A customer brought me a Cosmic Carbon wheel to work on.
There's a reason why it has a tire mounted on the rear wheel.
First, some background.
The customer bought this wheel at an authorized Mavic shop they've been going to for years,
but they didn't trust the shop's skill level, so they brought it to us.
Actually, I've worked with this customer before—they had us repair a Shamal Ultra and such,
so this isn't their first time with us.
Both wheels have centering issues,
and the rear wheel is particularly bad with the rim shifted significantly toward the non-drive side.
Interestingly, when you pump this wheel up to around 8 bar,
the rim shifts slightly toward the drive side
(though this isn't unique to this wheel).
It's as if someone deliberately accounted for this by shifting the rim toward the non-drive side from the start.
And sure enough, Mavic rear wheels have a tendency
to have the rim shifted toward the non-drive side very often.
For the R-SYS in particular, this explanation makes sense (I'll write about that eventually),
but even on other wheels, the rim usually ends up shifted toward the non-drive side.
However, the initial amount of centering error is far more than what air pressure alone could correct,
and there are cases where the rim is shifted toward the drive side,
plus we're seeing centering issues on front wheels as well this time,
so it looks like the simplest explanation is just that they weren't built properly.
Despite carrying the Cosmic name,
this model uses Isopulse lacing (radial on the drive side).
There's a reason why it has a tire mounted on the rear wheel.
First, some background.
The customer bought this wheel at an authorized Mavic shop they've been going to for years,
but they didn't trust the shop's skill level, so they brought it to us.
Actually, I've worked with this customer before—they had us repair a Shamal Ultra and such,
so this isn't their first time with us.
Both wheels have centering issues,
and the rear wheel is particularly bad with the rim shifted significantly toward the non-drive side.
Interestingly, when you pump this wheel up to around 8 bar,
the rim shifts slightly toward the drive side
(though this isn't unique to this wheel).
It's as if someone deliberately accounted for this by shifting the rim toward the non-drive side from the start.
And sure enough, Mavic rear wheels have a tendency
to have the rim shifted toward the non-drive side very often.
For the R-SYS in particular, this explanation makes sense (I'll write about that eventually),
but even on other wheels, the rim usually ends up shifted toward the non-drive side.
However, the initial amount of centering error is far more than what air pressure alone could correct,
and there are cases where the rim is shifted toward the drive side,
plus we're seeing centering issues on front wheels as well this time,
so it looks like the simplest explanation is just that they weren't built properly.
Despite carrying the Cosmic name,
this model uses Isopulse lacing (radial on the drive side).