I received a Cosmic Pro Carbon SL UST from a customer.
Brand new.
Since it came in with its original box,
I assumed it was from overseas mail order, and I was right.
There's nothing particularly worth noting about the inspection.
Campagnolo wheels like Zonda, Eurus, and Shamal Ultra use
cup-and-cone ball or USB bearings, and
the outer races and cones were originally black,
but through a specification change with no model number change (and no announcement),
they became silver.
Though the manufacturer won't admit it, silver ball races have higher durability,
and especially with USB bearings where ceramic balls run,
the frequency of false brinelling is dramatically lower.
It's a clever strategy—they quietly make minor changes and don't change the spare parts numbers
(so you can't buy the black ones anymore),
naturally switching everyone to silver ball races.
But even after new wheels in circulation completely switched to silver ball races,
spare parts in black were still being delivered for about two years.
Separately from that, though rarely, during the transition period,
there were instances where front and rear wheels from the same box
had different colored ball races.
During inspection, you don't normally check the color of the ball races,
so you'd usually notice it much later, when servicing the wheels with fresh grease.
In 2006, Mavic released their first Cosmic Carbon Pro,
which was Mavic's first rim with a non-aluminum braking surface
(excluding the track version Io front wheel, which isn't designed for braking).
Then in 2008, the first Cosmic Carbon Ultimate came out,
which came with Swiss Stop Yellow King brake shoes.
(Before Black Prince came out, the carbon-specific Yellow King shoes
may not have had that name).
At that time, unless you used Yellow King, the only other option was cork shoes
which were gentle on rims but had poor braking power (especially useless in the rain),
so you either knowingly used Yellow King despite its aggressive attack on rims,
or used it without knowing the problem.
But after Swiss Stop released Black Prince,
Yellow King basically became "a shoe you shouldn't use."
Despite being completely unaware of this situation, Mavic and Easton
stubbornly kept including Yellow King shoes with their wheels.
Moreover, both brands' carbon rims
are actually rather weak against brake heat
(Mavic's Corima-made rims are somewhat stronger, but ENVE-made ones are very weak).
So within the range where I could verbally warn customers,
I did tell them not to use Yellow King on Mavic and Easton wheels,
even if they were the manufacturer's official accessories.
However, very recently—and I mean really recently—Mavic wheels
now come with Black Prince brake shoes.
This wheel too... wait?
Why do the front and rear wheels from the same box have
different brake shoe specifications?
↑Mavic and by Swiss Stop in a co-branded design
↑Black shoes with black lettering—hard to see, but also co-branded
Swiss Stop brake shoes are frequently adopted by wheel and parts brands
through co-branding, and besides these there are also FF Yamaguchi and SRAM.
↑This is from a KCNC brake, the aluminum rim rain-weather model "BXP"
with KCNC co-branded specification.
↑The image below shows an older Yellow King from before
direct-mount brake compatibility (before the cutout was added).
↑Top image is Foliagers, bottom is Easton.
Regarding Foliagers (→here).
↑This is the shoe that came with the first Cosmic Carbon Ultimate,
with Mavic markings on the top,
and by Swiss Stop markings on the bottom.
Plus it's the old logo.
One more thing—unrelated, but years ago I once made a "Swiss Stop" package
to preserve a customer's pride (→here).
Brand new.
Since it came in with its original box,
I assumed it was from overseas mail order, and I was right.
There's nothing particularly worth noting about the inspection.
Campagnolo wheels like Zonda, Eurus, and Shamal Ultra use
cup-and-cone ball or USB bearings, and
the outer races and cones were originally black,
but through a specification change with no model number change (and no announcement),
they became silver.
Though the manufacturer won't admit it, silver ball races have higher durability,
and especially with USB bearings where ceramic balls run,
the frequency of false brinelling is dramatically lower.
It's a clever strategy—they quietly make minor changes and don't change the spare parts numbers
(so you can't buy the black ones anymore),
naturally switching everyone to silver ball races.
But even after new wheels in circulation completely switched to silver ball races,
spare parts in black were still being delivered for about two years.
Separately from that, though rarely, during the transition period,
there were instances where front and rear wheels from the same box
had different colored ball races.
During inspection, you don't normally check the color of the ball races,
so you'd usually notice it much later, when servicing the wheels with fresh grease.
In 2006, Mavic released their first Cosmic Carbon Pro,
which was Mavic's first rim with a non-aluminum braking surface
(excluding the track version Io front wheel, which isn't designed for braking).
Then in 2008, the first Cosmic Carbon Ultimate came out,
which came with Swiss Stop Yellow King brake shoes.
(Before Black Prince came out, the carbon-specific Yellow King shoes
may not have had that name).
At that time, unless you used Yellow King, the only other option was cork shoes
which were gentle on rims but had poor braking power (especially useless in the rain),
so you either knowingly used Yellow King despite its aggressive attack on rims,
or used it without knowing the problem.
But after Swiss Stop released Black Prince,
Yellow King basically became "a shoe you shouldn't use."
Despite being completely unaware of this situation, Mavic and Easton
stubbornly kept including Yellow King shoes with their wheels.
Moreover, both brands' carbon rims
are actually rather weak against brake heat
(Mavic's Corima-made rims are somewhat stronger, but ENVE-made ones are very weak).
So within the range where I could verbally warn customers,
I did tell them not to use Yellow King on Mavic and Easton wheels,
even if they were the manufacturer's official accessories.
However, very recently—and I mean really recently—Mavic wheels
now come with Black Prince brake shoes.
This wheel too... wait?
Why do the front and rear wheels from the same box have
different brake shoe specifications?
↑Mavic and by Swiss Stop in a co-branded design
↑Black shoes with black lettering—hard to see, but also co-branded
Swiss Stop brake shoes are frequently adopted by wheel and parts brands
through co-branding, and besides these there are also FF Yamaguchi and SRAM.
↑This is from a KCNC brake, the aluminum rim rain-weather model "BXP"
with KCNC co-branded specification.
↑The image below shows an older Yellow King from before
direct-mount brake compatibility (before the cutout was added).
↑Top image is Foliagers, bottom is Easton.
Regarding Foliagers (→here).
↑This is the shoe that came with the first Cosmic Carbon Ultimate,
with Mavic markings on the top,
and by Swiss Stop markings on the bottom.
Plus it's the old logo.
One more thing—unrelated, but years ago I once made a "Swiss Stop" package
to preserve a customer's pride (→here).