A customer brought in an R-SYS SLR for service.
Back in the day, R-SYS was pushed so hard by the manufacturer that it was basically "if you buy a Ksyrium with that name as the top model, the rear wheel is essentially R-SYS," but Mavic is now obsessed with Road UST tubeless, and R-SYS has been left behind on both the wide rim conversion and tubeless ready rim conversion fronts. The standard R-SYS model, not the budget Exalith version, is already discontinued, leaving only this R-SYS SLR as the sole current R-SYS family wheel.
Currently, the only wheels that don't support Road UST tubeless are the R-SYS SLR and Aksium wheels other than the Aksium Elite.
The customer wants an inspection.
These days I wouldn't normally write about something like this, but I'm doing it because I'm not working on it in front of the customer. Starting with the front wheel.
It's off-center.
Fixed it.
I also removed the machining debris from inside the rim.
I might discontinue it someday, but Mavic has been pushing their infuriating WTS (Wheel Tire System) bundle sales for over a decade, and while I think the most common example is people switching to Continental Grand Prix 4000S, the fact that the company's tire repeat customers are extremely rare is something I'm certain about from experience. There are plenty of people who peel off the tires from new wheels just because unused tires are easier to sell, and end up never using them at all. When inspecting wheels, I have to remove the tire temporarily to use a proper centering gauge, and it's only with Mavic that I occasionally get told "you don't need to put the tire back on." Since switching to Road UST tubeless, that tendency has reduced quite a bit, probably due to compatibility concerns.
Mavic tires used to have a label with "MAVIC SSC" just like this rim sticker, and the phase of the tire and rim labels was matched directly below the valve hole, but with the current models that have simplified cosmetics, the phase is now matched between a yellow line-shaped sticker and the yellow triangle on this tire.
The yellow line-shaped sticker isn't positioned directly below the valve—it's 180° across from the valve hole, shifted about 90°, or slightly offset from around 90° depending on the model, so it's pretty arbitrary.
With this R-SYS, the rim and tire labels are from different eras, but I decided to align the label phase anyway. Actually, that's how it was originally.
The tire that came with the wheel is 25C, but 23C might be better given the rim width. The only model with 23C in the lineup besides tubular tires is the Ixion Pro, and the budget Ixion and UST Ixion start from 25C.
Next, the rear wheel. I forgot to take an overall photo.
Based on the freewheel body, the wheel appears to be new.
The amount varies, but the rim is pushed toward the freewheel side—that's typical. This rear hub has four different thickness drive-side cone washers, and the precise wheel center changes depending on which one is used, but this amount of offset exceeds the offset that would result from those circumstances.
I'd like to center it by tightening only the freewheel side, but on units where the freewheel side is extremely tight, I have to loosen the non-freewheel side. In that case, the non-freewheel side of the R-SYS has, across probably all wheels, the largest rim movement per degree of spoke wrench rotation, so just the slightest loosening will eliminate this gap.
I was able to center it by tightening only the freewheel side.
Back in the day, R-SYS was pushed so hard by the manufacturer that it was basically "if you buy a Ksyrium with that name as the top model, the rear wheel is essentially R-SYS," but Mavic is now obsessed with Road UST tubeless, and R-SYS has been left behind on both the wide rim conversion and tubeless ready rim conversion fronts. The standard R-SYS model, not the budget Exalith version, is already discontinued, leaving only this R-SYS SLR as the sole current R-SYS family wheel.
Currently, the only wheels that don't support Road UST tubeless are the R-SYS SLR and Aksium wheels other than the Aksium Elite.
The customer wants an inspection.
These days I wouldn't normally write about something like this, but I'm doing it because I'm not working on it in front of the customer. Starting with the front wheel.
It's off-center.
Fixed it.
I also removed the machining debris from inside the rim.
I might discontinue it someday, but Mavic has been pushing their infuriating WTS (Wheel Tire System) bundle sales for over a decade, and while I think the most common example is people switching to Continental Grand Prix 4000S, the fact that the company's tire repeat customers are extremely rare is something I'm certain about from experience. There are plenty of people who peel off the tires from new wheels just because unused tires are easier to sell, and end up never using them at all. When inspecting wheels, I have to remove the tire temporarily to use a proper centering gauge, and it's only with Mavic that I occasionally get told "you don't need to put the tire back on." Since switching to Road UST tubeless, that tendency has reduced quite a bit, probably due to compatibility concerns.
Mavic tires used to have a label with "MAVIC SSC" just like this rim sticker, and the phase of the tire and rim labels was matched directly below the valve hole, but with the current models that have simplified cosmetics, the phase is now matched between a yellow line-shaped sticker and the yellow triangle on this tire.
The yellow line-shaped sticker isn't positioned directly below the valve—it's 180° across from the valve hole, shifted about 90°, or slightly offset from around 90° depending on the model, so it's pretty arbitrary.
With this R-SYS, the rim and tire labels are from different eras, but I decided to align the label phase anyway. Actually, that's how it was originally.
The tire that came with the wheel is 25C, but 23C might be better given the rim width. The only model with 23C in the lineup besides tubular tires is the Ixion Pro, and the budget Ixion and UST Ixion start from 25C.
Next, the rear wheel. I forgot to take an overall photo.
Based on the freewheel body, the wheel appears to be new.
The amount varies, but the rim is pushed toward the freewheel side—that's typical. This rear hub has four different thickness drive-side cone washers, and the precise wheel center changes depending on which one is used, but this amount of offset exceeds the offset that would result from those circumstances.
I'd like to center it by tightening only the freewheel side, but on units where the freewheel side is extremely tight, I have to loosen the non-freewheel side. In that case, the non-freewheel side of the R-SYS has, across probably all wheels, the largest rim movement per degree of spoke wrench rotation, so just the slightest loosening will eliminate this gap.
I was able to center it by tightening only the freewheel side.