A customer brought in a Ksyrium SL for me to work on.
They wanted an inspection. Let me start with the front wheel.
This is a generalized version of the 2006 Ksyrium ES (limited edition), so naturally it features a narrow rim, non-Exalith finish, and non-tubeless rim.
The opposite of those three features—wide rim, Exalith finish, and tubeless rim capability—all represent rim weight increases, so people who don't feel the need for those specs won't appreciate them.
The customer isn't the original owner of this wheel, and it appears they've never actually ridden it since acquiring it, so they must have deliberately hunted down a Ksyrium from this era.
The nipple design is the older version with a smaller reverse Torx recess.
The Ksyrium SL has no holes around the rim perimeter except for the valve hole, but the seam processing is rough, so it's covered with tape.
This tape tends to shrink from brake heat exposure and peels back over time from regular use.
I degreased the tape adhesive.
If left unpatched, there are small holes that could potentially cause flats.
If you count these as holes, then the claim of "no holes except the valve hole" becomes misleading.
Lately, I've been using Stan's tubeless tape for these repairs.
Even the narrowest width doesn't fit properly, so I cut it to size.
Just so you know, the tape in the image above is the 25mm width, not the narrowest available at 21mm.
There's a slight lateral runout.
It's so subtle that I could probably fix it with just one-sided truing, but this front wheel has slack spoke tension—when I squeeze the spokes they crackle with 100% reproducibility—so I needed to tension all of them evenly.
I finished the spoke tension increase, truing, and centering.
Now for the rear wheel.
I need to replace the tape on this one too.
Before the adhesive degreasing and
after.
The rim is centered toward the non-drive side, which is a common pattern I see with Mavic wheels.
The rear wheel's spoke tension isn't too slack, so I could dial in the centering just right with some spoke tension adjustment.
All done.
I also inspected the hubs and found no significant wear.
It's been about 10 years since this Ksyrium SL came out, but the previous owner either didn't use it regularly or didn't ride it much, so the rim and hub condition is in excellent shape.
They wanted an inspection. Let me start with the front wheel.
This is a generalized version of the 2006 Ksyrium ES (limited edition), so naturally it features a narrow rim, non-Exalith finish, and non-tubeless rim.
The opposite of those three features—wide rim, Exalith finish, and tubeless rim capability—all represent rim weight increases, so people who don't feel the need for those specs won't appreciate them.
The customer isn't the original owner of this wheel, and it appears they've never actually ridden it since acquiring it, so they must have deliberately hunted down a Ksyrium from this era.
The nipple design is the older version with a smaller reverse Torx recess.
The Ksyrium SL has no holes around the rim perimeter except for the valve hole, but the seam processing is rough, so it's covered with tape.
This tape tends to shrink from brake heat exposure and peels back over time from regular use.
I degreased the tape adhesive.
If left unpatched, there are small holes that could potentially cause flats.
If you count these as holes, then the claim of "no holes except the valve hole" becomes misleading.
Lately, I've been using Stan's tubeless tape for these repairs.
Even the narrowest width doesn't fit properly, so I cut it to size.
Just so you know, the tape in the image above is the 25mm width, not the narrowest available at 21mm.
There's a slight lateral runout.
It's so subtle that I could probably fix it with just one-sided truing, but this front wheel has slack spoke tension—when I squeeze the spokes they crackle with 100% reproducibility—so I needed to tension all of them evenly.
I finished the spoke tension increase, truing, and centering.
Now for the rear wheel.
I need to replace the tape on this one too.
Before the adhesive degreasing and
after.
The rim is centered toward the non-drive side, which is a common pattern I see with Mavic wheels.
The rear wheel's spoke tension isn't too slack, so I could dial in the centering just right with some spoke tension adjustment.
All done.
I also inspected the hubs and found no significant wear.
It's been about 10 years since this Ksyrium SL came out, but the previous owner either didn't use it regularly or didn't ride it much, so the rim and hub condition is in excellent shape.