those crappy new wheels

Got the road bike out last weekend. Its got 20 spoke (I think) ksyrium elites on it. Suddenly the bad memories of them came back - deep section rims provide lots of vertical stiffness, but too few spokes provide no lateral stiffness. Then the back one's always going out of true. Plus if I sprint, I can get the tyre to rub the chainstay. And they've probably not done 1000 miles. oh and cross winds are a bugger, with the bladed spokes. So, i toyed with the idea of going back to trad spoked wheels, but the ksyriums did cost a lot and weight on wheels is the most important aspect. so I weighed them. Ksyrium elites v XT hubs on 32 spoke 3X mavic open pros. Guess what? The 32 spokers weigh 75 grammes each more, so thats 150g in total and thats with a rim tape, which the ksyriums dont use. So job done, I'm back to traditional wheels with the sexy ones relegated to time trial use, should I ever bother. Talk about marketing clap trap.

Seconded!!

Just wait till they get old and the alu nipple seizes in the rim

Andy

Ive been wondering the same thing, weight and usability etc. I reckon you cant beat a good set of handbuilt wheels with trad spoking.

Bit of a no mans land wheel though, not light, not particularly aero. Just a space filler in their range.

Everyone I spoke to about their SLs rates them highly and have done 1000s of miles and are still true.

but they look good