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New 2010 Mavic R-SYS SL Road Wheels

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Mavic was showing off a few new and updated 2010 products at their booth at the recent US Pro Cycling Championships, including an all-new R-SYS SL road wheelset.  Shown above is the rim detail, which uses their side profile machining to remove excess material and save rotating weight.

They’ve also added some carbon goodness to the hubs (pics after the break) to further lighten the set.  The current top-of-the-line R-SYS Premium’s weigh in at 1360g/pair, so these should come in slightly lighter (although there is no claimed weight difference between the Crossmax SL and Crossmax SLR, with the primary difference between them being the machined rims).

Despite the now confirmed rumor that Mavic is for sale, they had several new (and very, very light) road shoes on display, too.  We’ll cover those in a subsequent post.  For now, hit ‘more’ and check out the rest of the photos of the R-SYS SL

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The hub gets a little carbon on the end cap like the Premium, and I *think* the middle section of the hub might be carbon, too, but can’t remember and their media person is on vacation through the 10th (drat!).

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Worried about the R-SYS wreck heard ’round the world (wide web)?  My inquiry as to how that was affecting sales was met with a non-answer…kind of a cough into the shoulder followed by something like “they’re doing extremely well.”  Anyway, if you’re concerned about it, at least know that the new models use different carbon layups in the spokes and are marked with three silver stripes at the end of each spoke.  And here’s Mavic’s response to that wrecked wheelset.

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The old spokes used straight fibers.  The new ones are woven (above) to increase strength and improve resistance to breakage.

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R-SYS regular on top, SL on bottom.

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Len
Len
14 years ago

Mavic should just let it go, re: the R-Sys. No one intelligent trusts these wheels anymore, and even if they do finally fix the safety issues, huge round chubby carbon spokes are about the most UNaerodynamic things out there (and tests confirm the R-Sys’s aero fail).

I generally like Mavic, but you really couldn’t pay me to ride the R-Sys.

Ben
Ben
14 years ago

Len,
I thought the same thing until I talked to our Mavic rep a few days ago. I said i was still very skeptical of the R-Sys, his response was setting the new R-Sys SL wheel (front) on our brick shop floor and standing on it, even rocking back and forth and up and down (wheel parallel to the ground of course). He wasn’t a small guy, probably 170-180. the wheel didn’t budge, still perfectly fine. I don’t know about you but i wouldn’t do that to a normal wheel.

Jeff
14 years ago

I have the R-Sys wheels and if someone wants to pay me to ride them I would love it. They are great wheels and ride extremly well. I weigh 85kg and have not had a problem.

Cesar
Cesar
14 years ago

I just purchased a pair of R-Sys rims, no hubs or spokes. Looking to building them up. Does anyone have
any recommended hubs and spokes. This will go on my only training bike.

Thanks

Neil
12 years ago

Many thanks to all the websites warning potential customers not to buy R-SYS. In particular those who post who have never tested or owned them. This means when I bought mine I got a great deal! I must admit I would not ride the 1st gen ones with the single direction carbon spokes. You only have to look at F1 cars fall apart to see what happens to carbon when it’s subjected to forces it was not designed for. The 2nd gen (3 stripes) are ‘designed’ to take a bit of abuse. Obviously any light carbon parts must be treated with respect, you can’t just throw them in the back of your car like your steel winter bike!
The wheels are very light, going from 1650g dr Swiss or bontrager was instantly noticeable. Left to right stiffness is even more noticeable as there is almost no flex, pop out of the saddle and heave to the max on a climb and the bike pulses forward in a way I had not experienced before. However the most rewarding thing is that they do all this and offer some compliance that numbs the road buzz in the same way a carbon frame and fork does, carbon bar, stem etc.
I will admit they must be treated with care, if only for your knowledge that they have not been bashed about.
They are also clearly not areo. However, I find they coast very well as I use good quality tyres gp4000s and the bearings are very smooth. They will not match 303/404/cosmic carbone slr etc however to get R-SYS weight AND areo, the price goes up. Everything has it’s price and for the money the R-SYS gave me 80% of what I was looking for in a ‘special days only’ wheel set for 50% of the cost of a set which offered everything (zipp 303 tubs)
Good luck

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