Mavic Ksyrium Elite UST wheelset review

Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels have been a constant gem of an upgrade wheel and now Mavic itself has upgraded them to include tubeless technology.

One of the easiest and biggest changes you can make to improve the performance of your bike is to upgrade the wheels. For any road bike costing around £2,000 or below a pair of wheels like the Mavic Ksyrium Elite UST's will be a huge step up in performance and that is why we feature it in Cycing Weeky's Editor's Choice.

Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels are one of the most popular upgrade wheelsets around, with a good reputation for reliability, quality and easy servicing. The current Mavic Ksyrium Elite UST wheels feature a wide internal rim width of 17mm as before but now has the tubeless ready capability.

Mavic will supply the Elite UST's with the tyres already on so no mucking around with the tubeless setup, you are good to go. Just add a bit of sealant.

Wider rims more comfort for the Mavic Ksyrium wheels

The wider rim equates to the tyre sitting wider, providing better grip in the corners, a more comfortable ride and better integration of the tyre and rim. No more mushrooming on a 25mm tyres. Now with the potential of tubeless you can run lower pressures to help reduce the risk of puncture and smooth the ride out further.

There are also three new choices of hub colour; the red you see here, yellow and grey. The anodised finishes look great and it is nice to see choices. It also means there is scope to colour coordinate with your frame.

The ISD 4D superlight rim is designed to reduce inertia and improve aerodynamics. I have to admit that I didn't really notice any discernible difference in aerodynamics, but any improvement is welcome, considering the previous version didn't have a strong reputation in this department.

The ISM 4D process is used to remove excess material from the rim while maintaining it around the spokes and the Fore Drilling help form stronger connections between the spokes and the rim.

Budget price doesn't mean budget performances for the Mavic Ksyrium wheels

For the same sort of money you could opt for a budget carbon deep-section clincher, such as Wiggle's Cosine wheels. However, the superior stiffness and quality of the Mavics swings it for me. It's no contest.

In terms of weight there's less of a change from the previous version. For the pair without tyres the Elite UST hits Mavic's scales at 1520g, 30g less than the previous version.

Mavic’s QRM+ bearings found in these wheels are superb and are actually the same as used in the top of the range Cosmic Ultimate wheels – an excellent example of how technology trickles down.

On typical UK roads and doing the odd bunny-hop, clatter up kerbs and ploughing into several potholes I can report, these wheels are as bombproof as the previous model, with no truing required throughout testing. Stiffness is good too, with no noticeable flex or brake rub noted when sprinting or climbing.

The wheels come with Mavic's own 25mm Yksion Pro UST tubeless ready tyres. These measure with our callipers around 25mm, they come up considerably narrower than Continental GP4000 or Schwalbe One 25mm tyres, both of which sit around 26.5mm on these rims.

Inevitably when a product is popular and used by a large number of people, some will have a bad experience, or issue. Fortunately Mavic offers a solid warranty and repair programme for the unlucky minority – I have used this service in the past and was impressed with the turnaround

Mavic has taken one of the best upgrade wheels on the market and made it even better.