MOZA Racing KS Steering Wheel
Anyone looking for affordable sim racing hardware will quickly come across Moza Racing. Since 2021, they’ve been active in the sim racing hardware industry, and by now, they’re almost indispensable among the established brands. Thanks to their solid price-to-quality ratio, Moza has built up a strong reputation and is popular with many sim racers.
After previously reviewing their shifter, handbrake, and the R5 bundle, Moza Racing has now reached out to us for a review of one of their steering wheels. This time, it’s the Moza Racing KS Steering Wheel, a GT-style wheel with a friendly price tag. Naturally, when they asked if we’d like to review it, we were happy to agree.
The Moza Racing KS Steering Wheel we’ll be reviewing is available in the Moza Webshop for €309.00, excluding shipping. There’s also a version that includes a hub kit, allowing the wheel to be used on other wheelbases besides Moza Racing’s own. This version is priced at €339.00, also excluding shipping.
Packaging & Contents
Shipped from Moza Racing’s home base in China, the KS Steering Wheel took just five days to arrive at our door via DHL. It came in a plain brown outer box, which held the actual product box for the wheel.
As we’ve come to expect from Moza, the product packaging is very neat and well-presented, featuring their signature white and light blue colors. The front of the box prominently displays a product photo of the KS Steering Wheel, with Moza’s branding in the top-left corner.
The excitement really begins when we open the box. The first thing we see is a neat ziplock bag containing the manual, a sheet of stickers, and a pair of tweezers. Beneath this, there’s a black fabric bag with the Moza branding in white.
To keep the unboxing experience interesting, we pull another bag from this fabric one—this time, it’s made from thicker white foam to protect the KS Steering Wheel. Finally, when we open the foam bag, we get our first look at the beautiful steering wheel, and we can’t wait to start testing it out.
The Moza Racing KS Steering Wheel
The Moza Racing KS Steering Wheel is a 300mm-wide, GT-style wheel with a housing made from durable plastic. A nice touch for a sleeker look is the use of carbon fiber within the plastic, giving it that characteristic “carbon look”. The contoured grips feel comfortable in our hands and are made from a non-sticky TPE material, which helps the wheel maintain its good looks over time.
On the front of the wheel, there are ten push buttons, each with LED backlighting. These are “Short Travel Buttons” that only need to be pressed 0.25mm, making them ultra-responsive. Above the grips on each side, there’s a thumb encoder for easy adjustments while driving. Instead of using two different joysticks on the front, Moza opted for two identical analog joysticks on the KS wheel, allowing free movement in any direction. They also double as push buttons for added functionality. The wheel’s front panel also contains three rotary encoders, arranged in a triangular pattern at the center. Each encoder can function as a +/- signal or as a step-based encoder with fixed values. Completing the front layout, there’s a black glass strip at the top of the wheel that houses 10 RPM LEDs, providing visual feedback during races.
On the back of the wheel, there are four aluminum paddles. The two on the top serve as shifters and feature neodymium magnets for a solid, satisfying feel during use. Moza opted for a contactless Hall sensor to transmit signals, which should give these shifters a much longer lifespan compared to traditional switches. For a finishing touch, the shifter paddles have a small layer of sound-dampening material to keep shifting noise to a minimum.
The bottom two paddles can be used as part of a dual-clutch system or can be reassigned as regular push buttons through Moza’s software. Lastly, there’s an RJ45 connector port on the back of the wheel. This port allows the wheel to connect directly to a PC if you choose to use the Moza wheel on a third-party wheelbase.
Assembly
Mounting the Moza Racing KS Steering Wheel is a straightforward process for us, as we’re attaching it directly to our Moza Racing R5 wheelbase. Conveniently, the KS wheel isn’t limited to Moza wheelbases only. For those using a non-Moza wheelbase, there’s a hub kit available. With this kit, you click an adapter into the wheel’s quick release, allowing it to connect with a third-party quick release. To transfer data, you can plug an RJ45 cable into the back of the wheel and connect it to the Moza hub. This hub then communicates with the PC via a USB connection.
Since we won’t be using this alternative setup, there’s just one optional step left—customizing the wheel with stickers. Using the included tweezers and sticker sheets, we place our chosen stickers on the buttons, adding a personal touch to the wheel. The sheets include round stickers for the push buttons, as well as a variety of other shapes that can cover the markings around the rotary knobs. There are also plenty of extra stickers, though some seem a bit unclear as to where they’d have to be placed.
Software
To start using the Moza Racing KS Steering Wheel, we first make sure to have the latest version of Moza’s software, called Moza Pithouse, installed on our PC. Once we attach the wheel to our wheelbase, it’s automatically detected in the software and immediately appears on the main menu. When we click “More” on the KS wheel panel in the main menu, or select the wheel icon in the right menu bar, we’re taken to the wheel’s dedicated settings menu.
When we’re in the wheel menu, we see a nice display of the KS steering wheel on the left and a row of settings on the right. Here, we can choose the functions for the clutch paddles at the back of the wheel, adjust the bite point of the clutch, set the functionality of the rotary knobs, and customize the joysticks.
In the software, we can not only configure button functions but also adjust the rev lights on the front of the wheel. Initially, we can choose to use these lights as a rev indicator, turn them off, or keep them on all the time. In our case, we’ll use the LEDs as a rev indicator, with the option to decide whether we want the lights to activate LED by LED or in groups. We can also choose when the LEDs will light up—early, normal, or late—based on the car’s RPM. If none of these presets work for us, we can define the exact RPM percentage at which each LED should light up, as well as assign a specific color to each one. Lastly, we can adjust the brightness of all the lights on the wheel through the software.
However, adjusting the backlighting of the push buttons isn’t possible through the software. This function can only be accessed directly on the wheel by pushing both joysticks to the center and holding them there for a few seconds until the wheel briefly flashes. Once that’s done, pressing any button will cycle through the background lighting colors, with a total of 8 different colors available. While we find this process quick and easy, our preference would still be to have the option to adjust this in the software.
Using the Moza Racing KS Steering Wheel
With the wheel stickered up and the software installed, we’re ready to put the Moza Racing KS Steering Wheel to the test. We’ll be doing this by taking it for a few laps in both iRacing and Assetto Corsa.
Our first impression of the wheel starts the second we grab it. The grips have a nice thickness that provides a comfortable hold. This feeling is further enhanced by the smooth, silky texture of the rubber covering the grips. The material feels sturdy, is soft to the touch, and doesn’t feel sticky at all, which immediately makes us happy. The steering is very comfortable to use, especially with the 300mm width of the wheel. Thanks to its design, we can still feel the force feedback clearly, even with relatively low torque (5Nm) on our Moza R5 wheelbase. The light weight of the wheel also helps with this.
However, the light weight does have its downsides—rapid steering changes can sometimes feel a bit numb or lack feedback. Additionally, when driving over curbs, the wheel vibrates quite a bit, and it can feel and sound a bit fragile. This makes us curious about how the wheel would feel on a stronger wheelbase. Unfortunately, since we only have one Moza wheelbase, which is compatible with this wheel, and no stronger Moza wheelbase to test it on, we can’t provide you with an answer regarding that issue.
A second positive impression we have of the wheel is that the lighting is really sharp, making the wheel look even more impressive. For the rev lights, Moza has opted for small, round LEDs that are spaced slightly apart. This minimalist design choice really appeals to us because it gives clear RPM information without distracting us with overly large or bright lights.
In practice, however, we do encounter a small inconsistency. While driving the Formula 3 car in iRacing, we sometimes notice a slight delay in the rev light activation. Occasionally, the lights lag by about a second, so even after shifting up to the next gear, the lights still show that we’re at maximum revs. This can be a bit annoying, especially since we don’t have any RPM indication on our screen.
As for the controls, we have very little to complain about. The push buttons on the wheel are placed well, making them easy to reach while driving. They offer a nice resistance with a short travel, exactly how we like it. One potential downside for some sim racers could be that the buttons produce a relatively loud click when pressed, but we don’t find this bothersome on this particular wheel. The backlighting of the buttons is also pleasant. It is nice and clear, and we’ve set it to 80% brightness because the full intensity was just a bit too strong for our liking. Unfortunately, the stickers somewhat hinder the positives of the backlighting of the buttons. The black part of the stickers isn’t very dense, so the light shines through the printed areas, even at lower brightness levels; giving them a bit of a vague appearence.
Changing the button backlight color is very simple. By pressing both joysticks inward (the left joystick to the right and the right joystick to the left) and holding them for a few seconds, we enter the adjustment mode. Then, with a simple press of the desired button, the background lighting of that button changes. A small downside of this mode is that there’s no clear indication of whether we’re still in it. The wheel briefly flashes when entering this mode, but no LED shows whether you’re still in the adjustment mode. The confusion is compounded by the fact that the same flashing happens when exiting the mode by pressing the joysticks inward again. In practice, we won’t use this feature often and it will mainly be for initial setup of the backlighting.
The joysticks mentioned earlier are nicely placed on the wheel, making them easy to operate with our thumbs. Both joysticks are fully movable with no play, so they feel direct and of high quality. While we’re definitely fans of having an analog joystick on the wheel, two might be a bit much for our liking. We would have preferred one analog stick and one funky-switch, but that’s purely personal preference and doesn’t take away from the quality of the wheel itself.
Lastly, on the front of the wheel, there are two thumb encoders and three rotary encoders. The thumb encoders are surprisingly nice to use. They’re simple plastic encoders, but they feel solid with just the right amount of resistance when turning, and they provide clear feedback as we rotate them with our thumbs. The three rotary encoders on the front of the wheel are also simple but effective. They feel solid, have a resistance that hits the sweet spot for us, and click clearly into their new position after turning. It’s something that brings a smile to our face every time we use them.
The controls on the back of the wheel also impress us. Although the shift paddles don’t have adjustable options, they are surprisingly well-positioned for our hands. The magnetic shift modules feel solid and offer just the right amount of resistance—not too heavy, but definitely not too light either. This makes them feel very pleasant and firm while driving.
The clutch paddles, on the other hand, feel a bit simpler. The paddles themselves are positioned well, but the resistance feels slightly spongy because it comes from a relatively light linear spring. That said, we can’t really complain about them, as the fact that a wheel in this price range comes with a dual-clutch system as standard is already a massive plus on its own.
Conclusion
After thoroughly testing the Moza Racing KS Steering Wheel, we are quite positive about it. Moza has introduced a wheel to the market at a relatively low price which certainly doesn’t feel like a low price steering wheel.
The 300mm wide wheel looks sharp and is also comfortable to hold. In terms of operation, there’s not much to say about the wheel other than the fact that it does exactly what we expect from a wheel. The buttons have good resistance and a short travel, the rotary encoders provide great feedback, and even the shift modules on the back of the wheel are very pleasant to use, despite the lack of adjustability. Combined with the clear lighting on the wheel and the fact that this price range includes two clutch paddles, Moza has once again released a product that offers great “bang for your buck” with the KS wheel.
However, the wheel isn’t completely free from criticism, and there are a couple of points we have some reservations about. The first issue is that in some cases, the RPM lighting seems “out of sync,” with the feedback on the wheel not properly reflecting the in-game RPM. Fortunately, this seems to be a software issue, which might be patched in a future update. The second issue is that, at times, with some fluctuating force feedback, the wheel can feel a bit fragile.
Overall, we feel that the positive aspects far outweigh the negatives, and we can confidently say that the Moza KS Steering Wheel is well worth its price. With a starting price of €309.00 excluding shipping on the Moza Webshop, the KS wheel is very reasonably priced for what you get in return.
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