my58vw

Hello all,

I just got from my LBS and we were talking about fixed track wheelsets. I told them I was looking for something I could ride on the track with, but then use brakes on the street (fixed). They recommended the Mavic Ellipse track wheelset. Now I was searching online and someone said Mavic does not have brake tracks for standard road bike brakes. Is that true? Can they be used with brakes?

Riding brakeless is suicide around here!

dmc

as far as i know they can be used with brakes but have annodized sidewalls (since they are all black) that will eventually start to rub off and look bad with heavy braking.

so i dont think there is any problems doing it, but they probably wont look pretty after a while.

Learn_not2burn

Get cane creek volos, cooler looking hubs, and I don't think they have the weird 44mm chainline that the Mavics have. Plus minus french threading on the lockring. Oh yeah check bikebiz or whatever on FGG for a really cheap online deal on Ellipse if you end up getting them.

dutret

It's not just that they will start to look bad. There is a more impotant reason why they don't exist anymore. Anodized braking surfaces really really suck.

Build something with an openpro or something if you want to use it on the street. Not quite as cool looking but alot more functional

poopslush

It could be done, but would you really want to on a nice wheelset like that? If it was my decision, I'd build up something more traditional and with a machined surface.

dutret

I think the volos are anodized too. You could call cane creek and see if you could get a pair with the volos road machined rim but probably not.

my58vw

I am not so interested in the look of the braking surfaces, and I will be using them mostly on the track anyway. I will look into the cane creek wheels, but the mavics seem bombproof!

Also, I am planning on using them only fixed (I have another set of wheels with freewheels (16 and 18) on them, but can they be used with freewheels?

dutret

Of course. A well built openpro/something decent will be just as bulletproof. But if you want a fancy set I can highly reccomend the volos based on thier road wheels.

Tangsooyuk

yes, they are "bombproof" wheelset. yes, they can be used with a freewheel. yes, you can run a brake with them if you wish. braking will not suffer and it will wear off pretty quickly.

dutret

both of those are incorrect unless anodizing has changed alot from the late 80 early 90's.

Tangsooyuk

well I have not noticed any dif. with the two sets that I have owned or the more than 1500 miles I have put on them. also, at least 3 people I know have worn theirs down to plain silver in under a week.

dutret

I've have two sets with unknown thousands of miles on each. Streaks are apparent in the grey but they never wore down to sliver. Also I can tell a huge difference in braking power between them and machined rims.

visitordesign

did you see the pic ImOnCrank had posted of his anodized black sugino 75's after just a bit of strap rub? bye-bye anodizing. i think there are a few different anodizing processes--some yielding more durable coatings than others.

baxtefer

one of those statements is partially false.

braking will suffer, but only in the wet
regular ol anodizing will wear off pretty fast. Dutret, i think you're thinking of mavic's hard anodized rims.

dutret

At least with the ones I have braking suffers always. The unmachined surface is not as flat as a machined one. This can be seen from the transverse lines in the wear pattern of the anodizing.

At least one of the wheelsets was not mavic,did anyone else do it?

baxtefer

yeah, a few. pretty common in the 80's. campy hardox rims come to mind.

my experience has always been that braking suffers until you "machine" the rims with the pads

dutret

If after thousands of miles of use its not "machined" yet I think you can safely say it brakes worse then a machined rim in all conditions.

baxtefer

that's one of the reasons why they stopped making hard anodized rims.

regular anodizing is gone in a matter of a couple hundred miles

visitordesign

2 sets of what?

dutret

older wheels with hard anodized rims.

visitordesign

yeah. sometimes i fail to expound on all of the minutiae of things that i discuss in here as well. it sucks when people misconstrue it and jump on me about it. so... i wanted to ask before i made any assumptions. thanks.

Daveonabike

mavics rule, brakes work very good, I have 120 miles on my set.

mcatano

The wheels I built for my ladypal are hard anodized sun mistral 650c semi-aeros. When I put the brake on the front at first with the stock shimano pads, it was noticeably weak in terms of stopping power. I switched to the salmon kool stops and things were drastically improved - those things will grip anything well.

She's been riding the bike for several months now and there are a few streaks in the finish, but no serious wear. I can't see them getting worn down to the silver in this lifetime.