In an attempt to really showcase their close relationship with pro cyclists in the process of developing new wheels, Mavic has released two videos that chronicle what is needed to develop a new road or mountain wheel. The video above obviously is focused on the mighty Thor as he prepares for this year’s Paris-Roubaix, which Hushovd will race on the new Mavic M40.
Clearly, the M40 was not born overnight, as many hours went into engineering, building, and testing the various prototypes. Mavic even states that their engineers build several visually identical wheels that are built to have very different riding characteristics, in order for their test riders to blindly test them and offer their thoughts on why one was better than another. As Mavic notes at the start of the video, they had thought that a tall profile composite rim would be too fragile to stand up to the infamous cobbles, yet testing of the M40 has shown otherwise. The M40 is a 40mm deep carbon tubular rim, with a wide profile, and 24 spokes, and according to Mavic is most likely shown in it’s final spec.
Jump past the break to see a similar video, but this time on Mavic’s commitment to the mountain bike side of wheel development.
