Samuel D wrote: Oh. Sounds clever. But also expensive! If they end up being a hundred quid, they may not make a dent in the market.
I don’t think these rims are for me even if they’re much cheaper, but I’ve always respected Mavic’s engineering know-how and general competence. Let’s see.
Indeed only time will tell how well they work.
Regarding cost, both the machining of the spoke bed and the exalith treatment are likely to be expensive. But if they work well and last well, I think they could be a good choice. There is clearly a market for expensive 'performance' wheelsets, even though factory wheels are the equivalent of an 'off the peg suit' vs one that is properly tailored to suit the individual, like a handbuilt wheelset should be.
Right now one of the best choices for a good, strong, lightweight rim is the H+Son archetype; they sell for about £60 (shortly to be nearer £70), and many of the people that use them now used to use Mavic, but don't any more. It is quite clear that Mavic have not been investing effort in their rims for some years, (in fact they seem to have been concentrating on anything but...) so have slipped back relative to the competition. However there is another school of thought which says that Mavic have altered their production methods such that the same model rim bought now would not be as good as the same model rim bought a few years ago. Making rim brake rims with ever-thinner baking surfaces is just mental, and I think they may not age the 6000 series material in the same way any more, which makes the rims softer and weaker.
Local to me the record is destroying a (recent manufacture) Open Pro in about a month; I'm not quite sure how he did it, but the bloke that did that said 'never again' and I can't blame him.
cheers