Mavic Ksyrium Elite UST Wheel Red, Rear, Shimano/SRAM

Description

Mavic has spent a lot of time over the last decade developing its softgoods game, namely jerseys, shoes, bibs, and the like. The brand has enjoyed some impressive success on that front, but for many of us in the Competitive office, we still associate the yellow label primarily with wheels, and perhaps no wheel is better known, ridden, and beloved than the Ksyrium Elite. It's only fitting, then, that Mavic includes it in its new lineup of comically user-friendly tubeless wheels, and the Ksyrium Elite UST Wheel promises to teach an entirely new generation of cyclists why the OG Ksyrium Elite played such a formative role in older cyclists' lives in the saddle. They're slightly heavier than the Ksyrium Pro version, but it's hard to fault them a few grams when the steel spokes and virtually indestructible rim mean that, in the off chance you knock them out of true or snap a spoke, any bike shop or competent home mechanic the world over will be able to quickly get them rolling again. Reliability aside, Mavic's tubeless genius makes the rim the star here, and the reason why becomes apparent early in the process of mounting the tires. We all love the lower rolling resistance, cushier ride, and increased puncture resistance of tubeless tires, but getting them on and inflated is an admitted hassle that's left a lot of us sticking with traditional tubes. Mavic's road UST design virtually eliminates any of these misgivings. The tires pop-on without tire levers, and they inflate without a compressor, CO2, or high-volume floor pump. Just use the same beat-up old pump you've been repairing the hose on for years, though we do recommend sticking with Mavic's UST-specific tires, which come stock on the rims. The key to the ease of mounting and inflation is typical Mavic. It involves an obsessive R&D cycle that established tolerances to within a millimeter; a hair in either direction would mean the tire would either be nigh impossible to mount but virtually immune to burping ...