Mavic Crossmax SX wheels
11 Sep
The Crossmax SX is Mavic’s 26 inch benchmark enduro wheelset. In plain English this means that they are designed to be mountain bike wheels. They are intended to be ridden hard over technical rocky ground, whilst still being strong enough to be reliable and stiff and not being too heavy to pedal around. Yes, they are downhill, uphill and along wheels, served up in a very stylish package and bristling with technological details.
Over the four months that I’ve had them on my Titus El Guapo, the wheels have been faultless. Spoke tension has remained as it was when I unpacked them from the box and they have not needed truing. There is one tiny ding in one of the rims that could be easily pulled straight with careful use of an adjustable spanner. However it’s so small I haven’t bothered and it hasn’t affected the fitting of tubeless tyres. I’m sure I’ll get round to it sometime. To put this in perspective, during much of this review period, the bike has been ridden by my son Nial who is really good at breaking my stuff. But even when he broke his downhill bike in Morzine, and I generously and with no thought for myself or my own riding holiday, lent him my bike to ride there for 4 days, he didn’t manage to screw my wheels. Pretty impressive.
I have run the wheels with regular tyres and tubes with no problem. I have also, really for the first time, also had success running a tubeless set up. The 2.2 Continental UST Rubber Queens went on easily and inflated with a track pump with zero stress. I was a tubeless sceptic having had bad experiences before, but now I am sold on the idea. The rims have an internal width of 21mm and are designed to be used with 2.0 to 2.5 tyres. Weight for the pair is 1755g.
A great feature is that the wheels come supplied with all manner of adaptors and stuff to ensure that they will fit with whatever build your bike is in or what it may change to in the future. This includes UST valves, front 15 mm and 20mm adapters, rear QR and bolt through adapters (including 12x142mm), rear wheel bearing adjustment tool and a spoke wrench.
Overall the wheels feel light and inspire confidence with their strength. Nice work Mavic.
More details on the Mavic site.
Comments (5)
12 Sep 20:29
Regarding weight, with 5mm QR in the rear and 15mm in the front, mine weight just a bit over 1800g.
Successfully set up for tubeless with Nobby Nic 2.4 Snake Skin.
05 Oct 16:33
Hi Ed, would you say these are worth double the price of the previous review of the Hope Hoops Pro2 Evo hubs & Mavic EX721 rims?
05 Oct 17:28
Good question! The Hope Hoops are the best value you’ll get I think. The Mavic wheelset is lighter and just as strong. I’ve had to true up the Hope wheelset a couple of times, but haven’t yet had to do anything to the Mavic. I guess it comes down to how much money you’ve got and whether you can true a wheel.
18 Oct 15:29
So do you run tubeless on all your mountain bikes now? I’m intrigued and tempted to try tubeless, but I’m running 2.3″ tyres at the moment with 20 psi front and 25 psi rear and don’t puncture often, with good grip levels. Am I missing out or if it ain’t broke….?
19 Oct 06:37
Yes, I’ve gone all tubeless now. Sounds like you’re getting away with it just fine.