There are so many wheels on the market today and so many reasons to replace any particular wheelset. What if you could only ever have 1 set of wheels that had to do everything equally well? What if your budget/wife/husband/significant other only allowed you 1 wheelset upgrade for the rest of your life? As Karl Malden would ask, What would you do? What would you do?
Here is what we would do:
2012 Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheelset
Mavic seems to make wheels for just about any riding situation, but they also produce the ultimate all-around road bike wheelset. Enter the Mavic Ksyrium Elite.
The Ksyrium Elite, (pronounced seerium), has been around a few years, but got a major facelift last year. The changes were much more than skin deep. Mavic borrowed their rim from their top of the line, and uber cool Ksyrium SL. This dropped the weight on the Ksyrium Elite to a very low 1550 grams for the pair. Most carbon aero clinchers are much heavier. The eminently popular Zipp 404 weighs in at 1662 grams, according to Zipps website. Reynolds Assault is over 1565 grams, and even a set of Shimano Ultegra WH-6700 Tubeless wheels is nearly 1700 grams. The Ksyrium Elite wheels are very affordable at $675. Consider that most of the wheels listed above sell for more than $1800 to well over $2500. Only the Shimano wheel is in the same price category.
What is are the Ksyrium Elite wheels good for, you ask?
Just about anything besides a UCI Pro Tour time trial. Group road rides, racing, training and any type of road riding. The aluminum rims with thin aero stainless steel spokes will cut through the wind pretty well. The steel spokes also make for a comfy ride over broken asphalt and poor roads. Most aero carbon rimmed wheelsets can’t apprach the smooth, lively ride that the Ksyrium Elite wheels deliver. This wheelset would be a great choice for cyclocross too, thanks to Mavic’s bombproof construction. The Ksurium Elite is up for any challenge on any road, with any rider.
What makes the Mavic Ksyrium Elite such a great all-around road bike wheelset?
Mavic utilizes what they call “Inter Spoke Milling”, or ISM for short. This process removes unnecessary material between each spoke. The ISM area is also left silver so that it looks just like Mavic’s more expensive wheelsets. Alloy nipples are also included to reduce rotating weight. Mavic also endows the Ksyrium Elite with FORE drilling. This eliminates any spoke holes in the rim bed, where the inner tube rests. This makes for a much stronger, stiffer rim, and you wont be needing any rim strips. The Ksyrium Elite rim is made from Maxtal aluminum, and is welded at the seam, then machined on the entire brake track for
What all of this technical mumbo-jumbo means to you is that a set of Ksyrium Elite wheels are very strong, very light, ultra durable and very covetable.
As mentioned earlier, the Ksyrium Elite wheelset sells for $675. It is nearly bombproof. But some of you out there will find a way to destroy a pair of these. Some will run over their bike with a car. Some will crash into a curb. Some will be ravaged by attacks from villainous clowns. But don’t worry, Mavic has your back. For less than $55, you can purchase Mavic’s MP3 no fault protection program that will cover your new wheels from all of the above, and even the dreaded “just riding along”, for 2 years from the date of purchase.
How could you go wrong by purchasing a pair of Ksyrium Elite wheels? The simple answer is that you can’t.
Tags: bicycle, elite, ksyrium, light, lightweight, Mavic, review, road bike, road cycling, road racing, wheel, wheelset
