A customer brought in a Ksyrium SL for me to work on.
It's "brand new," but they wanted a full inspection.
Model name verification photo
And here's my obligatory "the brake zone is completely clean" flex
The 2006 Ksyrium ES (Édition Spéciale) was a limited model that couldn't be re-released,
so the Ksyrium SL was created with nearly identical specs except for minor cosmetic differences and made into a regular production wheel.
Similar examples include the Ksyrium K10 (that's what we call it in Japan—overseas it's the Ksyrium Ixion)
and the Ksyrium 125 (Mavic's 125th anniversary commemorative model),
which were also followed by regular production models with nearly identical specifications.
I only photographed the rear wheel, but both front and rear were perfectly centered with almost no runout.
This kind of precision from Mavic is practically a miracle—maybe one in a hundred.
I asked the customer if they'd had the wheels inspected somewhere,
and they said "I just bought it on eBay and brought it straight over."
Ah, well, I don't really need to know the detailed backstory. Sorry for prying.
But it does solve another mystery for me.
There are people who actually prefer the older Ksyrium spec—the narrow rim, non-Exalith, non-UST tubeless,
without Instant Drive 360. That's good taste right there.
It's "brand new," but they wanted a full inspection.
Model name verification photo
And here's my obligatory "the brake zone is completely clean" flex
The 2006 Ksyrium ES (Édition Spéciale) was a limited model that couldn't be re-released,
so the Ksyrium SL was created with nearly identical specs except for minor cosmetic differences and made into a regular production wheel.
Similar examples include the Ksyrium K10 (that's what we call it in Japan—overseas it's the Ksyrium Ixion)
and the Ksyrium 125 (Mavic's 125th anniversary commemorative model),
which were also followed by regular production models with nearly identical specifications.
I only photographed the rear wheel, but both front and rear were perfectly centered with almost no runout.
This kind of precision from Mavic is practically a miracle—maybe one in a hundred.
I asked the customer if they'd had the wheels inspected somewhere,
and they said "I just bought it on eBay and brought it straight over."
Ah, well, I don't really need to know the detailed backstory. Sorry for prying.
But it does solve another mystery for me.
There are people who actually prefer the older Ksyrium spec—the narrow rim, non-Exalith, non-UST tubeless,
without Instant Drive 360. That's good taste right there.