I took in a Cosmic SLR from a customer.
According to the rim markings, it's a Cosmic SLR.
The Cosmic Carbon SLR refers to
the previous generation that didn't have Exalith processing on the brake zone.
Unfortunately it was discontinued after just two generations—a short-lived model—but
I really love this wheel. I wish I'd bought at least the front one back then.
It's positioned somewhere like "Cosmic Carbon Ultimate with adjustable elements,"
but since the rim is essentially the same as the traditional Cosmic Carbon,
it doesn't have that light, responsive feel of the Ultimate.
If you don't have excessive expectations about that and use it in the right applications,
it's not a bad wheel.
It's one of the wheels that symbolizes Mavic's occasional "I understand what you were going for, but is this really the way?" thinking that breaks through at an angle,
though the prime example of that isn't this one but the R-SYS.
This wheel's nipples have the same thread pitch as standard sizes, but
spoke twisting happens easily, so when there's significant rim centering issues,
the work becomes extremely difficult.
The images above don't present a problem.
The issue was that the rim was leaning toward the non-drive side,
making it difficult to increase tension on the drive side,
and loosening the non-drive side wasn't really an option except for
fine-tuning lateral runout—so
I managed it mostly through increasing tension on the drive side.
The front wheel was perfectly centered with just a slight lateral wobble in one spot.
Since it's the same customer, I'll cover both in one article,
but I also took in a Ksyrium SR.
The front wheel only needed minor truing.
These aluminum spokes have a transition from round to flattened that
resembles a fish's tail fin—it's the highly flattened type,
a design that's been around since the first Ksyrium.
(The hub flange shape changed to this same type starting with Ksyrium ES,
so spoke lengths differ between earlier and later versions)
There's also another type of flattened aluminum spoke with slightly narrower width, apparently for weight reduction,
adopted from around Ksyrium K10 onward. The older flattened aluminum spokes weren't discontinued,
and depending on the Ksyrium model,
you sometimes see the old type used on the front wheel and the new type on the rear.
More recently, a third spoke shape has appeared—"about the width of the new flattened type but with increased thickness"—
and it's sometimes used on the drive side of R-SYS family rear wheels, likely aiming to improve spoke engagement.
As for the color boundary on the cosmetic spokes,
it appears to be painted. That kind of attention to detail is nice.
For the rear wheel, since the front wheel has full aluminum spokes,
it's only called Ksyrium in name—functionally it's an R-SYS.
So the non-drive side has carbon spokes, but
the aluminum spokes on the drive side are actually "round cross-section."
This isn't really a fourth type of aluminum spoke so much as
a transitional specification toward the third type, so
in my own classification it feels like a prototype between types 2 and 3.
Edit: Regarding the round aluminum spokes, I received a comment that
they were adopted earlier on MTB wheels.
Thank you for that!
Just like the Ksyrium K10 and later rim-side cutouts first appeared
on disc brake rims,
improving road and MTB mutually seems to be
one of Mavic's strengths.
It's almost surprising they haven't ventured into tubeless road tires.
The rear rim was leaning toward the drive side.
On one hand, I'm grateful that I can increase tension on the non-drive side,
but on the other hand, removing the spoke wrench ring is tedious.
Since loosening the drive side even slightly wouldn't provide enough adjustment range,
I cleanly removed the spoke wrench ring.
Based on the spoke head wear,
it's clear this wheel has never been adjusted since it left the factory.
By the way, it's a tubular setup.
A good choice.
Since the customer has given me permission to mention it, I'll write that
they came all the way from Kochi Prefecture
just to have this wheel inspected.
I apologize for writing about something that happened during Golden Week only now.
While I'm at it, the C24 from the previous article is from Ishikawa Prefecture,
but having someone pass by several other shops
and come all the way to ours
is really not an ordinary thing—it's something I'm genuinely grateful for.
According to the rim markings, it's a Cosmic SLR.
The Cosmic Carbon SLR refers to
the previous generation that didn't have Exalith processing on the brake zone.
Unfortunately it was discontinued after just two generations—a short-lived model—but
I really love this wheel. I wish I'd bought at least the front one back then.
It's positioned somewhere like "Cosmic Carbon Ultimate with adjustable elements,"
but since the rim is essentially the same as the traditional Cosmic Carbon,
it doesn't have that light, responsive feel of the Ultimate.
If you don't have excessive expectations about that and use it in the right applications,
it's not a bad wheel.
It's one of the wheels that symbolizes Mavic's occasional "I understand what you were going for, but is this really the way?" thinking that breaks through at an angle,
though the prime example of that isn't this one but the R-SYS.
This wheel's nipples have the same thread pitch as standard sizes, but
spoke twisting happens easily, so when there's significant rim centering issues,
the work becomes extremely difficult.
The images above don't present a problem.
The issue was that the rim was leaning toward the non-drive side,
making it difficult to increase tension on the drive side,
and loosening the non-drive side wasn't really an option except for
fine-tuning lateral runout—so
I managed it mostly through increasing tension on the drive side.
The front wheel was perfectly centered with just a slight lateral wobble in one spot.
Since it's the same customer, I'll cover both in one article,
but I also took in a Ksyrium SR.
The front wheel only needed minor truing.
These aluminum spokes have a transition from round to flattened that
resembles a fish's tail fin—it's the highly flattened type,
a design that's been around since the first Ksyrium.
(The hub flange shape changed to this same type starting with Ksyrium ES,
so spoke lengths differ between earlier and later versions)
There's also another type of flattened aluminum spoke with slightly narrower width, apparently for weight reduction,
adopted from around Ksyrium K10 onward. The older flattened aluminum spokes weren't discontinued,
and depending on the Ksyrium model,
you sometimes see the old type used on the front wheel and the new type on the rear.
More recently, a third spoke shape has appeared—"about the width of the new flattened type but with increased thickness"—
and it's sometimes used on the drive side of R-SYS family rear wheels, likely aiming to improve spoke engagement.
As for the color boundary on the cosmetic spokes,
it appears to be painted. That kind of attention to detail is nice.
For the rear wheel, since the front wheel has full aluminum spokes,
it's only called Ksyrium in name—functionally it's an R-SYS.
So the non-drive side has carbon spokes, but
the aluminum spokes on the drive side are actually "round cross-section."
This isn't really a fourth type of aluminum spoke so much as
a transitional specification toward the third type, so
in my own classification it feels like a prototype between types 2 and 3.
Edit: Regarding the round aluminum spokes, I received a comment that
they were adopted earlier on MTB wheels.
Thank you for that!
Just like the Ksyrium K10 and later rim-side cutouts first appeared
on disc brake rims,
improving road and MTB mutually seems to be
one of Mavic's strengths.
It's almost surprising they haven't ventured into tubeless road tires.
The rear rim was leaning toward the drive side.
On one hand, I'm grateful that I can increase tension on the non-drive side,
but on the other hand, removing the spoke wrench ring is tedious.
Since loosening the drive side even slightly wouldn't provide enough adjustment range,
I cleanly removed the spoke wrench ring.
Based on the spoke head wear,
it's clear this wheel has never been adjusted since it left the factory.
By the way, it's a tubular setup.
A good choice.
Since the customer has given me permission to mention it, I'll write that
they came all the way from Kochi Prefecture
just to have this wheel inspected.
I apologize for writing about something that happened during Golden Week only now.
While I'm at it, the C24 from the previous article is from Ishikawa Prefecture,
but having someone pass by several other shops
and come all the way to ours
is really not an ordinary thing—it's something I'm genuinely grateful for.