the back tyre, you can see how hard it's been ridden So that remains to be seen. Immediately noticable difference in turning at speed though, even without pushing things. It's not so much a massive change, just that absoutely everything's made easier and faster. My front fork settings need tweaking, I think- logical really, since the unsprung mass has changed a fair bit.

Also, it looks ace

YOU BASTID !! No really good for you,I have been looking for such a deal but have not been able to take the leap for fear of gettig stuck with wheels I cant make work.

I jumped on a pair of brembo calipers I thought would bolt right on only to find I need an 165 $(USD) set of adapters to make em work. Looks great on the bike.

[dirtydog]

Yeah but your wheels don't match now

Have you got a Dymag for the back yet or just lurking on ebay waiting for one?

Tart

whats the advantages northy? will the bike turn faster now? or is it just bling? its certainly looks the part with the USD forks.

Nice!

What is the difference in weight?

And errr, sorry for offtopic but, where did you get that plastic thing under your engine? This is the first one I see, that I realy like...

Its not so much what they weigh, it more how the weight is distributed, with less around the rim and still stronger.
Dymags are actually heavier than some production wheels nowadays, but better made with weight positioned to enhance response and turn in.
But the mag buying public wouldn't buy them if they were heavier, so its not talked about much, they're lighter so it must be faster!!

Tue! The more mass further than the spindel, the heavier it turns...
I just was wondering if there was a big difference or not, because it looks heavier.

whhel looks great.

what front master cylinder are you using too?

[northwind]

I'm really not the man to tell you about the advantages, at least not till I've thoroughly tested it... And even then, my bike's cornering potential already outweighed mine Rob and Sarah, among others, will both know more than I'll ever learn on the actual impact I reckon, since we're dealing in gyroscopic forces the benefits grow as the speed of the wheel grows...

But despite this, there were differences I noticed in the first 5-mile ride (to test the discs). Not so much that it turns faster, but that it's easier to turn it fast... Doesn't sound so important but actually I think it probably is. Even things like changing lanes on motorways are made easier, feels a bit like having wider bars in some ways. It'll have some roadholding benefits too, if I can get to them, but I'm not the best at suspension work so that might be one for the pros.

The difference in weight... Well, it's less than you might imagine. So much of the weight of the wheel assebmly is the tyre, the discs, even the air in the tyre... The difference in the weight in the wheel is big, about a kilo, kilo and a half is what I made it but my bathroom scales are not precision implements I put on about 200 grams with these discs though, they're lighter than GSXR OE but heavier than my Braking wavys that I had on the GSXR wheel. That's despite the bolts being lighter and the disc centre being physically smaller. Might address that, might not, personally I like round discs for my bike, wavys are a bit ostentatious

But as Rob says, it's as much about where the weight is as how much there is. You can feel this just hefting the wheel around, gives it an artificial feeling of lightness, just like good helmets usually feel lighter than cheap ones even though there only tends to be 100 grams or so in it- the weight distribution's really different. Think of carrying a 5-kilo ladder vs carrying a 5-kilo rock.

DD, I do want to find a rear to match it, a 5 or 5.5, but there's much less benefit there (this is why you see race bikes with front but no rear, I imagine), and tbh this was one of those really rare ebay finds so it's a bit much to expect to do it again This wasn't really what I was planning at all, I'd bought a Ducati 5-spoke rear wheel off of an ST4 to try out but it was going to be a fiddle to fit and was actually much heavier than the Bandit 12 wheel I've been putting off fitting, which in turn weighs very close to the SV wheel- it'd need pro machining to fit it, new caliper hanger would do it, and I don't fancy paying that much money for a downgrade! Even one that looks ace. Still looking...

Ian, it's a Brembo 18mm machined jobby with a Pazzo shorty lever, another ebay find... In the real world, no better than a regular Brembo fitment- slightly better toleranced but the "standard" ones are already good enough for me, but then it cost me less and came with a spare lever so that's OK Came off a BSB privateer and people are so leery of buying race bike parts that it ended up really cheap.

R4ce-e3nd, it's a Pyramid plastics pan... Not quite standard, I had to reshape it for my exhaust, but it's more or less as it came from the factory. And I like it But I don't fit it much, my paintwork's not too good so it wouldn't last long under road conditions. Maybe it's a bit too big, but it's my favourite of the ones out there.

It's also the entire reason I bought this particular bike, I walked in with all the buyer's tricks in my head, planning to bargain it down to £2000 or less...
And the second I saw the bike, nicely positioned in the lights in an underground car park, I'd bought it in my head