So over the weekend I found a great deal on some dura-ace hubs mated to Mavic CXP-33 rims.

Looked em over, bought them, and then looked them over again when I got home, and realized that they don't have a machined brake surface.

I tried looking it up to no avail, but did the cxp-33's come anodized, painted, hard anodized, cd coated, or what? Should I be concerned about the lack of a machined brake track (these wheels will be used for Crits until I fix my ksyriums)?

The hubs are great, and upon even further inspection, are 25th anniversary dura-ace -- they're quite beautiful. But the rims have me wondering if I should lace up new rims with the hubs..

For what it's worth, the rear wheel has a good amount of marking from braking, and is silent and feels solid. The front wheel, I suppose wasn't braked on too much, and is pretty loud under light braking but feels solid under heavy braking..

I know "back in the day" wheels didn't have machined brake tracks, and the supposed cause of machined brake tracks was for a noiseless parking lot test ride, and in fact a track reduces the amount of life you'll get out of the wheel by cutting into it... Just looking for personal experience here..

No. The 33's are great rims, even without machined braking surfaces. Many, top quality rims come this way. As long as the surfaces aren't too worn, ride on.

strong and bullet proof. Heavy is their ownly drawback.

Are you sure those are really CXP 33's? The 6 or so CXP 33 rims I have sure look machined to me. Here is Mavic's product page for the CXP 33.

https://www.mavic.com/en/product/rims...on/rims/CXP-33

Note that one of the features of the rim is "UB Control" which is what they call their machining process. Here is more information about it, and a closeup of what the brake track should look like on a CXP 33.

https://www.mavic.com/en/technology/rims/UB-Control

Definately not machined. No differentiation between the rim itself and the braking surface except for what the brakes have put there. Keep in mind these are likely of the same vintage as the hubs, so circa 1998-99..

The wheels cam without stickers -- should there be something identifying them stamped under the rim tape, perhaps?

33's are aero but their most telling detail are the eyelets inside the rim.

Pics (crappy cell pics, best I have)

All CXP33s I've seen and used have been anodized (red, black, blue) and w/machined brake surface.

Most mavic rims use to come this way.. If you keep the braking area clean, you will notice that they will stop better than machined surface.. I have a few open 4cds like this and love them.

This. "Way back when" we didn't used to have many if any machined brake surface options. We still stopped our bikes too....and they weighed more.

And this is what I figured. Just going to adjust the toe-in tonight keep on riding. Thanks all for the reassurance.