Wheel upgrade
 

I am looking to upgrade my Mavic CXP22 wheels.
How much difference would Mavic Ksyrium Equipe wheels make? The Elites would be nice but they are a bit outsde my budget. Would the Equipes feel more responsive, stiffer and livelier, which is what I am looking forward? Or, is not not worth the extra money for just a minimal improvement?

Thanks in advance
Brendan O'Sullivan
Ontario
Canada

While they look like racey wheels they are not terribly light and I doubt any more stiff than your current set of wheels. To make it worse, Mavic hubs have more issues than any other hub I have seen on the market. What is your budget as I think Mavic wheel sets leave a lot to be desired for the money.

+1 to that. i also feel mavics and the other big flashy names cost to much for what they are. There are plenty other options that are better wheels for the same price

And lets not forget the proprietary spokes.

Brendon, I have a set of CXP22 wheels. They are not what a weight weenie would look at nor a high ranking club rider, but they're a good rim for the recreational cyclist.

Brad

Ditto if the spokes are proprietary. Several friends with Mavic wheels needing spokes have found they are not available for wheels ~8 yrs old.
So lack a few parts retailing for $3-4 means wheel sets worth 100x that get junked.

Thank you very much for all the informative information
It appears that Mavic are not the way to go.
I was wondering if people could suggest good wheels in the $600 range which would be a good upgrade although I realise that to really feel a difference , one has to be prepared to spend considerably more.

Thanks in advance
Brendan

if you arent super heavy vuelta corsa race is like 1366grams and can be found for like 450$-5xx. The corsa slr or super lite are also good bang for the buck. Boyd and a few others also have good wheels but it depends what you want in a wheel set

Funny, my biggest issues with the SLs I have owned have been with the rims; they crack if you look at them wrong.

To make matters worse, MAVIC won't sell components to consumers so you have pay to have it rebuilt and it ends up costing as much as a new wheel.

Just say NO to MAVIC...

$600 range - Pacenti SL23 laced to Pacenti hubs (they're currently on sale) by a custom builder will be that price.

Mavic will not sell RIMS to consumers for their prebuilt wheels. They want to make sure that if one of their wheels is rebuilt that it will be done to their standards. I do no consider this to be a bad policy. On a similar note, I had a rear rim replaced on my Campagnolo Shamal wheelset 3 years ago by Cycles Marinoni the biggest Canadian Campagnolo distributor. It has been completely trouble free ever since

I'm riding a HED Ardennes+ wheelset. They are amazing. The wider (25mm) rims make a real difference in comfort and purchase on the road and there's no speed penalty. They're on sale for $599 right now at Competitive Cyclist. HED Ardennes Plus LT Road Wheelset - Clincher | Competitive Cyclist

If their rims did not need replacing so often (and for no apparent reason; I am not a hard rider) I would be more impressed with "their standards".

I'm glad your wheel was rebuilt well but in truth I have been building, repairing and truing wheels for years and could do it quite easily, given the opportunity...

Couldn't agree more. Have had Ksyrium Elite and Ksryium SL and failures with both. The Elite rim dented on the brake track when riding over train tracks I take every Saturday. Maybe a freak thing but then the spoke nipples on the SL set started crumbling apart. Try to replace them and they crumble the minute the proprietary spoke wrench touches it. Mavic will happily re-lace to a new rim for $350. Ridiculous.

I will stick to other rims with great hubs and more conventional spokes and would recommend others to do the same.

that policy must change from country to country then. I didn't have any problems buying a new Elite rim when I needed one. Just walked into a shop, article number in hand and had them order one for me. And I'm not any kind of preferred customer or anything like that.

This I can agree with! I have never liked them at all as a company and even though for a while they did have the best road options they have refused to evolve their rims and just work on their wheel systems and have fallen behind the curve in my opinion. To top it off, their customer service is pretty horrid so I would much rather support companies who sound excited each time I call.

I have been in the bike industry for around 10 years on both the manufacturer side and retail shop side and have never once been offered training other than offering access to their dealer site. They only sell to shops simply because it is easier for them and they do not have to spend as much time on the phone with customer service.

Another person who Got rim confused with wheel again, as I see, looking up CXP22..

http://www.dalescycles.com/component..._black_rim.jpg

It may make You feel like you should be pushing your self Harder to justify spending the Money..

the effort, not the parts, will Make you Faster .. :rolleyes:

2 Expensive tires may make more sense ..

Fulcrum Racing 5 or 7.

Shimano RS81 C24, 1530g less than $500. Never had any problem with any Shimano wheel and I'm 200+lbs.

I think the problem with Mavic is that they want big minimum wheel buys before they will sell rims, so most lbs's don't bother. It's not like the wheels are particularly special.

Since the demise of my latest (and last) Ksyriums I put on a pair of R550s I had laying around and they seem to be doing just fine...