Jahanzaib The lightest Ksyrium Equipe ever featuring high end tyres and impactful graphic design. Loved by riders and bike builders alike, the highly respected Ksyrium Equipe adds top quality tyres to its premium features and low weight while retaining strength and durability.
Features:
RIMS
- Material: 6106 Aluminum
- Color: black anodized or white painted
- Height: 24mm
- Joint: SUP
- Drilling: traditional
- Eyelet: H2 technology
- Brake track: UB Control
- Valve hole diameter: 6.5mm
- Tyre: clincher
- ETRTO size: 622x15C
- Recommended tyre sizes: 19 to 32mm
SPOKES
- Material: steel
- Shape: straight pull, bladed
- Color: black
- Nipples: brass, front Self Lock, rear ABS
- Count: 20 front and rear
- Lacing: front radial, rear Isopulse
HUBS
- Front and rear bodies: aluminum
- Color: Black anodized or White painted
- Front and rear axle material: steel
- QRM
- FTS-L steel
TYRE
- Yksion Comp – 210g
- Front and Rear Tread: Single Compound
- Casing: 120 TPI
- Dimension: 23-622 (700x23c)
- Max. Pressure: 9 bar/130 psi
- Color: Black/White
- Weight (pair of wheels): 1690 grams
- Front wheel: 770 grams
- pair of wheels with tyre – WTS: 2300 grams
- front wheel with tyre – WTS: 1075 grams
Mavic Ksyrium Equipe S Review:
I am going to be honest, I never thought I would enjoy British roads so much. In my youth I couldn’t really wait to escape them. In my teenage years, I’d return from university breaks glad to be on the first train back to a decent city. Perhaps it is because I am now older or wiser, but for me, riding round the lanes and tracks of countryside side of the UK has been delightful.
Over the last two years, I have been doing a lot of road riding. From riding round Glasgow, on the cobbles of Glasgow, to a leisurely ride to the top of Arthur’s Seat with the wife. On Thursday’s, I ride to the local shop. Especially in this glorious weather. I also like to do a few rides on the weekend. These can be short pleasure rides or longer sportives.
Last year saw a new addition to my riding. I had the opportunity to join a local cyclocross club, Belly Rumble Cycling. Cyclocross is a little like mountain biking and a lot like road racing. Indeed some people say you do not need to be a strong road rider to do cyclocross. The one thing I have found is that no matter where you are going to do your riding or racing, it is always best to be properly prepared.
The first thing I noticed about the Mavic Ksyrium Equipe S Wheelset 2015 is the quality. Mavic Ksyrium Equipe S is beautifully put together. Materials and finishing are top quality. The rim tape is nice and easy to put in place. As far as I can tell the rims are smooth. I have ridden my previous wheels with rim tape on and I am sure that contributed to them needing new spokes multiple times each year. The wheels come with beautiful stainless spoke nipples and black bladed spokes. The wheels also have Mavic’s spokes in the QRM (Quality Road Movement) which is borrowed from its mountain bike wheel and features larger diameter, lighter weight spokes that have been designed using a rotor braking stress sweep test to ensure the right level of strength, precision and stiffness in the wheel.
I have been using Mavic’s Ksyrium Equipe wheels for the best part of the last ten years. They have served me well. I still have a set of Ksyrium Equipe wheels that are doing sterling service as indoor training wheels. I decided to go for the 2015 Ksyrium Equipe S wheels because they are 1.6% lighter than their predecessors and they have Mavic’s optional Friaxion RS brake tracks.
After cleaning the rims, I went ahead and put them on my bike. What I found was that attaching the rear wheel was easier than the front. A lot easier. The rear axle is a traditional quick release system with a pinch bolt to tighten and tighten it up. The front wheel has a 20mm axle and is a little more fiddly. The trick is to attach the front wheel one side of the braking surface at a time. You do this by first attaching the first side of the wheel to the frame. Then place the axle in the dropouts. You will see that the hub is pointing in the right direction. Now push the other side of the wheel on and the hub should stay in place. All that is left to do is to plug the skewers in. You will notice that on one side of the hub it is traditional thread. On the other side it has splines. The skewers should be different depending on which side of the hub you are building the wheel to. In this way the locking mechanism is located in the right place. There are no doubt more exciting ways to build a bike wheel, it just happens to be the method I use.
As far as wheels go, I am not a fan of deep rims. I prefer the aero benefits of shallow rims. I also prefer road bike rims to have no dimples. The Mavic Ksyrium Equipe S are an exception to both of these rules. Mavic’s Ksyrium Equipe S is a deep rimmed wheel with dimples. I like this wheel and not for the reasons indicated above. It is not that deep wheels don’t have aero benefits. If you are riding a faster profile wheel on the straight, you will notice that you go faster. It is in the corners that the shallow wheel has the advantage. A deep rimmed wheel has less chance of experiencing turbulence. The thing I like about the Ksyrium Equipe S deep rim is that when overtaking vehicles, such as cars and trucks, the rider on the shallow rimmed wheels has to contend with interference. As far as I am concerned, this is no bad thing. I am a firm believer in being aggressive in these situations. A lot of riders are not. I have no problems with going over the top of the car with my front wheel as I pass. The idea is to get past as quickly as possible. No matter how deep the wheels are, you still get interference. This is true whether you are riding a teacup wheel or a high mass wheel. The trick is to get past with as little contact as possible. You do not want to break your own or the vehicle.
When I first started out on the road, I used to ride with Shimano 600 wheels. My training partner had Mavic wheels. I was pretty sure that the Mavic wheels were faster, given that I was always being overtaken by riders on Mavic wheels. At the time, I did not know the difference between deep rims and shallow rims. The long and short of it is I always thought Mavic Ksyrium Equipe S wheels were faster. Fast forward twenty years and I have a set of the Ksyrium Equipe S wheels for the first time. Twenty years on and I still think that deep rims are faster. I still think that Mavic Ksyrium Equipe S wheels are faster.
It’s no coincidence that the fastest riders are the latest to arrive at the race or training group. The first thing they do is slip off their deep rims. The second thing they do is slip on a pair of clip on bars. They then do the hardest thing of all. They attack. Attacking sees riders travel faster over the ground than other riders. This is why the fastest riders are always the latest to arrive. They love to attack. The first safety in road racing is to be last. You are never first. The idea of road racing is to stay away. You can only do that if you go faster than everyone else. You go faster than everyone else by going deeper and later. Go deeper with your rims and you will arrive deeper. Go later and everyone else will have passed you. However, on the road you will be in the wind, behind the break. Now you can attack and the faster you are, the more others will have to respect you.
When I used to ride my Shimano 600 wheels, I always used to see three riders with Mavic wheels. They were always in the first three positions in the race. They were Belgian and Mavic sponsored. Now that is fast riding and Mavic wheels make fast riders even faster. More than twenty years on and I am still seeing these riders lining up at the start of races. Is it the Mavic wheels that make them fast? There is only one way to find out and I will be testing a new pair of Mavic Ksyrium Equipe S wheels in 2016. Welcome to the family of Mavic Ksyrium Equipe S wheels. I am pretty sure that as far as wheels go, the Ksyrium Equipe S does not get much better than this.
