Mavic Ksyrium SLR problems

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cyclist
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 7:32 am
Location: EU

by cyclist

Hi!

First of all I am new to this forum, but I am reading it for few years. The last events are the reason why I decided to register on the forum. Here is my story...

In 2013 I bought a new bike with Mavic Ksyrium SLR Exalith2 wheels. After first excitement everything started to go wrong...
1. The wheels have been abnormal twisting by normal riding (I can hear that the rim is hitting brake pads and making noise).
2. Although Mavic said they improved brake track (Exalith2) the braking is horrific. When you break it squeaking, braking power is at least 50% worse than with the aluminium brake
3. After the first 6.000 km, rear aluminium spoke has broken. In official service they change it and it was good for about 4.000 km and then another rear spoke has broken. From this point I started to get angry. I ask service to check tension of all spokes and they said that everything is fine. After that I was comforted and hope that this story with spokes is ended. Pleasure unfortunately least only for 4.000 km. Yesterday at the riding front wheel spoke has broken.

Yesterdays event brings my patience to the end. I am going to throw 1.000 EUR worth wheels in the bin! I have enough problems with spokes and problems that I stay without spoke meanwhile riding a bike 100 km far from home. Although if I replace spoke again, now I am not sure any more when the next spoke meanwhile riding is going to break.

I have to say that I am not a professional rider. I ride just for pleasure so the wheels are not exposed to high forces. I weight 75 kg + 6.5 kg bike. Bike has never been crashed.

Last 10 years I owned only Mavic wheels... from Mavic Aksium, Mavic Ksyrium Elite, Mavic Ksyrium SL, Mavic Ksyrium SR to Mavic Cosmic Carbone Ultimate. All these wheels with no issue (non broken spoke, squeaking, bad braking, twisting...). After this event this is the last Mavic wheels I bought it.

p.s. I have also bad experience with our distributor. They do not have any spare parts in stock. You have to wait at least 1 month to get new spoke. So you are forced (if you do not want to throw away entire bike season) to buy spoke on internet (4 EUR for spoke and 12 EUR for shipping!). I look also on official Mavic web site, and there is no direct contact to Mavic on which you may turn and tell the whole story about their wheels.

superdx
Posts: 524
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2014 1:27 pm

by superdx

I have the same wheels as yours and rode them as primary wheelset from 2013-2014.

1: Sounds like the wheels need to be trued. If your LBS can't really cut it, take it to another one? Or ship it back to Mavic. It sounds like it's out of warranty already but Mavic does work on the wheels even if they are out of warranty. My LBS still works on my wheels free of charge, and they are a Mavic dealer, but I've never had to true my wheels.

2: Are you using the right pads? I use SwissStop Flash Pro pads and stop as hard as my CX bike with mechanical discs. They sound like a jet engine when I brake hard, and it's actually kind of cool. They squealed hard only on the first couple rides, but it's settled down now to that jet engine like noise.

3: It sounds like the spokes weren't installed properly. Over 4300 km on mine, including a round trip to Japan, and I still haven't broken a single spoke front or rear. I weigh slightly less than you at 73kg and am also a recreational rider, and don't race. I've crashed several times though while learning clipless pedals in early 2013.

Aside from being super un-aero, the wheels still ride really nice for me and I'm fairly happy with them as a backup set. Even if it costs 100-200 euros to fix, I'd still do it because they cost a ton to begin with, and they shouldn't be failing on you like this.

by Weenie


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Richt1978
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:55 pm

by Richt1978

Once set up properly with some toe in the braking on Exalith rims is fantastic. Descending mountains on any other braking surface feels poor in comparison to me. They are not entirely noise free, the machined surface is always going to create a different noise to normal alloy rims.

Regarding the broken spoke the Mavic UK service centre here supplies the spokes in a complete set for that side of the wheel and directs that all spokes on that side are then replaced after one breaks.

cyclist
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 7:32 am
Location: EU

by cyclist

Wheels have been at official Mavic service...they check tension, and everything seems to be OK (I always service my Mavic wheels at this service and no problem at all). I think there must be something wrong with the rim material or spokes.

Brake pads are original Mavic (=SwissStop Flash Pro). They are extremely hard. Since I have these wheels they did not wear out even for a 1mm...

Like I said, I have several other Mavic wheels...only by this wheels I have such problems.

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Gearjunkie
Posts: 877
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2008 5:17 am
Location: NZ

by Gearjunkie

That sounds like the wrong pads. My original Mavic pads that came with my SLRs wore out within 5 rides, but the replacements are lasting much better.

The replacement Mavic Exalith pads are ridiculously expensive here, so I have been trying to find an alternative having read that Swisstop Flash Pro are the same compound. So I tried Swisstop Flash Pro for aluminium wheels but they work badly and are too hard by far! Barely even marking the pad after a few rides.

But it seems that the correct Swisstop Flash Pro pad is the pad for CARBON not the aluminium version. The carbon version wears the same as the Mavic Exalith pads.

So maybe the pads you have are the pads for aluminium, not carbon, and that's why your braking is so bad and pad were is so minimal.

Cheers
GJ

cyclist
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 7:32 am
Location: EU

by cyclist

I have original pads...came with the wheels...pads are Mavic (=SwissStop Flash Pro)...see link below:

http://www.excelsports.com/main.asp?pag ... =1&minor=8

Valbrona
Posts: 1629
Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2011 3:25 am
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

by Valbrona

There is a really good reason to never buy anything Mavic. The Customer Service is completely non-existent for lots of customers, and where it does exist (via a distributer) it is utterly crap.

Raineman
Posts: 185
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 2:03 pm
Location: Kent, UK

by Raineman

Swissstop "flash pro" is just the designation for shimano calipers. ie you can also get black prince and yellow king flash pro.

IIRC the exiath pads are a unique compund to Mavic made by swissstop.

IamnotWiggins
Posts: 159
Joined: Wed Aug 07, 2013 10:31 am
Location: Brighton, UK

by IamnotWiggins

They're flexy wheels and will move from side to side if you're giving it some. Probably not much you can really do about that to be fair - nothing to do with the tension or how their built.

cyclist
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 7:32 am
Location: EU

by cyclist

And that (flexy wheels) is probably the cause, that spokes so often break...

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dadoflam08
Posts: 951
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:25 am
Location: Southern Great Southern Land

by dadoflam08

Your experience doesn't resemble mine. I have found these wheels to be a bit soft laterally with some brake rub when out of the saddle if trying hard (I do weigh 90kg) but cannot fault the braking or durability.
There is certainly a lot of braking noise initially (easily silenced with some toe in of the pads) and initially the pads disappeared very quickly but once worn in the wear is pretty slow. These would be my favourite braking wheels in all conditions - easily better than any of my alloy rims and much better than carbon. For what its worth might be worth buying another set of pads to make sure you really do have the right ones - the first edition pads were green and branded as Swisstop/Mavic but 2nd gen are black and cannot recall any branding so not so easy to tell unless you get it out of the pack yourself.
Likewise wheels have stayed pretty true and no spokes broken.
Certainly not my favourite wheels but pretty good if everything is as it should be. Something definitely sounds amiss.
'83 De Rosa+'11 Baum Corretto+'08 BMC Pro Machine >6kg+'86 Pinarello Team +'72 Cinelli SC +'58 Bianchi+'71 Cinelli SC+'78 Masi GC+'83 La Redoute Motobecane+'94 Banesto Pegoretti+'88 Bianchi X4 +'48 Super Elliott+'99 Look Kg281+'18 Pegoretti

asv
Posts: 182
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:26 pm

by asv

These wheels came with my Evo, after a few months I sold them. The stiffness of the wheel is great, but the aerodynamics are horrible and the braking very finicky. To get these wheels to break without squealing like a banshee you need to configure with extreme toe in pad alignment.

Once you deal with the painful setup of the pads, the wheels are good to go, but if you have multiple wheels the SLR makes wheel swaps a pain the ass because you have to: 1. swap out pads, change pad alignment, change brake width. I just ended up getting a set of pacenti wheels that have a similar width to my Enve wheels and don't require extreme pad alignment. They also way more aerodynamic.

by Weenie


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cyclist
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 7:32 am
Location: EU

by cyclist

Pads are ok, original, black colour, made for Mavic Exalith2! Like I said, after cca 15.000 km, I have still first pads on the bike, and they did not wear out even for a 1 mm.

Previously I had Mavic Ksyrium SL (20.000 km) and Mavic Ksyrium SR (10.000 km) which are practically the same as Mavic Ksyrium SLR, and I did not have such problems (twisting, broken spokes etc.), they were "bulletproof".

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