Another day of wheels (and so on).
A customer left me with a rear wheel from a Mavic Cosmic SL 32.
They wanted it rebuilt.
No matter how you look at it—
it's unused stock.
There are quite a few reasons they want it rebuilt. First off, there's the absurd running costs and hassle of the instruction to apply specialized grease to the ratchet teeth of the Instant Drive 360 every 1000 km.
Then there's the issue of spoke availability. Specialized spokes are used based on spoke weight distribution and the hub flange shape, but sourcing spare spokes for these is difficult. If our shop carried Mavic wheels like we do with Campagnolo and Fulcrum, we'd keep inventory of all the spare spoke types for their popular wheels. But since we don't carry Mavic, I can't help it if we can't do same-day repairs for bent or broken spokes. There's been a discontinuity in the company's approach (euphemistically speaking), and the retention period for spare parts is short. Spokes from before a certain era are no longer obtainable—for example, the R-SYS is pretty much impossible to repair.
Another thing worth noting: Mavic steel spokes are excellent in terms of resistance to stress fractures at the neck, but on the flip side, their composition leans more toward steel than stainless, so over time the paint breaks down and you get lots of spotty rust bloom.
And honestly, I'm confident that a wheel I rebuild will perform better than one straight off the shelf.
Built it.
Revo disc hub, 24H, black half CX Sprint,
46-spoke radial lace.
I'll do the spoke wrapping later, but even in this state it should perform better than the original wheel.
The customer left me with an assortment of black neck-break CX-RAY spokes in various lengths and quantities, and said to prioritize using those up, even if it meant a 44-spoke lace or all CX-RAY. But from the 12 CX-RAY spokes on the non-drive side, only 9 were usable.
A customer left me with a rear wheel from a Mavic Cosmic SL 32.
They wanted it rebuilt.
No matter how you look at it—
it's unused stock.
There are quite a few reasons they want it rebuilt. First off, there's the absurd running costs and hassle of the instruction to apply specialized grease to the ratchet teeth of the Instant Drive 360 every 1000 km.
Then there's the issue of spoke availability. Specialized spokes are used based on spoke weight distribution and the hub flange shape, but sourcing spare spokes for these is difficult. If our shop carried Mavic wheels like we do with Campagnolo and Fulcrum, we'd keep inventory of all the spare spoke types for their popular wheels. But since we don't carry Mavic, I can't help it if we can't do same-day repairs for bent or broken spokes. There's been a discontinuity in the company's approach (euphemistically speaking), and the retention period for spare parts is short. Spokes from before a certain era are no longer obtainable—for example, the R-SYS is pretty much impossible to repair.
Another thing worth noting: Mavic steel spokes are excellent in terms of resistance to stress fractures at the neck, but on the flip side, their composition leans more toward steel than stainless, so over time the paint breaks down and you get lots of spotty rust bloom.
And honestly, I'm confident that a wheel I rebuild will perform better than one straight off the shelf.
Built it.
Revo disc hub, 24H, black half CX Sprint,
46-spoke radial lace.
I'll do the spoke wrapping later, but even in this state it should perform better than the original wheel.
The customer left me with an assortment of black neck-break CX-RAY spokes in various lengths and quantities, and said to prioritize using those up, even if it meant a 44-spoke lace or all CX-RAY. But from the 12 CX-RAY spokes on the non-drive side, only 9 were usable.