Originally Posted by
2ndGen
Cosmic Carbon SL's...does anyone ride these?

SLRs, with the bladed carbon spokes.
I got the set for about what I was looking to pay for just an aero front wheel, since I have a PowerTap rear wheel. Still haven't ridden the rear wheel, it even has the plastic wrapping around the freehub still on it. At 200+ lbs, I've chewed up a few 20-spoke rear wheels, and I don't want to do that to the SLR rear. If I can drop 15-20 lbs (yeah, right) and decide to get a Quarq, I might ride it.
The front is nice, though. It's pretty doggone aero - enough that I can feel the difference on descents and intervals, and it's not that much heavier than my normal non-aero wheel - DT Swiss 240 hub laced to a DT Swiss RR415 rim. IIRC that DT wheel is about 650g, and the SLR is about 700 - after adding rim tape, tube, and tire the 50g difference is pretty negligible. And despite using Sapim CX Rays, that DT wheel is about as aero as a brick when compared to the SLR.
The SLR front is great - stiff, tracks well, and I love the aluminum brake track. I tend to use the SLR as my climbing wheel and not only my "go not so slow" wheel because it's so much more fun on descents - it doesn't just feel faster, I've found myself going 3-4 mph faster with the SLR than I go with my DT front. I usually have a 23 Michelin PR3 on the SLR, and a Conti GP4000 25 on the DT wheel, as the DT wheel is not only my "just riding around" wheel, I also use it with its 25 on some of the rougher roads around here.
The one annoyance I have with the SLR is the valve stem sometimes gets into a real rattle mode against the carbon-fibre wheel fairing (yeah, it's just a fairing - so what). When it gets into that mode, every little imperfection in the ground causes the valve stem to rattle against the fairing, which is thin and hollow and seems to amplify the rattles.