Unboxed and Weighed: 2011 Mavic Ksyrium SR Road Wheels

Mavic’s introduced a number of changes to their 2011 wheel line, including a new flagship to the venerable Ksyrium road wheel: The Ksyrium SR.

With the Ksyrium SLR essentially being a front wheel only (the rear of the SLR “wheelset” is the R-Sys SLR rear wheel, and it comes only as a “system” with Mavic’s tires) for 2011, the SR is now the top of the line Ksyrium wheelset. To claim the top of the range, the new SR swaps Zicral alloy non-drive side spokes for the carbon R-Sys ones, which drops about 40g from the rear wheel.

Check the actual weights and lots of detail photos after the break…

The front wheel weighs in at 650g.

Rear is 790g. Combined, that’s 1,440g.

What’s great about this is that combined they come in a bit under the claimed wheelset weight of 1,460g (645g F, 815g R claimed). The other bonus is they don’t need rim tape since the rim bed is solid, so there’s no weight gain there.

Skewers: 58g Rear, 54g Front.

The wheels come with an owner’s manual, spoke magnet and all the tools necessary for adjusting the bearings, tinkering with the hubs and truing the wheels. And stickers.

Before you even ask:

They include a magnet because their bladed spokes with thick round ends won’t generally accept the magnets that come with most cycling computers. It has two small tabs in the groove to position it properly on the rounded ends of the spokes, or you can break them off and place it on the blades.

If you’re running the included skewers and magnet, the wheelset will come in at 1,558g.

The rims are joined with their SUP process, which are welded after being joined, then milled to make them smooth. The FORE construction (see below) keeps the inside rim wall complete solid, which negates the need for rim tape. Because of this “closed system”, near the end of our test period with these, we’re going to try running them with some Road Tubeless tires just to see, but Mavic does not make any claims as to their compatibility (but we hear they’re working on something…). We’ll see. Hopefully we live to tell.

The brake track has their UB milling to improve grip and reduce shutter. The FORE construction essentially stamps tubes into the outer rim wall which are then threaded to accept the nipples. This keeps the rim one piece unlike some wheels that use boat-shaped inserts to thread the nipples into. Mavic claims this design makes the rim 4x more resistant to stress.

The Ksyrium SR’s retail for $1,250. If you’re willing to forgo the R-Sys spokes and carbon-shelled front hub, you can get the Ksyrium Elites for $675 (1,550g claimed). But you won’t get the white paint and single spoke, which brings some real life to an older bike:

Just one of the rigs we’re currently testing these wheels on. Between the new Shimano 105 group and these wheels, this bike (same frame/fork Lance Armstrong rode for his first Tour de France win) comes in at 16lbs 15oz with pedals. Proof that good wheels and a decent (not even top of the line!) can make an older bike competitive with the current crop.