Spiderman said:
Coolhand-
You made very good points earlier and I agree with you on some of them. To me, the road/UST thing is pointless but they still haven't come out with final designs so it could still work. Maybe cyclo crossers will find a use for it.
Mavic has done some cool things. They did bring newer materials to rims, newer ways of joining the rim in, big fat al. spokes, hubs that last a long time and general good solid product. In addition to that, when it comes to the bottom line, in the US market Mavic has huge marketshare on both "boutique" wheels (ksyriums) and even the hand made rims that use open pros/CXP's. I bet that 50% of every new bike that goes out a bike shop door has either a mavic wheel or rim on it. So regardless of their innovations (or lack thereof), they are doing something right - selling a crapload of product, merchandising well and providing neutral support for the major Euro and USA races, which as a consumer, speaks to me as a company that is buttoned up and reliable.
I don't see them on the cutting edge of technology but they do provide good product.
Thanks for your thoughtful post, I agree on almost all of it. I think Mavic does make nice stuff, but are in a real rut for the last two years or so. All of the major advances they made date back at least 3 years now, as far as the Maxtel (sp?) alloy, Al spokes and the like. Open Pro's are nice, but their failure to address the click issue, the creeping weight issue, ever increasing price or really improve the product in several years has let everyone else catch up. Velocity, DT Swiss, IRD, American Classic and others all have good options now. Similarly for Michelin, in road tires, the axial pros were the hot tire when they came out. Now others have passed them, making cheaper tires that are just as good, or equal priced tires that are better.
If both companies think road UST is the answer, they are mistaken- and wasting valuable R&D and promotional time on a false premise. For Mavic- they need to realize that in the high end wheelsets, weigh is king and carbon is the future. With loss of OEM spec on the lower end (really pronounced this year), and the amazing amounts of nice high end wheelsets at the same price as the K's, but with carbon rims or lower weights at the high end, Mavic's market share is eroding. They have the chops to strike back, but if they waste their time on road UST, they may get left behind Shimano, Campy, FSA, Rolf, American Classic, Zipp, Reynolds, and the Easton owned Velomaxs.
Honestly, the level of Mavic spec is dropping from what I have seen. Its still pretty good, but its going down every year. Other then tweaking the rims on the SL's, what changes have they really made on the road side in the last 3 years? Its the same stuff with minor tweaks (at best) for 3 years straight.
