A customer left a Ksyrium Elite UST with me.
It wasn't from an auction or anything like that—a teammate bought new wheels, so they passed this one along.
Since the current owner is someone I've known for a long time,
I'm not making anything up about how it came into our possession.
The rear wheel didn't have any particular issues
（Mavic centerlock misalignment doesn't count as a problem），
but the front wheel had some seriously sketchy problems, so there's article value here—
that's why I'm only shooting photos of the front wheel.
There's one spot with some pretty noticeable lateral runout, and it's hard to imagine
the previous owner didn't notice it,
but it's quite likely they were using it without realizing the issue.
That's because the spoke directly below the runout isn't sitting properly
in its correct position on the hub flange.
↑This is what the normal case looks like
↑The right side of this image shows the abnormal phase.
When both are normal, it looks like this.
I've seen this before（→here），
so I always pay special attention to flanges like this, but
there's no way a spoke head gets knocked out of position
by a buckle impact. Rather, what's more likely is that
a front wheel built with the spoke heads hooked in the wrong position
gets them to settle into the correct spot after a buckle impact,
which（by creating lower tension just there）
results in runout. The previous owner apparently bought this wheel
from an overseas online retailer and didn't just hang it on and ride it—
they bought it from a shop that handles Mavic,
so maybe the shop passed it on to the previous owner without an initial inspection,
but the runout is significant enough that you'd notice it
when you're setting up brake pads and such.
Honestly, I don't get it. Well, I can just fix it anyway.
As I mentioned in the linked article,
if you're using a wheel built with this type of Mavic flange hub,
I'd recommend checking yours at least once.
Fixed it.
I also installed tubeless tires with sealant.
The tire is either an Ixion Pro UST or UST II—I'm not sure which—
but the bead fit is way looser than older models,
making it easier to install than those annoyingly tight WO tires.
Those tires were so absurdly hard to mount that amateurs would scrape the rim sidewall
with tire levers, shredding the decals（→here），
and once the bead snapped onto the bead hook,
you'd need to press with both thumbs until they nearly break to get it off—
basically impossible to deal with roadside—so they seem to want to "pretend that never happened."
We went through a period of checking Cosmic Pro Carbon SL UST tires
almost daily, but
the fact that we barely see them anymore
is definitely related to the tire's instability issues.
It wasn't from an auction or anything like that—a teammate bought new wheels, so they passed this one along.
Since the current owner is someone I've known for a long time,
I'm not making anything up about how it came into our possession.
The rear wheel didn't have any particular issues
（Mavic centerlock misalignment doesn't count as a problem），
but the front wheel had some seriously sketchy problems, so there's article value here—
that's why I'm only shooting photos of the front wheel.
There's one spot with some pretty noticeable lateral runout, and it's hard to imagine
the previous owner didn't notice it,
but it's quite likely they were using it without realizing the issue.
That's because the spoke directly below the runout isn't sitting properly
in its correct position on the hub flange.
↑This is what the normal case looks like
↑The right side of this image shows the abnormal phase.
When both are normal, it looks like this.
I've seen this before（→here），
so I always pay special attention to flanges like this, but
there's no way a spoke head gets knocked out of position
by a buckle impact. Rather, what's more likely is that
a front wheel built with the spoke heads hooked in the wrong position
gets them to settle into the correct spot after a buckle impact,
which（by creating lower tension just there）
results in runout. The previous owner apparently bought this wheel
from an overseas online retailer and didn't just hang it on and ride it—
they bought it from a shop that handles Mavic,
so maybe the shop passed it on to the previous owner without an initial inspection,
but the runout is significant enough that you'd notice it
when you're setting up brake pads and such.
Honestly, I don't get it. Well, I can just fix it anyway.
As I mentioned in the linked article,
if you're using a wheel built with this type of Mavic flange hub,
I'd recommend checking yours at least once.
Fixed it.
I also installed tubeless tires with sealant.
The tire is either an Ixion Pro UST or UST II—I'm not sure which—
but the bead fit is way looser than older models,
making it easier to install than those annoyingly tight WO tires.
Those tires were so absurdly hard to mount that amateurs would scrape the rim sidewall
with tire levers, shredding the decals（→here），
and once the bead snapped onto the bead hook,
you'd need to press with both thumbs until they nearly break to get it off—
basically impossible to deal with roadside—so they seem to want to "pretend that never happened."
We went through a period of checking Cosmic Pro Carbon SL UST tires
almost daily, but
the fact that we barely see them anymore
is definitely related to the tire's instability issues.