From Weight Weenies:

"Hi all - thanks for your reports on Exalith wheels. We appreciate the comments.

It's a completely new application of this ultra-hard surface treatment so the Mavic engineers had quite a bit of work to perfect the braking performance and still deliver the expected benefits. For example just the brake surface texture required many iterations and lots of testing to refine.

It's possible to damage the Exalith surface. It's super hard and 10 microns thick, but not impervious. For example, if you get a piece of sand or grit stuck in your brake pads, it could eventually wear a silver streak into your brake track. (Quartz is harder than Exalith). Or, if you need to true your wheels and you use a truing stand with metal arms, repeated contact of the metal (steel) arms on the brake track could cause Exalith to wear. (Steel is harder than Exalith).

For those with persistant brake squeal noise: one thing we've noticed is that a loose fit between brake pad and carrier can cause vibration and noise. I experienced it with DA7900 brakes. The pads fit loosely in the carriers, so I shimmed them with tape on the back of the pad. The tighter fit made the noise go away.

thanks - mavic zack"

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/fo...hp?f=3&t=88303