I’m about to order a road bike and am in a quandary about which wheels to spec. The options are:

Mavic Aksium One (heavy)
Mavic Cosmic Elite S (heavyish 35mm rims) – +£140
Mavic ksyrium Elite S (rims prone to cracking) – +£300

I’d be grateful of real world experiences of these rims. Any largish guys used Ksyriums for a decent period of time without them cracking?

Thanks.

Mavic ksyrium Elite S’s here. For me the sweet spot for value/ weight/ strength. I have raced, offroaded and rode them down staircases and they are as true as the day they left the factory. I am not a feather weight either. The freehub is easily serviced as well.

Ksyrium Elites if you can afford them/justify the cost. Aksiums if you can’t. Very little aero benefit from the Cosmics so I’d not bother with those as a halfway house.

Thanks guys. Drover – I live up north but the inlaws live in Herefordshire and I often find myself out Hay way on a Gospel Pass loop. I’ll make sure I pop in next time I’m over there.

Why Mavic only?…and 300% price variation? They are all different.

RS80s seem to get most votes in the middle of your price bracket, personally I went for a Stans Alpha build.

Of those three listed I would, if I had the budget, buy the Ksyrium Elites. Whether the Cosmic offer any aero advantage or not is negated, in my view, by their weight. If you want to run these wheels for general riding, the weight will go against them as soon as the road goes up hill (and where any aero advantage there might be will be reduced to almost zero).

If you can afford the Ksyriums then perhaps also look at the Shimano Dura Ace C24, which is very light indeed and very robust. Although the rim sidewalls are quite thin and can wear quickly if you ride a lot in poor weather, they are still very reliable.

If you shop around you can find them for around £625, so more expensive than the Mavics but lighter.

If you can’t stretch to that then like Al I’d personally prefer a light handbuilt set. The Archetype rim can be built pretty light with lower spoke counts. I haven’t any experience of the road rims from Stans but I’m sure they are also very good.

It is hard to fault the Elites. I had a rear derailleur fall into the wheel at speed during a race, locking the wheel and it remained true. To be honest, Mavic Open Pros built with Sapim CX Ray spokes will give the same performance at a lower cost. Hubs to taste and budget. The profile of the two rims is the same. Forget the Cosmics.

As an aside, IME rims are pretty much rims these days (for road at least) – I don’t think there is a bad one, so talk of one being better than another is a bit moot apart from fragility at the lighter end, braking on carbon rims etc.

FWIW I’d go ksyrium too, mostly due to weight.

Sapim CX Ray spokes will give

Any study showing any aero benefit for bladed over round?

Thanks for your views. I’m limited to those wheels by the spec options that the shop has (Dolan) and I know I could just sell them on and buy whatever I want but TBH I can’t be bothered with the hassle of advertising, packaging, posting etc.

The only thing putting me off the Ksyriums is the reports of the rims cracking at the spoke holes. Anyone experienced this?

Elites IMO

Shop around for the best offer and make sure the retailer is a pro/prem/prem+ dealer so you can get the MP3 crash cover

The only thing putting me off the Ksyriums is the reports of the rims cracking at the spoke holes. Anyone experienced this?

No, and never even heard of it. Is it a new thing?

They’re awesome wheels and nice and stiff, so good for a tubby I’d have thought. I’m 75kg-ish.

+1 Ksyrium. A few winters on wet/icy/gritted/pot-holed roads and they’re still bob on. 75kg, not much grace and enjoy a bunny hop. Not heard of cracks…. Off to check now 😕

Where can you buy the Ksyriums wheel only? I can only find them with the tyre and tube combo…

I don’t think you can anymore. Mavic only sell “wheel systems”. Bit of a PITA really as people usually have their own tyre and tube preferences.

Yes but once the Mavic tyres wear out you can replace them with something really good like Veloflex open corsas. I have these tyres on Ksyrium SLs and can’t fault the combination; a stiff, light wheel that’s as true as the day I bought them and a super-comfortable tyre.

Any study showing any aero benefit for bladed over round?

There may be but the more compelling reason to use the CX Rays is that they are quite a bit lighter and stronger.

To be honest, I’d go with the Aksiums and then save the cash to get a set of aero wheels. Weight makes bugger all difference in all seriousness. I am just as quick on my road bike now it has Campag Zondas on it compared to the Fulcrum 7s I replaced and the difference between them is something like 500gs. I’d only worry about weight if I was doing back to back days in the Alps, even the pros seem to use deep rims on all but thre Cat1/HC days in le tour.

I also have a pair of Carbon Clinchers, old v-shape Gigantex rims on Novatec hubs, from 2011cycling2011 via ebay and they arent much heavier than the Zondas but I probably see a greater benefit based on their improived aero comapred to the weight saving from the F7s to the Zondas, essentiually they are the best of both worlds. Lighter than the F7s and a nominal aero benefit over the Zondas. As they have a carbon brake track, I use the Zondas for some of the year and the Carbon clinchers for the summer!

From all I know (and its not that much) Aero trumps weight on all but the steepest, longest climbs. If you look at your average speed on a ride, you spend more time over the average than below it, usually because the climbs are much slower dragging that average down so it amkes sense to optimise the time you are spending over the average, hence aero. The advantage you get from having better aero compared to lower weight must be worth it. And chicks dig deep rims.

eI know its rotational mass and has a different effect on the bikes ability to gain and hold speed, when I see people fret about the weight of their wheels then fill up two bidons and their pockets with energy bars at the start of a sportive with feed stops every 30 miles I do think the marketing teams have won another small victory.

even the pros seem to use deep rims on all but thre Cat1/HC days in le tour.

This is true but I read somewhere that the pros do actually get more benefit from the aero properties of their wheel even when climbing because the speed they are typically climbing at is high enough for this to happen. Which sort of proves your point even more but to say that most of us won’t be climbing at that kind of speed.

I also have a pair of Carbon Clinchers,

How deep are they out of interest?

50mm, they are nice wheels albeit not the latest design like the Zipp firecrests but for £300 they were a good buy. They do catch a strong wind but you only get caught by surprise and blown once before you start to keep an eye out for wind…….. and who hasnt been blown once and then worried about wind…. ba-doom-tish.