Has anyone run the newest BirelART/Ricciardo nose (which I think is the KG505)? I’m curious as to how soft it is on the spectrum of soft OTK M6 to hard KG FP7.
Hm, I never thought of the nose stiffness impacting a kart. My friend Danny Corcoran is getting a 505 to play with. I’ll ask him what he thinks when he gets it. my guess would be since it’s a KG the stiffness would be the same, but I’m not sure.
The big objective with that one was aerodynamics if I remember correctly.
Kaden Wharff and Abby McLaughlin run them on their Top Karts if I remember correctly.
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Interesting reference for anyone checking out this topic…
I remember reading through that when you posted it, actually. I think OTK made changes similar to what they said in the front nosecone. The M6 is about 3 in wider than the M4, and the fairing was made larger to deflect more wind around the driver to reduce turbulence. There was a Tkart article on it but I’m not subscribed.
One of the few reasons I know about the 505 is because I’m sorta looking for a new frame, and PSL has Ricciardo karts for 3,995 right now
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Ah, okay. I was thinking stiffness as a tuning tool. I know Wharff ran a good couple dirty races with that 505 and it never seemed to deform. Like I said above, I think it’d be similar to the FP7 since they’re both made by KG.
James is right, I really meant stiffness in the context of impact, specifically how that relates to the push-back mount. True, they’re both made by KG, but even if the plastic’s density and wall thickness are the same, the design can have a huge impact on the shape’s ability to deform. Though I’ve never been too friendly with a FP7 nose, the bottom of their EVO nose, for instance, has a series of convolutions along the bottom, specifically to keep the nose from deforming. The OTK M4 and M6 are completely flat, allowing them to bow out to relieve pressure from impact.
It’s really down to vanity, however. Some know that, though they’re not elaborate, I enjoy designing my own sticker kit. Though the M6 nose is arguably the best at compressing and aerodynamics, it’s a royal pain in my a55 to sticker up. For a couple of reasons I’m not a fan of the FP7, and so I was looking for a viable alternative.
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I’ll let you know what Dan thinks of the 505. He was asking me if he should get it and I told him to go for it, so I think he’ll be picking it up
I thought it had been specifically designed to be more forgiving with the push back brackets. When they first introduced the brackets it quickly became apparent that the OTK was more forgiving and everyone (including BirelART, but not CRG) jumped onto OTK bumpers. Some stayed on OTK (Sodi is the best example I can think of) but relatively quickly KG came out with the 505 which was designed to be as forgiving and provide some “aero benefits”.
Without being able to see the crash test results its impossible to really know.
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I could see that being true. I’ve hit drivers pretty hard and didn’t drop a bumper all year, even at the club where the brackets aren’t required.
I did notice the KG bumpers drop more often than the OTK’s. There’s bumper decent number of each, but OTK usually stays pretty well.
CRG has their own bumper too. I’ve only seen them twice but those seem to hold pretty well too. If I remember correcrly, iPK uses the OTK stuff for their factory teams as well.
IPK use OTK when they need to and NewAge (the crg one) when they don’t have drop down bumpers 
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