Are Ksyrium Elites up to mediocre british roads ?

Serious Cat

From what I have seen the ksyriums look to be very classy indeed, and if I were riding them on smooth as velvet continental roads then I would have no durability concerns. But this is the UK and we have some roads that look like they are in Beirut. If you take a dreary club run on a day when the skies are chucking it down and some of the roads are like riding over Roubaix cobbles .....are the ksyriums up to that kind of pounding and abuse ? It annoys me massively to have to go to LBS and leave a wheel in for spoke re-tensioning after a ride over woeful roads and am curious as to whether using ksyriums alleviates this.

mikenetic

I've been running Ksyrium Elites with 25mm Conti tyres for a while. I've ridden them over silky smooth tarmac, unmade farm roads, your average rough & ready British road surface, and hammered them around the cobbled streets of Liege. They've been absolutely fine. They are just as true as the day I bought them.

So yes, I would say they are plenty tough enough for UK roads. On factor to consider, however, is rider weight. If they're fitted on the bike of a rider tending towards the Clydesdale end of the spectrum that may not hold true.

On an absolute scale they aren't the strongest wheels you can buy, but they're no special snowflakes either.

slowbike

Mine are fine with 23mm contis. They've had a fair bashing in places, but I always treat them with as much care as possible. More than I do my stock wheels anyway ....

buckmulligan

Yeah, they're pretty good. I'm not particularly heavy, but mine have been used all year round for 2 years now including the cobbles of Flanders and they're still fine. Could probably do with a trueing now as they are a *tiny* bit out, but altogether pretty damn good.