Best lightweight wheelset no matter money

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wheelsONfire
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by wheelsONfire

Yes Ultimate is stiffer!
I might be a one off here, but i'd would get Ultimate over LW (actually LW doesn't catch my interest).
UST is a bit over 1300grams.
Weight would not trump this choice for me.
Also, i don't know which LW you look up, but i talk of clincher not tubular.
Look at the copied chart below.

The new version is the only wheelset i actually believe would bring a real difference for me.
I don't see any need for a new aero wheelset over Easton Aero 55 tubular.
It's the best bang for the buck wheelset since you can find them on sales pretty often.

LW Meilenstein 16/20
WEIGHT FW585 gr
WEIGHT BW705 gr
RIM DEPTH48 mm
RIM WIDTH24 mm
NO. OF SPOKES (FW/BW)16/20
TYRE WIDTH24-34 mm
MAX. SYSTEM WEIGHT100 kg

20/20
WEIGHT FW600 gr
WEIGHT BW705 gr
RIM DEPTH48 mm
RIM WIDTH24 mm
NO. OF SPOKES (FW/BW)20/20
TYRE WIDTH24-34 mm
MAX. SYSTEM WEIGHT120 kg

Mavic Cosmic Ultimate
Pair without tyre: 1310 grams
Front without tyre: 600 grams
Rear without tyre: 710 grams
Bikes:

Ax Lightness Vial EVO Race (2019.01.03)
Open *UP* (2016.04.14)
Paduano Racing Fidia (kind of shelved)


Ex bike; Vial EVO D, Vial EVO Ultra, Scott Foil, Paduano ti bike.

RyanH
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by RyanH

The problem with both CCU and Cosmic Ultimate is that they feel like you're riding through peanut butter. LW is a significantly better riding experience. OTOH, the Mavics both have class leading braking, both new and old.

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hannawald
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by hannawald

Ryan, is there any explanation for this feeling? Is it because of bad bearings? Would ceramic bearings (Mavic puts them into haute route version of their wheels) change it?

RyanH
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by RyanH

To be honest, that's been the great mystery to me when I've tried many different wheels. Some feel fast and others don't. Reynolds 32s to DT240 seemed OK but Enve 3.4/2.2 to DT240 felt fast. Same tires. Lightweight feel fast (DT internals) and Boras do too. Nearly every wheel I've tried from Mavic has lacked that feeling. In fairness, most wheels don't have that special fast rolling feeling, but I feel like the CCU were particularly bad. Denavelo borrowed mine and swore the bike was immediately slowing (in leaps and bounds) the second he stopped pedaling. I did a rollout test to see if I could detect a difference and I couldn't.

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wheelsONfire
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by wheelsONfire

Ryan, which model year was this?
Was this with the latest hubs or the older version?
My CCU was a 2015 version. To me they did not feel slow at all.
The guy who bought mine was raving about how great they were compared to his Zipp 404.

The new wheels are named Cosmic Ultimate and not Cosmic Carbon Ultimate.
Bikes:

Ax Lightness Vial EVO Race (2019.01.03)
Open *UP* (2016.04.14)
Paduano Racing Fidia (kind of shelved)


Ex bike; Vial EVO D, Vial EVO Ultra, Scott Foil, Paduano ti bike.

ome rodriguez
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by ome rodriguez

I had both 2017 lightweight meilenstein and 2018 mavic cosmic ultimate. I felt both stiff equally, but the latter better in braking and more stable on the downhills.

RyanH
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by RyanH

I had 2015 CCU and 2017 CU. I agree with the above poster that the Cosmic Ultimates had a surreal stability to them when descending.

@SLCBrandon had old CCU and thought the LW were a significant improvement. Let's see if he can chime in with his experience.

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kgt
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by kgt

We compare a 40mm profile to a 48mm one, so a better crosswind stability for Mavic is expected.

hannawald
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by hannawald

Mavic is 40mm but its aero qualities equals deeper wheelsets, at least that's the results of Tour mag test..

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wheelsONfire
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by wheelsONfire

I am not really into Lightweights idea of aero. So i would pick CU over Lightweight.
I am not swayed over to LW at all. I would rather pick another wheelset over LW.
For bling, i like them though :-D
Bikes:

Ax Lightness Vial EVO Race (2019.01.03)
Open *UP* (2016.04.14)
Paduano Racing Fidia (kind of shelved)


Ex bike; Vial EVO D, Vial EVO Ultra, Scott Foil, Paduano ti bike.

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kgt
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by kgt

It's strange that you love CU so much and LWs do nothing to you as in practice CUs are just a copy of the LWs.
I like CUs a lot as well; just saying.

glepore
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by glepore

My experience somewhat parallels Ryan's-at least when I first had the CCU's. Now, not so much. I still prefer my Lightweights, but in the used market CCU's are 1/2 to 1/3 the price of Meilensteins and are awfully nice wheels when you take that into account. Yeah, the freehubs still use busings etc but they're not slugs, they just seem to lack a mall degree of snap. I've been running them on a ti bike with Vlandeerens, and man, deep light wheels combined with those tires on a ti bike is pretty sublime.
Cysco Ti custom Campy SR mechanical (6.9);Berk custom (5.6); Serotta Ottrott(6.8) ; Anvil Custom steel Etap;1996 Colnago Technos Record

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wheelsONfire
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Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:15 am
Location: NorthEU

by wheelsONfire

There are differences i prefer with CU. If LW revised the profile and made wider rims, had some proof of the aero effect.
Aswell as lowered the price they would be interesting.
Talking copies, isn't that something widespread?

I firmly believe CU is a better wheelset. But that is personal.
Bikes:

Ax Lightness Vial EVO Race (2019.01.03)
Open *UP* (2016.04.14)
Paduano Racing Fidia (kind of shelved)


Ex bike; Vial EVO D, Vial EVO Ultra, Scott Foil, Paduano ti bike.

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