BladeGeek - I have Aksiums on my Giant. They've been rock solid for over 1500 miles this season. I'm looking to upgrade my wheels and the Kysrium SL's are on the list along with a few others (DA WH-7801 and then OpenPro with DA or Ultegra hubs).

Can you give me some more detail on the night and day difference that you experienced?

thanks!

I have a set of cosmos for training wheels and I have out 2000+ miles on them on some the country's roughest roads here in Louisiana. They have taken everything I have thrown at them. I even bunny hop over stuff on them with no ill effects.

Turning the nipples every few months will help, but what I suggest would be to give them to a wheel builder every 2 or 3 months service them and retension all the spokes. Once they seize, the wheel isn't shot, it just won't be able to be retensioned so it will lose heaps of stiffness and the handling will go soft.
Of course that won't really be a huge factor unless you are a racer, but you will feel it in crits.

Interestingly I think this is only on the silver 06 Elites, I heard a rambling that Mavic has sorted it out for the 07 wheels.

Unfortunately my set has gone soft and there is nothing I can do about it. Still a good training wheel though.

Aksium's are made in China

So, would the Askiums be an improvement over a Shimano WH-R550 wheelset? I handled a pair yesterday at the LBS and they seem to be built a bit more solidly (not as delicate) than the Shimanos. Just wondering...and didn't want to start a whole new thread.

Mike