Kysrium elite wheels
- Thread starter obxbes
- Start date
Spoke hole cracking?
How many miles are on it?
How much do you weigh?
What are your road conditions?
Are you a strong and/or abusive rider or racer?
Mavic USA contact info: https://www.bing.com/search?q=Mavic+USA+Phone+Number&FORM=QSRE1
IIRC Mavic has a 2-year warranty on their K-Elites. I've managed to kill a whole bunch of rims in my 45-year career, including a few Mavics (an Aksium, a couple of Open Pro's...all cracked at the spoke holes). That is what happens to rims that get used.
How many miles are on it?
How much do you weigh?
What are your road conditions?
Are you a strong and/or abusive rider or racer?
Mavic USA contact info: https://www.bing.com/search?q=Mavic+USA+Phone+Number&FORM=QSRE1
IIRC Mavic has a 2-year warranty on their K-Elites. I've managed to kill a whole bunch of rims in my 45-year career, including a few Mavics (an Aksium, a couple of Open Pro's...all cracked at the spoke holes). That is what happens to rims that get used.
Ksyrium Elite is a low spoke count, high tension wheel.
Not a recipe for durability.
Depending on your weight and accumulated mileage, your wheels may be simply lifed out.
Don't expect much from contacting Mavic.
I've replaced a rim on a Ksyrium Elite before. Used the Mavic tech site to identify the article number, then had a lbs order a rim for me. Being able to do the job myself, I managed to stay below the cost of a used wheel. Having someone rebuild the wheel for you would destroy the economy of the repair.
Not a recipe for durability.
Depending on your weight and accumulated mileage, your wheels may be simply lifed out.
Don't expect much from contacting Mavic.
I've replaced a rim on a Ksyrium Elite before. Used the Mavic tech site to identify the article number, then had a lbs order a rim for me. Being able to do the job myself, I managed to stay below the cost of a used wheel. Having someone rebuild the wheel for you would destroy the economy of the repair.
Thanks for the reply. Yes spoke hole crack. Weigh 190. Rim only has 6900 miles on it. 6 months past warranty. Will give mavic a shot and see if they do anything for me
Not impressive life. I'm currently riding K-Elites, got them at a bargain price with a new frame so thought I'd give them a try. I've noticed the rear spokes are not evenly tensioned, and the wheel is way out of balance. Not qualities I'd expect from a wheelset that retails for circa $800USD.
My old Velomax Circuit rear wheel went 30K miles before a rim crack, never needed truing. The spokes were evenly tensioned; hand-finished by guys with tuning forks if the video can be believed. And my last wheelset, RR1450s from DTSwiss, is still doing fine after 10K plus miles. The quality, judged by just the spoke tension evenness and the wheel balance, appears a cut above the Elites.
dabac, would you recommend that I go through the new Elite and even up the spoke tension? On the NDS, just from plunking the spokes, it appears every other one is tight or loose. I can borrow a Park spoke tension gauge, or perhaps take the wheel over to my LBS wheelbuilder and have him do the job. Not sure it that would get me anything....
My old Velomax Circuit rear wheel went 30K miles before a rim crack, never needed truing. The spokes were evenly tensioned; hand-finished by guys with tuning forks if the video can be believed. And my last wheelset, RR1450s from DTSwiss, is still doing fine after 10K plus miles. The quality, judged by just the spoke tension evenness and the wheel balance, appears a cut above the Elites.
dabac, would you recommend that I go through the new Elite and even up the spoke tension? On the NDS, just from plunking the spokes, it appears every other one is tight or loose. I can borrow a Park spoke tension gauge, or perhaps take the wheel over to my LBS wheelbuilder and have him do the job. Not sure it that would get me anything....
Ive been using them for 3 months or so and they've been good. Much lighter than my rs500's and true straight out of the box. I have a few slightly bent spokes on the rear wheel from being bumped by another bike 2 weeks ago, still true. I may not be the right one to ask since I've had them for a short while and am a light weight at 6'4" and 165 pounds. I love them so far.
That might extend the life of your spokes, but how much it actually does for the rim is hard to say.
Except for in radially spoked wheels, spokes doesn't follow exactly the same path from hub to rim. Particularly for interlaced spokes.
If you do a build relying (too much) on number of turns on the nipples you get that every 2nd spoke tension difference.
The Elites run high spoke tensions. The spec for my year said 140-160 kg.
And the spoke profile (width/thickness) isn't in the chart that comes with the Park tensiometers. Think I got a number from Park Tech support.
Basically you either have to set DS tension/dish almost right first, then use NDS to finish the job.
Or you need to manually push the rim sideways to unload the DS spokes as you go about tensioning them.
According to above, I'd recommend only using a wheelbuilder/mechanic that you trust, one that's used to working low spoke count wheels if you want your Elites touched up.
dabac, thanks for the detailed response. Believe I'll take your advice and not touch the wheels myself. When they need truing, would be better to take them to my trusted LBS wheelbuilder. I've done minor truing before on 28 and 32 spoke wheels, but 20 spoke high-tension wheels could prove to be too much. I did notice the DS spokes seem to be highly tensioned.
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