Want to upgrade Mavic Elite wheels. Any thoughts?



Lawguy661

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Jan 17, 2006
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Hello all. I am new to this forum and relatively new to cycling. I started to get back into cycling, for exercise and fun, in March of last year. I bought a Specialized Sirrus and road it for months before getting the upgrade itch. In December, I broke down and bought a Cannondale Six13 Team 2 (compact). I LOVE the Six13 (and accordingly the Sirrus sits in the garage, awaiting a rainy day).

Now, for the meat of this post. I am looking to upgrade wheels, as I plan on racing in my local bicycle club's time trial series. The Six13 came with bladed (really bladed) Mavic Elites. Any thoughts? I don't want to spend crazy $$$ (so Zipp is probably out of the question).

Thanks for any help.
 
Lawguy661 said:
Hello all. I am new to this forum and relatively new to cycling. I started to get back into cycling, for exercise and fun, in March of last year. I bought a Specialized Sirrus and road it for months before getting the upgrade itch. In December, I broke down and bought a Cannondale Six13 Team 2 (compact). I LOVE the Six13 (and accordingly the Sirrus sits in the garage, awaiting a rainy day).

Now, for the meat of this post. I am looking to upgrade wheels, as I plan on racing in my local bicycle club's time trial series. The Six13 came with bladed (really bladed) Mavic Elites. Any thoughts? I don't want to spend crazy $$$ (so Zipp is probably out of the question).

Thanks for any help.
Mavic Ksyrium (I'm assuming that's what you have) Elites are a good solid wheel that can be raced or used for training and it's a good set to have for everyday use (I have about 13k miles on mine and I'm over 200 lbs). They roll well and the bladed spokes are pretty aero. I also have a set of Campy Euros, which are noticeably faster, especially on the flats. They have a slightly deeper profile and fewer spokes so they are a bit more aero and at least 100 grams lighter than my Elite's. I have a couple friends that have Velomax Ascents that they swear by. The ascent is a climbers wheel, but the Tempest is more of an aero model. Good luck.
:cool:
 
Hello Lawguy and welcome to the Forum...

You might be interested in this comparo with reviews of Mavic's full range of Wheels....they range up to about $1800....have you considered the SSC SL's? I've heard great things about them and have never had a problem with mine...

Like they say, half the fun is in the Shopping, there's a lot to learn about Wheels...more than I ever thought possible anyway...

Good luck in the TT's!!

Lawguy661 said:
Hello all. I am new to this forum and relatively new to cycling. I started to get back into cycling, for exercise and fun, in March of last year. I bought a Specialized Sirrus and road it for months before getting the upgrade itch. In December, I broke down and bought a Cannondale Six13 Team 2 (compact). I LOVE the Six13 (and accordingly the Sirrus sits in the garage, awaiting a rainy day).

Now, for the meat of this post. I am looking to upgrade wheels, as I plan on racing in my local bicycle club's time trial series. The Six13 came with bladed (really bladed) Mavic Elites. Any thoughts? I don't want to spend crazy $$$ (so Zipp is probably out of the question).

Thanks for any help.
this
 
Sorry, the Link didn't work in my last post so here it is...
http://www.roadbikereview.com/mfr/mavic-inc/wheelsets/MPL_5793_2490CRX.ASPX

Lawguy661 said:
Hello all. I am new to this forum and relatively new to cycling. I started to get back into cycling, for exercise and fun, in March of last year. I bought a Specialized Sirrus and road it for months before getting the upgrade itch. In December, I broke down and bought a Cannondale Six13 Team 2 (compact). I LOVE the Six13 (and accordingly the Sirrus sits in the garage, awaiting a rainy day).

Now, for the meat of this post. I am looking to upgrade wheels, as I plan on racing in my local bicycle club's time trial series. The Six13 came with bladed (really bladed) Mavic Elites. Any thoughts? I don't want to spend crazy $$$ (so Zipp is probably out of the question).

Thanks for any help.
 
I went through the same thought process myself. Have Elites, but want to upgrade to something lighter and potentially more aero. In addition to that, I want something I can ride everyday.

I was leaning toward the Rolf Prima Vigors, but have changed my mind on those primarily for cosmetic reasons (although I am also a little nervous about the paired spoke design). The AC 420's are in that same class but I have heard such mixed reviews on their hubs that I am shying away from them.

I had a hard time finding any other factory wheelset that has a semi-aero profile (i.e. 30mm or larger), is in the 1500g or lower weight category, and is something I would feel comfortable riding everyday.

So my plan is to have a set custom built, most likely by Mike Garcia at Oddsandendos.com (with the Niobium 30 rims). Will end up with a wheel with a slightly deeper aero profile than the Elites that can be my everyday wheelset and they will be about 2/3rds of a pound lighter than the Elites. All at a very reasonable price.
 
Falstaff said:
I went through the same thought process myself. Have Elites, but want to upgrade to something lighter and potentially more aero. In addition to that, I want something I can ride everyday.

I was leaning toward the Rolf Prima Vigors, but have changed my mind on those primarily for cosmetic reasons (although I am also a little nervous about the paired spoke design). The AC 420's are in that same class but I have heard such mixed reviews on their hubs that I am shying away from them.

I had a hard time finding any other factory wheelset that has a semi-aero profile (i.e. 30mm or larger), is in the 1500g or lower weight category, and is something I would feel comfortable riding everyday.

So my plan is to have a set custom built, most likely by Mike Garcia at Oddsandendos.com (with the Niobium 30 rims). Will end up with a wheel with a slightly deeper aero profile than the Elites that can be my everyday wheelset and they will be about 2/3rds of a pound lighter than the Elites. All at a very reasonable price.


Curcults. 28mm vs 24 for Elites and about 100g lighter.
 
shokhead said:
Curcults. 28mm vs 24 for Elites and about 100g lighter.
I considered those. But the Niobium 30s are slightly deeper (30mm) and 300g lighter than the Elites. Price is similar (although I'm sure you could get the Circuits for less via ebay).
 
Thanks for all the help. It appears I have some searching to do. I know I want a deeper rim than the Elite's have (which I believe is 24mm).
 
Lawguy661 said:
Thanks for all the help. It appears I have some searching to do. I know I want a deeper rim than the Elite's have (which I believe is 24mm).

Really,unless your racing alot or avg 30mph,the aero rim just isnt a big enough deal,imo.
 
Just got a set of Campy Eurus after looking for similar general requirements as you. Haven't gotten to ride them yet, but by all accounts I could find pre-purchase, they are a definite contender in your search. Good luck!
 
I looked at the nice prebuilt wheelsets on offer (Ksyrium SL, Shimano DA, Easton Orion) but settled for a custom build.

This was for my mountain bike, but there is a road version of the rim from the same company:

Rims: DT Swiss XR 4.1d (the road rim version is named RR 1.1)
Spokes: DT Swiss Supercomp, 32 spokes/wheel
Hubs: DT Swiss 240s, 32 hole

This combo ends up on-par if not lighter than Ksyrium SLs, and costs less. And is a completely traditional wheel build -- no special spokes, spoke tools, hub whatevers, any of that stuff; they're easily serviceable by any LBS, or even by yourself at home if you know the basics of wheel construction.

When built by a good wheelbuilder, properly tensioned and stress-relieved, let me give you an idea of how strong these wheels are. I was doing some semi-urban mountain biking, pinch flatted my rear wheel on a sharp kerb, and then a few metres later had to do a 1 metre drop to flat concrete on a FLAT TYRE. The wheels stayed perfectly true. There was a slight bend in the rim wall at the point of impact, but I didn't even notice until a couple of weeks later.

I've actually got a similar build for my road bike; but with Ritchey OCR rims and 28 DT Aerolite (front) and Aerospeed (rear) spokes. Not that I ordered it like that (I was going to get exactly what I mentioned above), but the LBS had one of those already built and thought eh, I'll just take those. In hindsight they're a bit too light on the "light vs. strong" compromise, I've broken one spoke in the past year. Never needed regular truing though.
 
Jaguar27 said:
Hello Lawguy and welcome to the Forum...

You might be interested in this comparo with reviews of Mavic's full range of Wheels....they range up to about $1800....have you considered the SSC SL's? I've heard great things about them and have never had a problem with mine...

this

Mavic has disontinued the Ksyrium SSC SL model in late '04. It's been replaced by the Ksyrium SL. They look essentially the same except that it is lighter and comes only in silver finish.