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Review: First Impressions of the Mavic XA Wheelset in Basque Country

Mavic Wheels in the Basque CountryTesting the Tyres Grip
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Mavic Wheels in the Basque Country
Riding Big Ridgelines with basqueMTB – Photos by Jérémie Reuiller

For a company that has long relied on aluminum for their mountain bike wheels, Mavic’s new XA Carbon wheels were pretty big news. As part of their Wheel Tire System, the XAs are a UST tubeless, hookless carbon wheelset that supposedly allowed Mavic to justify the move to carbon fiber. We first got a chance to test them out during the press launch in the Basque Country – which is fortunate considering I run guided tours here with my company basqueMTB. While I was the guide for the press launch, I also had a chance to ride the wheels so I had more time on the them than most, and also had an advantage since I know the trails and have ridden them on many different wheels and bikes over the years. I tested the wheels on my Orbea Rallon, which I have previously ridden with the Mavic Crossmax XL wheels and also with DT Swiss E-1700 wheels.

I have to state up front that I’ve tried several other wheels and am not a massive fan of carbon wheels currently. Sure, I love the weight and snappy acceleration they provide, and I love the way they hold a line and lend a bike a degree of precision. What I don’t like about carbon wheels in general is the harsh feel they have when pressing on in rough terrain. Someone once told me that the best way to improve a bike’s small bump compliance is to take 5psi out of your tyres, well, I often think that carbon wheels add 10psi back on!

I listened to Mavic´s press launch carefully and was impressed that they had really focused on increasing lateral stiffness but the engineers obviously understood that decreasing vertical stiffness was the way forward. You can find all of the technical information in our tech break down on the Mavic XA wheels, however the figures suggest I should have a wheel which is as stiff or stiffer than most leading carbon wheels but more vertically compliant than my Crossmax XLs . Would I be able to feel it? Would these wheels be any different from the other carbon wheels I’ve tested? Read on to find out… 

Mavic Wheels in the Basque Country
Tito Tomasi Putting the Mavic Wheels Through Their Paces

First Impressions / Pre Ride

The Mavic XA wheels look great, with very understated graphics marked out in a matte and shiny effect on the carbon rim. They spin nicely, with a fairly loud freewheel noise which I like. We had to set a couple of tyres up tubeless and they went on easily and inflated first time. This is something I have come to expect from Mavic tyres and wheels however it was good to see the hookless rims working just as well.

Mavic Wheels in the Basque Country
On The Edge

Comfort / Riding Impressions

When riding you definitely feel the vertical compliance of the wheels, in fact you can actually hear the spoke tension change on big impacts. The wheels noticeably don´t have that harshness that other carbon rims can have, however they still feel plenty stiff and strong when leaning into corners. We rode some trails where there are very unforgiving root and rock gardens, which try to rob momentum and grip from the tyres, however the XAs rolled well through these and felt as comfortable as any rim I have tested regardless of the material. They still have the great lateral stiffness though which I love about carbon rims, letting you hold a line and be precise even at high speeds. The light XA rims pick up speed noticeably more quickly than the aluminium rims I was running on my bike the day before and pumping through the roots generates momentum quickly. In spite of some very rough terrain and a bit of over enthusiasm as I lead the groups down my trails I didn’t find any limitations on the rims. There were a few rim to rock impacts, on various bikes including mine through the week, and despite a couple of punctures the rims were pretty much unmarked at the end of the trip.

Mavic Wheels in the Basque Country
Rocky Coastline: a Challenge for the Wheels.

A Word On Punctures

We rode a long and very rocky trail on the press launch, I know the trail well and I guide it often and find that we get a lot of punctures in certain sections. This made it quite noticeable how few we had on the press launch. I spoke to the Mavic engineer about this and he said it could be due to the wider rim profile coupled with the hookless design, which gives the tyre sidewall a more natural profile. This possibly helps prevent the pinch punctures you get in tubeless wheels which usually puts a hole near the bead and the other on the tread. It is quite a small sample size, with around 30 people over the course of 4 days, however based on that group size, the speed we rode and the fact that we were all on single ply tyres I would have expected several punctures – at the end of the week we only had two or three.

Mavic Wheels in the Basque Country
Basque Coast with BasqueMTB

In summary, the wheels feel like carbon wheels in terms of lateral stiffness and snappy acceleration however I definitely felt that they lacked the harshness of other carbon wheels I had tested. Tyres set up tubeless very easily and we experienced fewer punctures than I would have expected. Longevity and long term impressions will have to wait until we can test the wheels for longer periods, however I think that Mavic has entered the mountain bike carbon wheel market with a great product and we will be seeing these wheels on plenty of bikes soon.

A Word on the Mavic Quest Tyres

The wheels came with the new 2.4” Quest tyres. I run the Mavic Charge tyres on the front of my bike and was worried about putting the Quest on front and back as it lacks the deep, aggressive tread of the Charge tyres. I needn’t have worried, the Quest tyres were faultless through my test period. We rode a few trail conditions, from deep leaves to jaggy rocks, and from dry and dusty to wet and muddy. The tyre performed well on the rear, giving plenty of grip for braking and for the tough climbs we experienced. On the front the tyre was more than match for the trails we rode and had plenty of cornering grip to give me the confidence to ride fast. I think if the trails got very, very dusty or more muddy I would have wanted my Charge back but for most trails I would be very happy sticking with the Quest front and back and enjoying the lighter weight and good rolling on the climbs. I´ve just ordered a couple of sets of the 2.4” Quest tyres for my bike based on the week I spent on them with Mavic so you could say I´m putting my money where my mouth is on that one.

Mavic.com

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MIrwin
MIrwin
7 years ago

I still have an old pair of 26″ Spinergy Xyclones on an old bike and I remember loving the ‘vertical compliance’ of the wheel which I attributed to their spoke materials which weren’t steel. Definitely took the immediate harshness out of hits that was felt with traditional steel spokes. However, due to the flexible nature of the spoke material, the wheels were also more horizontally flexible as well. Looks like Mavic may have gotten around this issue.

bbb
bbb
7 years ago

I’m sorry but I find it difficult to read this….

Unless you ride wit no tyres on, you aren’t going to feel any differences in “vertical compliance”.

Even on a road bike, suspension travel offered by tyres will be the whole magnitude greater than any give in the rims.
The characteristics of the wheels will be determined mainly by lacing pattern, number of spokes and tension.

Carbon rims are lighter and give you more to brag about, but that’s all. Everything else is placebo.

bearCol
bearCol
7 years ago
Reply to  bbb

“carbon rims are lighter, everything else is a placebo?” First of all, there’s no placebo effect when it comes to lighter wheels. Nothing improves the way a bike handles more than lighter wheels assuming you aren’t compromising on rigidity of course. Not only will lighter wheels climb and accelerate better, your suspension becomes more efficient, and you can toss the bike around easier. No placebo in any of that, just pure performance gains in every aspect of the game. The only issues I have with carbon is rear rims crack, and they are often passed the point of diminishing returns with stiffness. Cool thing is carbon can be engineered to achieve flex and rigidity where ever desired. It seems most carbon rims just go for max stiffness. Maybe mavic dialed in just the right mix with these?

bbb
bbb
7 years ago
Reply to  bearCol

The myth of lightweight wheels making a significant difference to a bike performance was debunked some time ago just like that of narrower tyres and higher pressure being faster.
Unless we are talking about significant weight differences, carbon rims on their own aren’t going to transfer anyone’s riding.

The only way to objectively asses performance of most of bike components outside a laboratory is via “blind” tests, in order to eliminate the influence of confirmation bias. There haven’t been many experiments like that carried out but the conclusion from those that have taken place is that… testers were clueless…

bearCol
bearCol
7 years ago
Reply to  bbb

Hey, I’ve got a set of azonic outlaws I’m selling. They weigh 2.3kg but since lighter wheels are just a placebo you’ll love them! They will perform just as well as these carbon mavics! You can laugh at everyone raving about their plastic wheels!

Nick
Nick
7 years ago
Reply to  bbb

“Objectively asses performance” Bwa ha ha ha! I have an objective ass, and I like performance!

Doug
Doug
7 years ago

Bbb, you’re just not right. Sorry! You can definitely feel the harshness of carbon wheels from certain brands. Read what I said about tyre pressures, it all has an effect. I’ve ridden a lot of different wheels and I can feel the difference. I understand your logic and to me it makes sense but I know what I feel on the trail. It is the same as the fact that a few PSI on a tyre can make a massive difference.

bearCol
bearCol
7 years ago
Reply to  Doug

The way I see it, if you can’t feel a difference between alloy and carbon your equipment sensitivity abilities rank around zero.

All the carbon rims I’ve tired were super stiff, meaning harsh. I like that to a certain point. Some riders, even some of the best on the planet like Jared Graves for example like extra flex in their wheels. Graves loosens his spokes on alloy rims for better compliance. We’ll probably never see him racing carbon hoops unless they are made extra flexy to his liking.

Mark Olieman
Mark Olieman
7 years ago
Reply to  bearCol

“Loosens his spokes on alloy rims for better compliance” I thought basic rules of physics and mechanics also were also valid for bicycles? A higher or lower spoke tension doesn’t make a wheel stiffer or more compliant, spoke tension just has to be enough so spokes don’t go loose, because when that happens they will break. Actually spoke tension is not real tension, but let’s not make it too complicated for now.

bearCol
bearCol
7 years ago
Reply to  Mark Olieman

Tell that to Graves and his professional mechanics.

bearCol
bearCol
7 years ago
Reply to  bearCol

Mark, here’s the article where Graves talks about spoke tension and wheel flex. Scan down to the “still running alloy wheels question.”

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/pinkbikes-ews-pro-rides-jared-graves-and-his-yeti-sb5c.html

Blake
Blake
7 years ago
Reply to  bearCol

Soo, if you actually read the Graves article he never talks about vertical compliance and only mentions that the spoke tension is less than the max allowed.

He does mention side to side flex and using lighter (thinner) spokes to achieve this.

edge
edge
7 years ago

How about a picture of said wheels?

Justin
Justin
7 years ago

You lost me talking about pinch-flat punctures in a wheel review.

Matt
Matt
7 years ago

I’m not going to say that @bbb is wrong, but I will absolutely say that what he asserts has not been my experience whatsoever. Having ridden a broad range of rims over the past few years, carbon and aluminum both, I’ve found a profound difference between the materials. The feel has been substantial enough to cause me to change suspension settings as a result.

Darryl Duck
7 years ago

No weights, no widths, not even a spoke count or whether they use standard spokes or don’t bother repairing Mavic spokes.
Is the freewheel the same stupid bush that doesn’t last?

Rewrite of the sale pitch, that’s all this is.

As to the wheels vertical compliance making it faster through a rock garden, man you failed at physics in high school didn’t you…….

Sam
Sam
7 years ago
Reply to  Darryl Duck

That was all covered in the original announcement article a while back. 1535g for the 29er set, 1490g for 27.5. 24 standard straight pull bladed spokes. 26mm internal width. ITS4 freewheel.

Peter
Peter
7 years ago

Amusing to read that wide internal rim width and hookless rims are preventing flats. This took Mavic how many years to realise? All this years of stubbornness and keeping with stupidly narrow rims, I almost feel they should apologise to everyone who’s bought them.

postophetero
postophetero
7 years ago
Reply to  Peter

@Peter +1

mateo
mateo
7 years ago

I think this everyone should watch this video.

petiot111DV
5 years ago
Reply to  mateo

this is nonsense, Your wheel never works that way. The spoke take all the impact and get under tension.
For this video only I ll never trust Stan’s brand, they clearly dont know what they are doing if they think this is the type of test they have to do.

Eivind
6 years ago

I don’t know to what degree this applies to enduro, but :
http://fitwerx.com/how-faster-can-feel-slower/
There are so many variables that can decide, but if you read the end paragraph:

“From athletics to occupation, vibration has been scientifically shown to be deleterious to human performance both physically and mentally. While a course like Paris-Roubaix points out just how much vibration can slow a rider, even a well-paved road has imperfections in it that create performance sucking high frequency vibrations. While ultra stiff bikes have always accelerated well and felt faster, bikes that are smoother and damp more vibration have often actually been faster (especially over the course of a longer ride or one that requires running afterwards). One advantage many of the better modern frames offers is that they bridge the gap between torsional stiffness (for responsive climbing and sprinting) with improved vertical compliance (to damp vibration) with less compromise than ever.

Through positioning improvements and by damping vibration better while providing a more confidence inspiring handling and stability package your new bike could very well feel slower but be faster. The clock does not lie, so enjoy the riding faster while being more comfortable.”

But in fact the vertical compliance doesn’t seem to come from compression of the wheel, but from bike frame, suspension, compression of the tyre – and can depend on rim width, tyre pressure suspension settings etc..

Read this(and the part on vertical compliance for calculations of forces):
http://www.noxcomposites.com/wheel_building

So it all depends on a lot of factors, or like Rob English would say :

“To my mind, if you’re going to use a term you’ve either got to say this is entirely subjective or you’ve gotta put some numbers behind it. The people say ‘this frame is more compliant than this frame,’ and I’m like, ‘well, is it? Or have you got a different seat post, different saddle, different wheels, different tyres, different tyre pressure, are you wearing the same shorts as when you rode the other bike?’ The human perception of what you’re riding is so subjective and so it frustrates me when people look at a bike and say ‘oh, it’s got small seat stays, it must be compliant,’ but no, the triangle is a rigid structure by definition. If someone tells you they’re getting some compliance out of their rear end, ask them for some data, the deflection numbers, to prove that’s happening”

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