With the release of the slightly more expensive KS Pro, a lot of people have decided to completely ignore the Formula/GT sim racing wheel that started it all. The original KS Wheel. When Moza began to sell this, it instantly became a hit. It was sent to the homes of sim racers all over the world due to its ergonomic design, realistic look, and ease of use for both racing series, GT and Open Wheel. The wheel’s tactile buttons, easy-to-use rotary dials, and magnetic paddle shifters made the wheel feel incredible to drive with.
Yet, people forget this and tend to focus on the newer sim racing wheels. Wheels with physical onboard dashes, more buttons, more rotaries, more and more functionality; but is this large amount of functionality unnecessary? Is the KS Wheel really the answer to simplicity, ergonomics, reliability, durability, and not breaking the bank?
Well, when it comes to the KS Wheel, this is mostly true.
First, let’s get pricing out of the way. The KS Wheel is priced at around $280 based on region, while the KS Wheel PRO is priced at $330.
With the ergonomics and design, the overall lightweight design of the wheel makes the wheel very easy to detach from the quick-release system on the Moza wheel bases. The wheel is mostly made of carbon fibre composites and a durable, polymer type of plastic material that gives the lightweight feel of the wheel, while also in turn giving more information to the driver through the wheelbase because of how light the wheel is. This makes the wheel feel premium while also not breaking the bank and making the consumer spend a super large amount of money in order to race with a GT/Open wheel style wheel. Although this comes at a slight cost to durability. The rubber-like plastic grips tend to shift slightly up and down when turning the wheel left to right or making quick transitions, causing a small creaking noise to sound as you race on the simulator. With headphones, this isn’t exactly a large issue, but some people may not be able to tolerate it. This being said, there are minimal cases where the KS Wheel has been broken from use alone, as not completely trashing the wheel will make it last.
Another issue with durability and a cheap feeling you get when sim racing with the KS wheel, is the rattling of the tactile buttons as your in-game cars tyre drives over a kerb. The buttons can rattle very loudly if you have the wheelbase set to a large percentage of torque, causing the noise to be very annoying in some cases. Even headphones can’t exactly take away the rattling noise because it can just be that loud. Although with a little bit of DIY, you can place foam blocks around the buttons within the wheel to completely stop the button rattle and even give a satisfying dampening effect to the buttons. Though this is highly unlikely for everyone to do, considering not a lot of people want to take apart the wheel right out of the box.
With the durability out of the way, the simplicity and ergonomics are truly the highlight of the wheel. When it comes to the overall feel and design of the wheel, holding it makes you feel like a real racing driver in a top series. The steering wheel’s shape is very similar to that of a Corvette GT3 C8.R, William’s FW45, and Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo, making the steering wheel incredibly ergonomic for different kinds of cars driven in racing simulators.
The wheels feel is very nice, with most hand shapes being able to wrap their hands comfortably around the steering wheel’s spokes, giving it a nice, comfortable, and firm feel.
The buttons are also very nice to press and have a short reach, with the only time you’d take your hand off the wheel would be to use the rotary dials for your engine mapping, traction control levels, and Anti-lock-braking system levels.
The wheel has two thumb encoders on the top edges of the wheel that are labelled “BB” and “MIX”, which can be used for fuel mixture levels or Brake Bias levels, giving the wheel even more functionality.
Another thing to note is that the wheel is incredibly customizable, as Moza gives you a sticker sheet with a lot of different-shaped stickers to fit on the Moza KS Wheel to give it some personalisation and further functionality, being able to put different types of stickers on different parts of the wheel so you can make the wheel your own.
With this being said, the original KS Wheel is still a great wheel to buy in today’s market, as it’s on the cheaper side, durable, and ergonomic without having too many issues or being easily replaceable. The Moza KS Wheel is a wheel every sim enthusiast should at least check out if they are in the market for a durable and easy-to-use wheel for their simulator rig.
