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CORE Bike: Mavic shows new Cosmic Ultimate UST Disc Carbon Road Wheels weighing 1225g

mavic cosmic ultimate ust disc carbon road wheel rim profile
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Mavic was showing its latest and greatest wares at the CORE Bike show earlier this week. We stopped by to get the low-down on a new carbon wheelset designed, manufactured and tested at their new HQ in Annecy, France; the Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST Disc Carbon Road Wheels weighing a claimed 1225g.

Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST Disc 

mavic cosmic ultimate ust disc carbon road wheel with 45mm deep rims

Mavic’s latest iteration of the long-standing Cosmic Ultimate wheelset goes tubeless, with an aero-friendly 45mm rim depth. The internal width of the carbon rim is 19mm, with a 27mm external width designed to maintain an aerodynamic profile between the rim and 25mm or 28mm tires.

mavic cosmic ultimate ust disc carbon rim 19mm internal 27mm external
The rim is not drilled, so it doesn’t require the use of a rim tape to become airtight

The complete wheelset has a claimed weight of 1225g, retailing at £3200. That’s pretty good value for the grams, especially when you consider that the Obermayer EVO Disc Wheelset from Lightweight will set you back £6,599 and weighs 5g more.

mavic cosmic ultimate ust road disc wheel engineers names traceability

Made at the new Mavic HQ in Annecy, France, every step of wheel production is traceable back to each engineer that came into contact with it during its manufacturing journey. 

mavic cosmic ultimate ust disc road wheel spokes at rim interface

The wheel is built with the rim and spokes first; the hub with its high, thin carbon flanges, is the last piece to go in. Each of the 20 elliptical carbon fiber spokes is one piece, running from one side of the rim to the other. A small carbon sleeve is wrapped over each side, then small carbon strips and a glue is applied followed by a UD2 finish on top. The rim is then put into a small oven and baked to mold it all together.

Once everything cools down, and is check and tensioned, the hub is then inserted between the spokes. An additional piece of carbon is then added to the outside of the hub shell, on top of the carbon spokes, and subsequently glued and baked once more.

mavic cosmic ultimate ust disc road wheel carbon eliptical spokes high thin carbon hub flanges
The ID360 freewheel system is compatible with 11S Shimano and Sram, 12S Sram XD-R, Campagnolo 10/11/12S and 13S N3W)

Inside the carbon hub shells, the axles are paired with automatically adjusted sealed cartridge bearings for preloading. In the rear, the ID360 freewheel system engages at 9° with 40 POE. The hubs are thru-axle compatible (12mm x 100mm up front and 12mm x 142mm in the rear) and made for Center Lock brake rotors.

mavic cosmic ultimate ust disc carbon road wheel centerlock rotors

Pricing & Availability

The Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST Disc wheelset retails at £3200. Front and rear wheels can be purchased separately; the front for £1,420 and the rear for £1,780 with a SRAM or Shimano freehub body. The wheels are currently undergoing production and will be available to order by the end of May 2022.

mavic-cosmic-ultimate-ust-disc-road-wheel-pair
The front wheel weighs a claimed 560 grams while the rear weighs 665 grams

As with all carbon road wheels from Mavic, this one comes with a lifetime warranty if registered within two months of the original purchase date. They also have a crash replacement programme whereby the cost of a new wheel is 50% of the RRP if the wheel is under 2 years old. The discount reduces the older the wheel is; you get 40% off is the wheel is 3-5 years old, and 30% off if the wheel is 5-10 years old.

Mavic.com

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17 Comments
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Dink
Dink
2 years ago

id sure like to get a whiff of that before tuesday. gun show up on my groupride looking hot hot hot, tuesday is gonna rule baby

HiFromOhio
HiFromOhio
2 years ago

Can you imagine releasing a new £3,200 wheel set that isn’t compatible with the new Shimano 12s? Oof.

misterha
misterha
2 years ago
Reply to  HiFromOhio

shimano 12 speed road cassettes are backward compatible with 11 speed HG

An203
An203
2 years ago

Glad to see Mavic where it belongs! That’s quite a wheel they are launching. The Ultimate series has always outperform competition in terms of stiffness (yes including the LW that became softer when they were getting lighter) and particularly the traditional wheels (rovals, enve and other bontrager). Here with a modern rim shape I am really impatient to see how they ride!!!

Brian
Brian
2 years ago

The one thing you can count on from Mavic is to be years behind the trends. 19mm internal width! I was so prepared to open this article and and finally say, “sonofaB****, they finally modernized”, only to be completely amazed at their stubborn adherence to old school wheel design. Minimum 21mm to be competitive. Otherwise you haven’t been paying attention.

wheeluser
wheeluser
2 years ago
Reply to  Brian

But now their diehard fans will have sucha’ plus ride when those 21mm tires ballon out to a whopping 22mm! They may be able to drop psi way down to 109psi now hehehe

Shenandoah
Shenandoah
2 years ago
Reply to  wheeluser

The types of comments that doesn’t serve real purpose, that’s not supported by any educated opinion. The tire width you use makes the real difference, not really the rim width. The same tire width on 19, 22 or more rim width, translates into very little rolling changes. What then matter is the tire-rim interface so must look at inner and outer rim width together.
https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/specials/rim-width-test

Shenandoah
Shenandoah
2 years ago
Reply to  Brian

Or you don’t have a good understanding on how wheel performance works (cause that’s an absolute performance wheel)… very wide rims drop in aero performance (ask zipp that recognise their latest wheels have more drag), 21+mm wide wheels require very wide rims to be able to have a decent rim-tire integration… so ultimately you drop performance.

SSSasky
SSSasky
2 years ago
Reply to  Brian

The ETRTO standard for road wheels is still based around 19mm internal. Anything that deviates from that risks compromised fit with tires. When the ETRTO updates the spec, I would think more euro brands will follow.

GTtttt
GTtttt
2 years ago
Reply to  Brian

Yeah, I feel the same way. I’ve got a set that are 19 I ride but I don’t see me buying any more wheels that narrow.

Sean Dowden
Sean Dowden
2 years ago
Reply to  Brian

21mm minimum according to who? Maybe they know better, seeing as the new tubeless standard is based on their UST tech?

An203
An203
2 years ago
Reply to  Brian

@Brian, You miss what performance wheels are about (cause this is a ultra high performance wheel range, not a do-all-do-nothing-perfectly road-gravel). Inner width has to be looked at with the external one in mind, not alone. Wider inner and wider outer wheels ARE slower cause they need wider (28 and above) tires to have a reasonable junction with the rim (they generate more drag and do not roll better once you adjust the pressure to the width). Very wide tires are being pushed to drop the maximum pressure to 5bars (wider tires need lower pressures) and make them compatible with hookless rim that are cheaper to build.

If you want to compare to another reference, Swissside that had the fastest wheels till recently, their wheel are 20mmx27for the 50mm wheel.
For performance set-up for road application this is the absolute choice, 27mm outer with 25/26mm tires

Brian
Brian
2 years ago
Reply to  An203

Everyone is obsessing about rolling resistance. That’s such a marginal difference. I hope you all have enough watts to overcome the extra 3 watts in rolling resistance from riding a slightly wider rim. I ride 25mm tire on a 21mm rim for 28 measured width. The resistance to pinch flats and cornering improvement is worth way more than a half dozen watts to me. A lot of people are pointing to the most marginal of gains and ignoring all the practical reasons for going wider. Don’t forget that higher volume lets you run lower pressure and therefore get less ROLLING resistance. Aero isn’t the only consideration. You can’t consider any one element in isolation. They all affect each other. Most people want a tire than can do mixed surface riding decently. At almost $4k I’d want a wheel that could be used on gravel too. Most manufacturers have gone wider because they have the sense to factor these other considerations into the mix along with the minimal aero compromises.

An203
An203
1 year ago
Reply to  Brian

I’d want a wheel that could be used on gravel too” you said it all, this wheel is not for you, you don’t ask a TT Disc-wheel to do gravel do you? you have many other wheels with gravel capability if that’s what you want…

As you mention you need to look at all the aspects

  • wider tires allow you to go much much lower pressure without risking pinch flat, going much lower improves your comfort
  • Now if you adjust the pressure to the tire width to keep same comfort between different widths, then there is no rolling gain unless you are on really really poor roads (the saga that zipp is selling us).
  • 28+mm at lower pressure will deflect laterally quite more than 25mm and compromise out of the saddle power output (maybe on your practice you don’t care but either you care about performance or you don’t).
  • at the same “comfort” wider tires do not have more rubber in contact with the road, now if you go much lower, yes, you allow more rubber than a narrower tire would allow but you tradeoff rolling resistance, responsiveness… you have applications where it makes sense.

Brands go wider cause they need to introduce news, they need lower pressure tires (then bigger) for those that never really managed to produce proper hooked rims (zipp had problem for ages) and want now to produce simpler and cheaper rims (hookless)…

Shenandoah
Shenandoah
1 year ago
Reply to  Brian

@Brian, from what you mention, I am not sure to understand what problem does the 19mm width cause. 19(int) by 27 (ext) with 25mm tires will give you best performance (rolling, aero, weight, responsiveness) or you can without a problem mount 28mm tires. Yes you lose some aero (but you wouldn’t mount 28mm tires for that anyway) but would keep the possibility to use the low pressures.

Now I am not sure where you see people that want to have a set-up able to do road and gravel… you will have to change tires each time (or your daily ride are on poor roads them you need a gravel set-up all the time…??) and I will certainly not use a super high-end, super light wheel to play around gravel…

An203
An203
1 year ago
Reply to  Brian

seems my previous message didn’t made the moderation cut…
“I’d want a wheel that could be used on gravel too” you said it all, this wheel is not for you and wouldn’t be even with 21 or more internal width.

As side point since you mention it, few missconceptions: first it’s not the tire volume that makes the difference but it’s surface area (linked to its width), that’s not totally the same. Then the wider the tire, the lower the pressure should be to preserve a similar comfort, when you do adjust pressure accordingly, there is no real rolling gain, neither more rubber in contact with the road (the contact area is by physics, the same,), what big tires allow… is to go much lower in terms of pressure than narrow tires. it allow you to put them in the optimal zone where you minimize rolling resistance AND impendence losses (21 or 23 mm tires would struggle to safely go lower enough to avoid impedance losses on degraded road). Now all this is perfectly achievable with 19mm width.

J S
J S
2 years ago

How are the spoke attached to the rim?

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