For the past several seasons, I've been in love with wider rims and the ride quality & performance they provide, without any real weight penalty. Looking through the Mavic line-up, with offerings like a 622x13c ETRTO (!?!) on the Cosmic Carbones, I can't really see anything that captures my imagination much more then building up OpenPro's and running them with 25c rubber!?

Assume for a moment that you had full-sponsorship from Mavic, but had to ride clincher wheels... which wheelset would you choose and why?

carbone slr, they actually ride pretty nice, they look killer with the exalith brake surface, and are decently fast.

^this

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2010 Bianchi 928 SL / SRAM Red, Easton EA90 SLX

Member of C.S. Grupetto

Any wide rim you like (Velocity A23, C-4 (?), Hed Belgium,...).
Debadge
Put Mavic decals

That's how sponsored athletes run the specific things they used to prefer ?....


If not, the CXP 33 is what seems the closer to what you're looking for, except it's not as wide (although I didn't find the width on Mavic site). With some 24mm pave tires, it should run nicely.
I didn't find the drillings options either. Usually Mavic doesn't offer many options...


Louis

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http://www.ccsalma.com

Ksyrium SLR

Best clincher wheelset I've ever tried. Exalith breaking is better than normal aluminum rims. They look great, fairly light (~1410g), and bombproof just like all the other Ksyrium offerings.

Any Cosmic Carbone. (dont know the actual offering).
They re just fast race wheels. Solid.

Thanks for the responses guys.

I can add a bit more specifics for my situation - priorities for me are comfort for long work days (sometimes >10hrs) and the ability to absolutely freakin' rip it out while cornering on descents... both of which are reasons that the wide rims I'd been running for the past two years were so fantastic.

As such, the 'ultimate race wheels' aren't likely to be what I'm looking for in this particular case.

I am intrigued by the fact that the Ksyrium Elite has stainless steel spokes (weren't they also Zircal a while back?), but still just horrified at the idea of a 13c inner rim width on the Cosmic Carbone rims... which would make it even less then 19mm on the outside by normal standards, which must really 'lightbulb' things and drop the volume in the tires by a good chunk if that's accurate.

Nice to finally read a positive comment re the Ksyrium SLR set! Spec-wise these appear to be the perfect clinchers for my needs but there is so much negativity floating around, although I suspect 90% if it is from people who have never ridden a set of K-SLRs

From what I can tell the late-model wheels, and certainly the new SLRs, have zero issues with broken spokes, failing rear hubs or horrid aerodynamics.

From what I understand and I may be wrong but the main reason they are WORSE aerodynamically than a normal 32spoke wheel is because of those thick bladed Zicral spokes. Unless they changed those recently I doubt the aerodynamics has changed.

FWIW, I have a a 8 year old set that I race with regularly. They are very strong and reasonably light even if they are extremely overpriced and unserviceable. (The nipples freeze into the rim and cause all sorts of problems).
IMO, there are definately better and much cheaper low profile wheelsets out there.

The Carbone SL's have been pretty good to me...

I would agree that Ksyriums are reliable wheels. I suspect that many here on WW have ridden multiple iterations of their design - a solid, good wheelset, but not at the price that they are usually offered.

I regularly ride an older set of Ksyriums Elites that are fantastic in term of being very solid wheels.

Not my dream set, but then again I am a hand built wheelset kinda guy...

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Cervelo R3, Campagnolo Chorus/Record mix... pastatrails.blogspot.com
And you can call me Macktastik Honey Pete Kicks, thank you.

Bike parts cannot be fast, only the rider.

No, the rider can be strong but he needs bike and parts to go fast

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2010 Guerciotti Whisper
2007 Bianchi 928L (update Sep '11)
1999 Bianchi MegaPro 25CrMo4

ksyrium elites are great, durable, raceable training wheels. they always had steel spokes. they didn't used to have the machining in between the spokes. i consider it the toughest of the mavic line.
all ksyriums suck aerodynamically. the limited release K10 was the worst, apparently, because the extra machining on the rim sides caught the wind just a little more. if getting from point a to point b slightly sooner is not a high priority, then there can be good reasons for going with one of the ksyrium line. freehub bodies need relatively frequent re-oiling. it's easy to do (though they shouldve just made a little oil port) and i dont consider it a deal breaker.

I chose cosmic carbone sls for the following reasons: incidentally, I've heard that they are just open pros with a carbon fairing.
1: cheap. When I destroy one in a crit, I won't cry as hard as if I destroy an 808 FC CC.
2: clincher with standard alu braking surface. I've heard the exalith surface screams like a banshee, plus you need to use special brake pads from Mavic because the surface is so abrasive.
3: steel spokes. They absorb vibration a lot better than the aluminum spokes. For long distance comfort and for durability for that matter, they're a lot better. Plus they're a lot less un-aero than the fat-ass aluminum spokes, although I would still say that they are less aero than round spokes and catch the wind a lot more in terms of crosswind stability. Still catch the wind a lot more than round or cxray spokes though. I've also heard but don't know if it's true that because the alu spokes aren't as strong, they have to add more material to the hubs and rims, making the rims even heavier than the steel spoked models.
4: standard width so I don't have to readjust my brakes every time I want to switch to box rims for some reason. Don't have to change pads either, which you would have to do with the exalith pads because I hear they are hard as rocks and don't stop well on the standard machined braking surface.
5: The SLs are supposedly the only Carbone clinchers that are truable. Supposedly you can't true the wheels with the carbon spokes.
Really, the only downside is the weight. I also think the all-black aesthetics of the SLRs is a lot nicer too. I don't see why you couldn't mount 25s on SLs, but I don't know for sure.

Oh yeah. If I had full sponsorship from Mavic and didn't have to pay a penny and had unlimited support for parts, I'd ride cosmic ultimates (tubulars)

If it had to be clinchers and I had unlimited access to parts I guess I'd just get Cosmic Carbone SLRs, but those are prob the wheels they'd want me to ride anyway for advertisement whether I liked them or not.