Sorry portboy, the reason is I’ve had 2 crashes due to magnesium wheels developing cracks! The last time was at silverstone, I checked pressures before I went out as normal, all good! Got as far as hanger straight well the end of hanger straight and down I went!! A crack had developed in one of the spokes and it was virtually flat!! After a lot of research I discovered that they only have a certain life and they really need to be crack tested periodically and nobody would weld the crack so I’ve got some nice decorations in my garage!
Mainly use the Lightweight Alloy Marchesini's but have a pair of Alloy OZ's which are really good too. IF you check out JFB Insta page and use the discount code I think its 15% off Dymags atm. On the 1199SL the Mag Marchesini's are about a kilo or so lighter than the OZ Piega's (6 spoke), hardly worth the Mag weight with the minimum difference tbh.
The piega is a 5 spoke wheel, the 'GASS' 6 spokes are another 20% lighter on top, still forged, but about as light as you can get this side of Carbon I think and about £350 more than the piega for a pair.
Having run BST carbon wheels on two bikes now I can definitely say they are worth the extra money. Purely for there performance gains! I’ve also run PVM wheels back in the day plus Marchesinis, Dymags UP7X on my last but one bike were super light but had issues after a year with wheel bearing spinning in the hub! Oz Gass wheels on my 959 were again super light and visually pleasing and superb quality hence running them on the V4 now. So pretty much tried them all. Honest opinion if you can afford to go carbon and your not looking for a big visual impact 100%. all the way.. Oz for me! Purely for a design point, 3D forged, lighter than the original OE Marchesini wheels, Spoke design and finish. Plus it definitely helps when you have a trade account with the suppliers
This is a great thread! I have been toying with the idea of getting some second hand magnesium wheels for my 998S. Chances are, they are likely to be more than 10 years old, with little provenance. Reading this thread has made me very wary! The Ducati blurb on the 996 / 998 models talked about the original fit "lightweight Marchesini" wheels. They don't seem very light to me - but are they a step forward versus wheels of that era, and would forged aluminium wheels from Oz, Marchesini etc. be significantly lighter? (I like carbon wheels, but want to keep the period looks to some extent). Also, reluctant to drop >£1600 on wheels unless I would really notice it. I have heard that 848 wheels might be worth considering, but I guess the speedo drive is a problem to overcome? Any tips / advice? Thanks!
the 848 wheels aren’t super heavy IMO, the rear especially is quite light. I remember looking into wheels when I had my 848 and I needed to go OZ Gas or Carbon before the difference was huge, that said, remember that it’s also about where the weight is placed in the wheel, further from the axle causes more issues, hence why the Gass wheels have further machining to make the rim even lighter
How was the problem resolved with the UP7X bearing spinning in the hub?...Was it front, rear or both?...
I guess there’s always a trade off between durability and lightness? A heavy stock wheel designed for a lifetime of road use is going to be far tougher than a Magnesium or Carbon race wheel - although why they decided to fill the stock 959 rear wheel with lead I don’t know! I have done a deal with @Dave dunlop for his 959 GASS wheel - just have to wait for the front to arrive from Italy A good part of the decision to go with the GASS wheels is that they are the lightest OZ road wheel. Although they will be track only for me I figure they might be a little more robust than the very lightest Ally, Mag or Carbon. If money is no object and ultimate lightness is the aim then carbon seems to be the obvious route - but there seems to be enough stories of cracked wheels to make me wary, as I don’t have bottomless pockets.
Yeah as far as I know the guy got it sorted after we found the issue. It was only on the front and just one side! But obviously a machining tolerance problem that was picked up in quality control. Never had one like that again so perhaps just a one off.
