Talon STI HD9 Wheels

[bjniceguy]

for those looking at 14" STI Hd9 wheels, I have them installed now with 30" Maxxis Liberties. I am 69" wide from & with 1.5" spacers I am 69" in rear. The inside of the front wheels is very close to the Brake rotors. I may build some 1/8" to 1/4" this spacers just add a little more clearance. They Do NO HIT, but close.

i notice a little of the same effect I have with the setup on my YXZ. The car wants to go back straight when you let go of wheel. Not bad, but a different feeling from stock wheel & tires. I don't think it is an issue, but noticeable. My be what others are calling "Heavy"??

I don't see any huge power difference, but have not done more than around the block to settle in for measuring.

If I had not already had the 30" tires, I would have gone to 15" wheels for extra inside wheel clearance.

Just a note, I got my rear wheel spacers from a friend. They were right spacing, but had 12 x 1.25 studs. Work fine, but now I have 2 different thread lug nuts. If ordering, keep that in mind as when I was looking, not all had right stud threads

 

[Admin]

 

[Bigshow]

Did you use the 6-1 off set or 5-2?

 

[bjniceguy]

Did you use the 6-1 off set or 5-2?

6-1 wheels any more and you increase width.

 

[Bigshow]

Ok thank you

 

[PaulF]

An FYI (or perhaps a word of caution) for anyone running 14 inch wheels. I put 28X10-14 on HD9 14X7 5+2 up front and 28X14-14 on HD9 14X8 4+4 on the rear for a slightly wider stance in the sand. It turned out exactly like I wanted. STI says the 6+1 wheels fit the front and 5+2 or 4+3 for the rear. They do not mention 5+2 up front or the 4+4 for the rear but they both fit perfectly. No spacers, just bolted directly on.

I did notice one thing up front. At the end of the upper control arm just outside the ball joint, there is part cast on there that sticks out and up. Not sure what it is for. It clears OK with the suspension at rest but it is quite a bit closer that with the stock wheels. Geometry told me this part will move closer to the rim as the suspension is compressed so I decided to remove the shock and compress the suspension the full 17.7" (I have a Talon R) and in doing so, the strange little casting part was only about 1mm (.040") from the rim and that is just too close for me. I ended up grinding off about 1/4 inch to give it more clearance. This may not be an issue on the X or other wheels but it might be a good idea to check.

Here is a pic of the part (after grinding down and repainting). When the suspension is compressed, the angle of the ball joint increases and the space (marked by the arrows) decreases. You might want to check this on your machine if you are running 14 inch wheels...

 

[bjniceguy]

that has me wondering if that is what put the mark on the inside of my STI H9 6-1 front wheel, I assumed it was a rock that got in there and scratched it before falling out. Will look at that. I bought a set of 1" spacers to move the fronts out when I use that set (am running 15" wheels with 31" tires right now)

 

[PaulF]

Just posting a follow up. Took my machine for a week of dune and desert riding. Put about 300 miles on the 14 inch HD9 wheels and am happy to report zero issues. I managed to bottom out the machine a few times and got it airborne a couple times so the suspension went full travel more than once. No rubbing or any problems.

Machine hooked up and handled amazing in the sand with the slightly wider stance. Auto shifting when climbing sand hills is HORRIBLE. Even with your foot to the floor in sport mode, it fails to downshift early enough and bogs the engine down too much so you loose wheel spin and flotation and end up stalling out half way up a steep hill. Even if you force down shift, the electronics upshift again and you stall out. I thought the machine needed more power to climb the steeper sand hills but after several tries, I found that manual shifting and keeping the engine revved high (above 6000) was the key to keeping the wheel spin and tire flotation up to achieve successful climbing on steep sand hills.

Once I figured out the "magic formula", it seemed like nothing could stop this my Talon. This machine is a BLAST!!!

 

[GPR1500SC]

Just posting a follow up. Took my machine for a week of dune and desert riding. Put about 300 miles on the 14 inch HD9 wheels and am happy to report zero issues. I managed to bottom out the machine a few times and got it airborne a couple times so the suspension went full travel more than once. No rubbing or any problems.

Machine hooked up and handled amazing in the sand with the slightly wider stance. Auto shifting when climbing sand hills is HORRIBLE. Even with your foot to the floor in sport mode, it fails to downshift early enough and bogs the engine down too much so you loose wheel spin and flotation and end up stalling out half way up a steep hill. Even if you force down shift, the electronics upshift again and you stall out. I thought the machine needed more power to climb the steeper sand hills but after several tries, I found that manual shifting and keeping the engine revved high (above 6000) was the key to keeping the wheel spin and tire flotation up to achieve successful climbing on steep sand hills.

Once I figured out the "magic formula", it seemed like nothing could stop this my Talon. This machine is a BLAST!!!

Did Sport mode help it shift down faster or was it to slow also?

 

[PaulF]

Did Sport mode help it shift down faster or was it to slow also?

Sport mode raises all the shift points (both upshift and downshift) but nowhere near enough for sand hill climbing. It still bogs down in Sport mode although not quite as quickly. In sand, you need to keep the rear wheels spinning/slipping a little but I don't think the computer likes the rear wheels spinning faster than the front when in Auto mode and it messes with the shifting but that is pure speculation. I didn't try i4WD, maybe I should have but the thought didn't occur to me. Maybe next time I will try in i4WD and see if there is any difference. Would be nice if it had a "Sand" mode

 

[bjniceguy]

I noticed that when in low range and auto, when you use paddles to down shift, it almost immediantly shifts up again. I coudl not tell much difference in sport in low range. Wonder if that cancels something? Works great in manual when climbing so I just quit worrying about it. oes get about 2/3 mileage in manual. I assume that is because you are running higher rpm's

 

[PaulF]

I noticed that when in low range and auto, when you use paddles to down shift, it almost immediantly shifts up again. I coudl not tell much difference in sport in low range. Wonder if that cancels something? Works great in manual when climbing so I just quit worrying about it. oes get about 2/3 mileage in manual. I assume that is because you are running higher rpm's

I noticed the exact same thing. For 75% of my driving, AT works fantastic with the occasional manual up/down shift. Even on the dunes during casual riding, AT works just fine. If I am "playing" I use Sport mode and when I want to climb, I switch the MT. At first, I was constantly pressing the wrong button but now I can flip between 2 wheel, 4 wheel, AT, MT, Sport without even looking. I'm getting much better and I just adjust on the fly as I see fit and I am REALLY starting to enjoy this machine, A LOT!!! There is a small learning curve but once you get the hang of it, it makes riding all that much funner!