Hey. I am building a second road bike up and have a couple of wheelsets available but not sure which I should choose. . .so, help me out.

1. Mavic Ksyrium Elite - about 3500 miles on the front wheel, 500 or so on the rear
2. Easton Circuit w/Velomax Hubs - brand new, no miles

Both are avail and there is no cost difference. Thoughts?

I personally would go for the Eastons...

I'm really not a fan of Mavic's wheelsets, and I've heard many good things about Velomax/Easton.

^^^^^^ What he said.

Hmmm...that's 3 to 0 against Mavic....wonder when Rich will jump in and ask if Easton's wheels have been lab tested?!

I have the Elites. Lateral stiffness sucks ass. In general the wheels aren't that bad. I've put about 3,500 miles on them, a bunch of trainer time and they're still round and true. They won't be on my Addict for too much longer, however, and will be relinquished to a crit-bike build-up in the next several weeks.

Ok, now 3.5 to .5 (or thereabouts) in favor of Easton....Rich! Where are you Rich!

Might as well make it 4, since I'm just too cheap to buy good wheels for a crit bike (the whole thing has ~$5-600 budget).

I've had excellent experiences with my Mavic wheels (Elites, SLs and Aksiums for road and Crossmax SLs for MTB). They've held up well and I have no issues with the stiffness of them. The SLs, to be fair though, suck in a crosswind.

That said, I have heard great things about Easton's, and given that the Easton's are new I would go with those.

And SilverSX, if the lateral stiffness of your Elite's suck so much, why use them as a crit wheel, where lateral stiffness is most needed through corners?

Didnt they discontinue the Circuit in 07? Are those 3 yrs old?

That's what I thought. They are now badged as EA90s. So maybe the Circuits have "no miles", but they aren't "brand new".

Huh?! Maybe they're NOS, that would make them new even if 3 years old. Does "brand new" have to mean the current model year? I'm sure the OP can figure that out.

First year racing, so 'disposable' is more important than performance when racing in cat5 crits.

If they're basically EA90s then definitely the Eastons.

The Easton's are indeed New Old Stock (NOS).

Are the Velomax hubs better quality than the Shimano hubs?

Circuits became EA 70s, not 90s.

And SilverSX, will you be at the OCS crit in Rougemont next weekend?

Anyone know about the difference in hubs?

Nah. My first planned race is the NCSU RR on the 13th and 14 of Feb (not sure if I'll do both). I may do Wolfpack's Revenge RR too.

Hubs in the Velomax are cartridge bearings, I'm sure - the Shimano are loose ball and integrated races. Most people think the Shimano style is smoother initially, but I disagree. Catridge bearings are really the way to go for long life, upgradeablity, and low resistance over time. Essentially all the cartridge bearings in road wheelsets are the exact same quality Japanese bearing units (excluding ceramic and semi-ceramic).

Is that why no one has recommended P-S-I-M... yet?

Oh yeah - talk to Psimet. He makes good wheels. I got faster riding his wheels. (I've also got a pair of 50mm carbon wheels coming from Jim (one post above), incidentally).

V.

Yeah, but I'm just guessing (and hoping, or else he's getting ripped off) even our wheels are out of his price range by quite a bit. I know Psimet builds on Kinlin alloy rims, and I would suggest at least contacting him as I bet he can buil something better with those than the options given in the OP, unless the prices on those are *real* low, at least.