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Frequently
Asked Questions . . .
Put together by BST partner in SuperMoto
wheels in Europe - Goldspeed
Q: Why are these Goldspeed BST carbon Supermoto wheels so much faster
than the usual Supermoto wheels?
A: The reason for that can
be found in the combination of saving weight, minimizing the moment
of inertia, reducing the gyroscopic effect and the radius of gyration.
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Weightsaving:
It is a known fact that saving weight on
the UNsprung mass ( wheels, brakediscs etc) offers more performance
advantage than saving weight on the sprung (any other “non
rotating”) mass.
A known formula in racing is the “factor of eight”
ie it requires 32 kgs “normal” weight saving to obtain
similar performance advantage than saving 4kgs of weight on a
set of wheels will provide !
Our wheels show weight advantages of up to 5 kgs a set ! Do your
math ...
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Moment of inertia:
The energy required to start a wheel turning
increases with the weight of the wheel, which applies also to
stopping the wheel from turning. It may be clear that a low moment
of enertia is of great advantage to accelaration and braking.
That’s why it feels like you have more HP accelerating with
our wheels on .
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Gyroscopic effect:
Saving weight on a wheel means less gyroscopic
effect! It is difficult to make a spinning wheel change direction.
The lighter the wheel the easier itis to change direction. Therefore
the lightweight Goldspeed BST carbon wheels have immense impact
on the handling of the bike. Easy to flick from side to side and
unbelieveable “tight” lines are finally possible .
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Radius of Gyration:
The total weight is spread over the complete
wheel. It does matter, however, where the weight is located. The
closer the weight turns around the centre of the wheel the better
the handling becomes. Almost 80% of the total weight of our wheels
is located around the hub section. An extremely good radius of
gyration.
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Combination of
characteristics:
It might be clear that one charateristic
reinforces the other one, and it is the combination of the above
that provide the performance advantage that these wheels do.
Once a rider is used to the wheels and knows how to benefit from
all these advantages, you will be able to improve laptimes up
to 1 sec. faster !
Besides this, many riders confirm an increase of grip. This is
no doubt the result of the reduced centrifugal force when “leaned
in”. Also the stiffness has its advantage. An extremely
“flexing” wheel will result in a constantly changing
Tyre contact patch, resulting in less predictable handling.
Q: Why carbon fibre
wheels?
A:
Looking at the alternative: of all metals, magnesium has the highest
strength to weight ratio, beaten only by carbon fibre. Besides this,
magnesium is subject to fatigue and will lead to serious cracking
if not replaced in time. Generally it’s accepted that magnesium
racing wheels are to be replaced at least every season ! Too much
disadvantages in our opinion to use this material for developing
ultralight Supermoto competition wheels.
Carbon fibre is not subject to fatigue at all and will last a lifetime.
And above all, the latest knowledge and innovation on the way of
constructing and the use of carbon materials, made it possible to
create ultralight wheels for the even highly demanding Supermoto
racing and still guarantee the required benefits.
It was never the question IF we could build carbon
fibre Supermoto competition wheels, but a question of HOW
to build them maintaining the perfect balance between performance
advantage and rider safety!
Q: Can the Goldspeed carbon wheels
be used tubeless ?
A: Yes
they can ! Our carbon wheels have been tested to the extreme, tubeless
! Even exhausting destructive tests (tubeless jumping / landing
on the hardest MX tracks throughout Europe) did not cause any problems.
All, by now literally abused, test wheels are still used weekly
in training and racing !
Q: Can’t these wheels damage or break at all?
A:
In all honesty, everything can break. Who hasn’t seen an ally
supermoto wheel or hub bend, crack and break?
If it is possible at all to build an unbreakable wheel, in the end
it would probably become too heavy to ride.
The genarally accepted aluminium supermoto wheels were the leading
example while developing the carbon wheels. But the objective was
not to be as good, but to be better!
Once more .. Our carbon wheels have been tested to the extreme and
it must be said ... during the over two years of development and
testing, not one rider ever crashed nor was injured as a result
of wheel failure ! It’s safe to say that you can rely on our
wheels !
Q: Are they not very expensive
?
A:
Like all state of the art technologies such as tuning of engines,
suspension and so on, our wheels are not cheap. However, many thousands
of Euros / Pounds are spent on the tuning of parts that will not
even bring the performance gain that our wheels alone will provide!
Besides this, many investments will turn out not be useable for
next season. On the other hand, our wheels will last a lifetime
and because of the ingenious changeable mounting system, easy to
move to ANY new bike.
Marks on the wheels from intensive use can easily be wiped out by
simply re-varnishing your wheels making them look like new again!
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