21/03/2009 New Wheels

I have purchased a new set of wheels for my bike. They are “Mavic Aksium Race” wheelset. I bought them as brand new but unfortuantly they aren’t. However fortuantly for me my bikeshop owner was able to re-tru the weels after they previous owner had obviously ridden on them enough to feel that he needed to have a go at truing the wheels, and all he acheived in doing so was to buckle and egg the wheels. So after all that they obviously aren’t brand new as they were so to me as being (live and learn, moral of the story buyer beware on TradeMe).

All said and done they are an entry level race wheelset and they are a lot faster than my previous wheelset (sorry don’t know the brand). The Mavic’s have straight pull flat aero spokes and great free wheeling hubs (read fast here). I am a heavier set person (96kg) and they feel strong and fast so a definite edge over the last wheels that I had. I would have liked to get the Ksyrium wheelset but $$$ prevent at the moment but there is hope for the future. (The ksyrium is another level up on the aksium).

It would appear that for no extra effort I am getting 3-5km/h out of them on the flat so it is a real boost for me, it should equal around a 5-7min saving for a 20k  bike leg in a sprint tri. I guess I will find out in my next tri.