Comments on: Mavic Crossmax 29″er Wheel Set: Final Review

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:37:05 +0000

Mine rattle too. Think it has to be a tension issue. I love the lightness but you’re right the rattle is way too annoying.

By: ScottS

ScottS — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:34:53 +0000

Update: Though I knocked the front wheel out of true and had to have touched up a bit, the wheels have remained in tension. However, i am now experiencing noise from the spokes. While riding along on normal single track, I can hear the front spokes rattling against each other. I confirmed this was the spokes by taking the wheel off, holding the disc in my hand, removing the skewer and flicking a spoke with my finger. Sure enough, they rattle. This is very annoying. WHile in the stand, if i spin the back wheel and close the brakes hard, I hear some rattling as well.

I may be ebaying these wheels soon and going to a Hope PII/ Bontrager Duster 32 spoke build. I’d rathe be quiet than light as nothing ruins confidence like a rattle.

Anyone seen similar traights out of Mavics?

By: Guitar Ted

Guitar Ted — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 10:54:13 +0000

ScottS: Thanks for that feedback. We’ve heard similar things from other Mavic owners. Obviously some that have commented here were aware of this too. (Don Wardo)

I think what you are saying falls right in with our findings. We are fairly certain that these test wheels will ride as we found them for quite some time. We didn’t get the opportunity to break them in out of the box, but I suspect that if we had, our experience might just have matched yours.

By: ScottS

ScottS — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 09:32:45 +0000

GT,

At 220, my wheels started to get real loose after about 200 miles. I went to 3 shops before I found one that had a park tension meter needed for the Mavics. They found that my spokes were way way loose with large variations in tension from spoke to spoke. I had the wheels tensioned to Mavics high spec of kg/.foot of 130 F and 140 R disc side tension. The difference is night and day! I was told that all mavic wheelsets get loose after initial riding, but once tensioned correctly, they stay solid for up to a couple of seasons before needing more attention.

By: Guitar Ted

Guitar Ted — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:41:22 +0000

EuroWheels: We agree with you! We are just pointing out that we, (Captain Bob and I) are both 200 plus pounds a piece and that heavier riders might expect to feel some flex. If you weigh under this amount, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that you can not feel any flex.

By: EuroWheels

EuroWheels — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 03:02:05 +0000

I just installed a set of these. I’m no pro evaluator but my riding says these are quite good for me. Tires mounted up quickly and the weight of the set is as advertised. Side-flex, top-flex, whatever flex. Most of us will never feel anything. Oh…rear hub purrs like a kitten.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 23:05:38 +0000

Thanks for the feedback Bob. I’m going to try and enter next year on my MC29er.

By: Guitar Ted

Guitar Ted — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 20:31:34 +0000

Don Wardo: We recieved this set of wheels from Mavic after they had been demoed by others. I suspect that they were checked before delivery to us, but I can not verify this. Also, we had a local shop do the first hub adjustment for us and they did not find anything wrong or needing adjusting on the spoke tension.

The wheels have stayed in true and have been pretty stable all throughout the test period. They never got worse than they were when we got them, but saying “worse” is misleading, because they never were really bad in the first place.

I really feel that we as test riders were just a bit heavy for this wheels intended audience. (Although 29″er riders tend to have a proportionately bigger slice of the clydesdale market perhaps)

Our recommendation stands: If you weigh less than 200lbs, you will most likely not have a problem with the flex and these wheels should be great for you.

By: Don Wardo

Don Wardo — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 15:57:06 +0000

I am curious if you ever checked the spoke tension throughout the test. Mavic spokes and hubs have a tendency to bed in with each other during initial use and spoke tension drops quite a bit. I am willing to bet that the tension is low, making the wheels feel soft.

By: captain bob

captain bob — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:25:21 +0000

Dave.

I rode a geared bike. You didn’t aks for that gearing but in case anyone else wants to know I ran a 36 tooth up front and an 11-32 8sp cassette. I was just about right.

I never did notice any of the flex in the actual race. The wheels just worked great. Like they should.