It’s less than eight months since Mavic owner Amer Sports bought Enve. They were keeping the brands distinct at Eurobike, but Mavic wheels are starting to show up with Carbon rims, and new colour options beyond the default yellow too.
Edit, September 12th: Mavic have been in touch to emphasise that, while both owned by Amer Sports, Mavic and Enve are completely separate companies, and this includes both their R&D and production. Mavic have developed their carbon rims entirely in house.
The XA Elite wheels are available in signature black and yellow of course…… but also green…… and blue!They all have matching rim decals. The rims are hookless, with a 25mm internal width.The finish on the aluminium rims is gorgeous. 650b wheelset comes in at 1695g, without tyres.The XA Pro Carbon wheels come at 1550g without tyres.Aluminium hubs, and what a finish. Rims are once again hookless and intended for 2.4 tyres.The Crossmax Elite is a more XC oriented wheelet, weighing in at 1635g per set and intended for 2.1 or 2.25 tyres.Available in this very shiny red…… or of course black and yellow.The Crossmax Pro Carbon shave the weight per set down to 1470g without tyres.You’ll pay a premium €1700 for that though. Insert your own monocle popping face and “You could buy a mountain bike/car/motorbike/caravan/etc. for that!” speech bubble if required.The new, all mountain oriented Deemax Pro wheeset lacks the loud graphics of the Deemax DH, but gains a new front tyre: a 2.4 Claw Pro XL, designed to work with the 28mm internal width front rim. Rear wheel has an internal rim width of 25mm.
David started mountain biking in the 90’s, by which he means “Ineptly jumping a Saracen Kili Racer off anything available in a nearby industrial estate”. After growing up and living in some extremely flat places, David moved to Yorkshire specifically for the mountain biking. This felt like a horrible mistake at first, because the hills are so steep, but you get used to them pretty quickly.
Previously, David trifled with road and BMX, but mountain bikes always won. He’s most at peace battering down a rough trail, quietly fixing everything that does to a bike, or trying to figure out if that one click of compression damping has made things marginally better or worse. The inept jumping continues to this day.
