Mavic Open Pro Ceramic rims
 

Hi.
I am thinking of getting a new set of wheels for training and some racing where I don't want to risk my Ritchey wheels. Does anyone have any experience with Mavic Open Pro Ceramic rims? They claim pretty nice things, but is it really true or just marketing hype? Tried googling, but couldn't really find any reviews.

Thanks.

I don't think I've ever heard a convincing and definitive answer to this, even from people who should know.

ceramic is just the braking surface right? I don't find my OP to be any stickier than any other machined alu. braking surface.

b.

Somebody once told me that you have to use ceramic specific brake pads with ceramic rims. I don't know if that's true or not, but it turned me off from them since I swapped wheels quite often back then.

I found that the braking surface was less grippy and had more of a squeeze feel to them.
Make sure you have ceramic specific pads. They are something to grow onto.
I believe their claim to fame is the braking characteristics of them while riding in the rain.
Modulation of the brakes combined with the squishy feel seemed to prevent lock-ups.

I have Mavic ceramic rims on 3 of the 4 bikes in my fleet.
First installation was my Spectrum touring bike in 1996. Nobody seemed to make a ceramic-specific brake pad at the time --at least nothing that fit my Campy Record dual pivot brakes. Went through those pads in about 3 months. Replacement set has been on ever since --thousands of miles.
OTOH, my Serotta has had ceramic rims for 6 years with Kool Stop green pads. No problems, no issues.
In general ceramic rims are like the first time you drove a car with power brakes: a bit touchy, but you get used to it. Performance is outstanding in the wet. I've gone over Alpine passes in pouring rain and had a relatively normal descent --something you can't say about conventional rims. Whether you really, really need the green ceramic-specific pads is debatable. Your brakes will be a bit grabby with conventional pads, but that may vary depending on the particular pad compound. If you choose this route, get a second set, as you'll need them at some point. Otherwise, order a set of the green pads when you do the wheel build.

I have the Mavic Open Pro CD's (CD=Ceramic)

The biggest diffrence between the stock dura ace pads and the cool stop greens (Chromium based for ceramic rims) is noise. with the stock DA pads, they were LOUD as hell and squealed like a pig. I switched to the greens and now they stop great. I haven't ridden in the rain yet (and I don't think I have in the past 5000 miles) so I can't be the biggest critic about their performance. One thing that I really liked about them is they are a dark grey instead of the machine surface so with a black wheel, black spokes and a black bike, they look really nice and don't stick out like a sore thumb like alot of black wheels with silver braking surfaces.

Ceramic rims work better in the grit and mud with standard pads. It's debatable if they work better than regular rims with KoolStop salmons in just wet, in my experience.

They definitely will scare bull moose off the hill, though.

You just aged yourself there :D

I guess that's why I don't see ceramics around here much. It doesn't rain often so we don't have much of a grit problem.

CD and Ceramic are not the same thing.

Yea your right, but they do have CD's with or without the Ceramic coating and I do have the ceramic versions.

That's still not consistent with my understanding of the current Open Pro line up. CD and Ceramic are currently listed as completely separate options.

For a bit more than the regular OP rim, you can get a CD finish, which is an anodization process reinforces the oxide layer forming a greater micro-hardness to reduce wear and corrosion.

For a good deal more than that, you get an actual ceramic layer added to the braking surface to improve friction.

My wife has a pair. They're nice. We used stock Shimano pads and the ceramic
wore off faster than i would have liked. Very nice, perhaps not worth the $$ but nice.

I am considering the OP Ceramics. How fast did the braking surface wear down?

We got those on sale years ago. Mavic had come out with some new wheel, and the OPs had sat around the shop for a couple years. I just looked and it says CD which I guess is not the ceramic. Whatever it is, a season at most.

The Ceramic is what, about 50% more for the rim? Look at what you can get a whole wheel for from a company like Colorado Cyclist that makes a ton of them.
No CD or Ceramic, but basically the same wheel and cheap.