Good value road wheelset?

[andyoxon]

Thinking about a road wheel set upgrade to PlanetX AL30, or Mavic Aksium, both seem about £150.  Mavics are a bit heavier.

Any thoughts, anyone using these? Something else?

[Rainmaker]

I have had a pair of Mavic Askium wheels on my "best bike" for about five years, not done that many miles on them but they have been bombproof so far.   I have never had to do any maintenance on them and never had any trouble at all.    For the price I think they are excellent.

[giropaul]

I'm guessing that this will be for your newly-aquired machine as featured elsewhere?

Two thoughts from me

Keep the existing wheels for less important or less good weather days. Swap to the new wheels when it's nice, or you're doing something special. You'll keep the best wheels nice, and feel the benefit as well.

Mavic wheels are reliable and well-supported. Aksiums are pretty reliable, but I'd also think about Fulcrum 5s at about £200, but on offer for a tad less on ebay shops.

I've no personal experience of Planet X, but friends who have had their wheels (albeit usually carbons) have found that there is no availability of spare spokes or any support. Just the experience of a couple of people.

[nightrider]

I've had two sets of Mavic Aksium and theyre pretty much bomb proof.My best bike is on Mavic Kysium Elites.After a couple of years the stickers start to peel.The wheels stay true though and I weigh about 15st.

[Jacomus]

I've had two sets of Mavic Aksium and theyre pretty much bomb proof.My best bike is on Mavic Kysium Elites.After a couple of years the stickers start to peel.The wheels stay true though and I weigh about 15st.

Another Mavic Aksium vote from here. They look good (IMO), ride really nicely, stay incredibly true for their spoke count and are the kind of price that ditching them after a couple of years doesn't seem too bad... Especially when you find out that they easily beat your 'worst case' lifespan!

[Ian gaggiaport]

Aksiums are on my best "summer" bike too.
No problems at all, on their  5th year.

[Mike Cotty]

Hi Andy,

I help Mavic with their community management and saw your recent post so wanted to see if you needed any further details on the Aksium S wheelset.

I'm sure that you already know from your research that the Aksium uses high quality cartridge bearings, with double sealing and C3 internal clearance, to increase both durability and efficiency. The freehub is aluminium but the neat thing here is that the contact area between the pawl and hub body is reinforced by two stainless steel inserts, again for durability but also to ensure that transmission remains precise even after many miles. To extend the life of the rim Mavic use a process called Hammer Hardening to locally strengthen the part of the rim where the spokes produce the greatest stress, whilst the special shape of the spoke end on the thread prevents it from loosening over time and subsequently helps keep the rim nice and true. The rim braking surfaces are CNC machined to improve braking friction and provide optimum performance in all weather conditions.

Apologies in advance if you already know this. Whatever wheels you may go for in the end just ensure they use quality bearings and are to a high overall build standard that you have confidence in.

Ride safe.

Mike

[LittleWheelsandBig]

So why do Mavic use such a crappy bush on the cassette body?

[TheLurker]

The only problem I've had with Aksiums is getting tyres on/off. Some of that might be the tyres although the same tyres (Conti Gators/Bontrager Hard Case) with Mavic Open Sports never seemed to be a problem.

No issues with wheels going out of true, no problems with bearings either despite the state of UK roads.  It might help that I'm a skinnymalink and I don't ride heavily laden. Heavier riders might have a different view/experience.

If you do go for Aksiums make sure you don't use cheap brake blocks because the rims will wear very quickly. See elsewhere on YACF, . Personal experience is that they're good for at least 12,000 miles (probably a good deal more, see the point about cheap blocks).

I'm on my second set.

[Tewdric]

Hi Andy,
I help Mavic with their community management

Welcome to the forum Mike - nice to have such an accomplished rider here!

Our rule of thumb for commercially motivated posts is that the poster should be open about their interest, so I would be grateful if you would add something to a sig saying you are doing marketing consultancy for Mavic, or are a sponsored rider plugging their products.

If you want to add "mountain bike racing and cyclocross god" thats fine too .

This is purely so readers know where you're coming from and be assured you are very welcome - we have had a few trade reps in here and their contribution has been very enlightening. 

Be aware this isn't Bikeradar though and we are a pretty smart bunch with well developed bulls**t detectors!

[TimC]

Another Mavic fan here - on our family fleet we have one bike on Aksiums, one on Ksyrium Equipes and two on Ksyrium Elites, the oldest are 8 years old and have done around 6000 miles. No problems with any of them, ever. They are solid, look good, and are reasonably light at their respective price levels. Aksiums in particular are great value, especially if you can get a pair of 2012 wheels which seem to be around £130 at some retailers!

[Jurek]

I retired my first Ksyrium Elites after 12,000 miles - I thought the braking surfaces were a tad too concave for my liking.
I cleft the rim in twain to see how much rim thickness was left - turns out I retired them prematurely - there was a fair bit of life left in them.
Probably not of relevance, but maybe interestingly, I struggled to get any flex in the semi-circle of rim (squeezing it bull-worker fashion), and I'm probably above average in strength.
I put Aksiums on a Condor Italia I built last year for a friend - they've behaved faultlessly.
I'm looking for wheels to replace the tired ones on my Bianchi - the replacements will almost certainly be Aksiums.

[andyoxon]

Hi Andy,

I help Mavic with their community management and saw your recent post so wanted to see if you needed any further details on the Aksium S wheelset.

I'm sure that you already know from your research that the Aksium uses high quality cartridge bearings, with double sealing and C3 internal clearance, to increase both durability and efficiency. The freehub is aluminium but the neat thing here is that the contact area between the pawl and hub body is reinforced by two stainless steel inserts, again for durability but also to ensure that transmission remains precise even after many miles. To extend the life of the rim Mavic use a process called Hammer Hardening to locally strengthen the part of the rim where the spokes produce the greatest stress, whilst the special shape of the spoke end on the thread prevents it from loosening over time and subsequently helps keep the rim nice and true. The rim braking surfaces are CNC machined to improve braking friction and provide optimum performance in all weather conditions.

Apologies in advance if you already know this. Whatever wheels you may go for in the end just ensure they use quality bearings and are to a high overall build standard that you have confidence in.

Ride safe.

Mike

Thanks Mike - my only previous experience with Mavic wheels are Module 3CD (and they were on a tourer).

[andyoxon]

Indeed the new machine; thanks - good plan...

I'm guessing that this will be for your newly-aquired machine as featured elsewhere?

Two thoughts from me

Keep the existing wheels for less important or less good weather days. Swap to the new wheels when it's nice, or you're doing something special. You'll keep the best wheels nice, and feel the benefit as well.

...

[andyoxon]

Cheers all - looks like Aksiums are high up the short list.   

[Ningishzidda]

Shim RS80 50mm on my TT bike.
Shim RS80 24mm on my road bike.
Shim RS20 24mm on my Audax bike.

Pair of DT Swiss Axis 2.0 in loft doing nothing. Specialized 23mm tyres and tubes fitted, never used.

[Mike Cotty]

Hi Andy,
I help Mavic with their community management

Welcome to the forum Mike - nice to have such an accomplished rider here!

Our rule of thumb for commercially motivated posts is that the poster should be open about their interest, so I would be grateful if you would add something to a sig saying you are doing marketing consultancy for Mavic, or are a sponsored rider plugging their products.

If you want to add "mountain bike racing and cyclocross god" thats fine too .

This is purely so readers know where you're coming from and be assured you are very welcome - we have had a few trade reps in here and their contribution has been very enlightening. 

Be aware this isn't Bikeradar though and we are a pretty smart bunch with well developed bulls**t detectors!

Thanks for the welcome! I've added a signature as per your recommendation. I think I'll just keep it simple although I do like your MTB & CX reference above 

MC

[Glover Fan]

To be honest any factory wheels these days are pretty solid if you are sensible and not pushing the weight boundaries. On my now winter hack I have a pair of Shimano RS10's which are heavy bargain basement wheels but they have stayed true for nearly 6,000 miles. I'm only 10 stone though.

[TimC]

Cheers all - looks like Aksiums are high up the short list.   

Merlin have an offer on at the moment of Ksyrium Elites at £199 or Equipes at £179. 2010 models, but still great.

[Jurek]

Cheers all - looks like Aksiums are high up the short list.   

Merlin have an offer on at the moment of Ksyrium Elites at £199 or Equipes at £179. 2010 models, but still great.

Cheers Tim!
At that price I've decided s°d the Aksiums, and just bought a pair of Equipes.
The Elites are £299 and not £199 BTW.

[Wobbly John]

I'm not a fan of mavic road wheels, Had splits in Ksyrium rims twice.

I bought some Planet X wheels last year as they are very similar to the Alexrim wheels I use. The Planet X wheelset went straight to my wheelbuilding guru, before they were fitted to the bike because th tension was all over the place. 

Not really Planet X's fault - the wheels hadn't been out of the box since they left the Chinese/Taiwanese wheel-building plant.

I think the Planet X are the faster, lighter wheels, but budget an extra £5 for truing.

Local wheelbuilder was OK with it - he knows he can't buy rim, spokes and hubs for th price of factory wheels. I think he much prefers tweaking clean new wheels, than trying to sort them out when they are dirty and pringled.

[TimC]

Cheers all - looks like Aksiums are high up the short list.   

Merlin have an offer on at the moment of Ksyrium Elites at £199 or Equipes at £179. 2010 models, but still great.

Cheers Tim!
At that price I've decided s°d the Aksiums, and just bought a pair of Equipes.
The Elites are £299 and not £199 BTW.

Oops! Finger trouble!

[andyoxon]

Would the 2013 Mavic Aksium be OK to get spare spokes for?

[Tewdric]

I have never had any trouble getting spare spokes for any flavour of Ksyrium - you just need to know a good LBS on the Mavic service system.  You need big cohonas to tension them though - they need to be *tight*!

[andyoxon]

Is that because of the lower number of spokes?