Mavic Ellipse
 

What do you think about them?

sexy. you can't go wrong with a mavic wheelset.

awesome looking at them for a christmas present

Waiting on mine to arrive. Uh it's taking forever. :cry:

where did you get yours from?

Found them used.

good find.
i'm prob going to get the brand new.

Are they good for riding on the street? The posted ebay auctions look like they are not good for anything except track racing.

ive talked a lady at the LBS who rides them street and she said they're great and she's had no problems and rides them hard.

very strong wheels imo, and they look great

fer sure

they are my favorite wheels. you can use search and find a dozen threads about them. I use them on 2 bikes and ride the hell out of them on the street. they are excellent for street use. i use a brake on them, too. it works fine (just wears the anodizing off). my only remark is the front wheel is heavy and can be replaced with a mavic kysrium elite for a big weight savings that looks like a almost perfect match. another thing to be aware of is i have broken an axel (twisted it) by simply over-tightening the tracknuts. so be careful with that.

i know so many people who have had problems. the proprietary lockring is soft. axles break, bearings get completely messed up, and since they're not easy to work with you need a shop who knows the wheels and who can get bits and pieces from mavic.

people i know who use these like them, but they've also had a bunch of problems. i stay away from them.

Did you talk to Jill at Chef? She loves hers.

you wouldnt happen to have a picture of what the wheel looks like after the anodizing wears off do you? thanks

You can build a stronger, lighter, more aero wheel set for the same money (or less) with fewer proprietary parts that is much easier and cheaper to maintain.

:thumb::thumb:

Where?

they are heavy as balls

How about this....
(Kinlin, IRD, Speedcific, etc.) Niobium 30 rims,
Formula rear hub (28 hole)
Any decent road front hub (24 hole) with bolt-on skewer.
Sapim CX ray spokes, radially lace front, 2x the rear.

This cost me $340, with parts bought from oddsandendos.com, but will cost a little more if you can't built it yourself.

Niobium 30 rims have a very good reputation among roadies (and myself).

Formula hubs are "good enough" and in the real world will perform as well as any other hub (mine is super smooth!). Formula makes a few very nice lightweight road hubs that can accompany the Formula rear track hub. The Speedcific Perception hub is made by Formula.

Sapim CX spokes are the best spokes you can buy. However, you can shave off about 60 dollars by using double butted round spokes (e.g. Wheelsmith DB14) instead of oval spokes. Round butted spokes will not sacrifice durability but will add a few grams and make the wheels imperceptibly less aero, but will make it possible to get in under $300.

I can't say for certain if this combo its stronger than ellipses, but it should be since it has more spokes. At the very least, mine are very stiff and have withstood lots of abuse without any trouble. This combo is at least as aero as Ellipses (same rim depth) and weighs at least 500 grams less (thats more than 1 pound!). Replacement parts (spokes, nipples, bearings, hub hardware, etc) cost pennies and can be found an any LBS.

^nicely done.

Really, light and strong FG wheels are easy to make. The only specialized part you need is a very basic rear track hub. Track/FG is one application where blinged out hubs really are meaningless. Smooth bearings are all that really matters, and barely so.
The rest of the wheels can be built with lightweight parts. Plus, since the rear wheel lacks dish, you will end up with something thats still way stronger than an equivalent roadbike wheel.

the front wheel is an ellipse (2+ years old, never worked on, still true!). thats the closest pic i have of the anodizing wear. it looks just like a machined wheel.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3140/...f69b9d.jpg?v=0

yep jill, she's a great lady so helpful