Mavic Aksium S vs. Campagnolo Scirocco 35

andrew1988

So long story short I recently got into a bit more serious road riding and bought a second hand bike running SRAM Red 10 speed with Easton EA70's. The wheels have pretty much reached their last legs and so I'm looking to pick up a relatively cheap set of training wheels before spending some more serious cash down the track.

Based on a number of reviews (these forums have been FANTASTIC), I'm looking at the two sets below;

Mavic Aksium S
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/au/e ... eviews_tab

Campagnolo Scirocco 35
http://www.wiggle.com.au/campagnolo-sci ... -wheelset/

I have very limited experience with wheels, but from what I can see both would be compatible with my existing setup? (I had someone tell me Campag wheels would require a Campag cassette). Are there any other serious issues that would cause issues with me committing to either of these?

Any other considerations and/or opinions of the above would be greatly appreciated.. From what I can see the two are both pretty well received, and are both at similar pricing points. A bike tech recommended the Aksiums as pretty much bullet proof (I'm also on the heavier side for a rider, around 93-95kg), but I'd be lying if I said I didn't much prefer the Scirocco's based on looks..

ugo.santalucia

You are very heavy for both, and that of course causes spokes breaking, as you have experienced with the Easton.
Mavic weight limit is 100 Kg with the bike, so you are out. That apply across the range, although I am not sure they bother with Aksium. That is not to say that Aksium are more robust than the rest of the range, probably just inexpensive for them to replace under warranty.
Scirocco also have only 21 spokes on the rear wheel, so you can't expect big mileage and you will face the same tedious issues if something goes wrong.

Do you know of any good not overly priced wheel builder in your area? The answer is probably no, otherwise you would get your Easton fixed...
Maybe a good opportunity to learn how to build wheels and take two pigeons with one stone?

yaya

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Scirocco also have only 21 spokes on the rear wheel, so you can't expect big mileage and you will face the same tedious issues if something goes wrong.

Does 12,000km count as big mileage? That is what I've done on a 21-spoke rear (Fulcrum 3) over 4 years and 3 winters. One spoke came loose twice during a ride and the nipple was floating free inside the rim, both times it was still rideable and was fixed by the LBS at a small charge. For the majority of the last 5 years I was 93-96kg...
My other 21-spoke rear wheel (also F3) is 2 years old, ridden through 2 long summers and has never needed any adjustment.
Is there a reason why these factory low spoke count wheels are stronger than what some think they are? Or am I just being lucky?

ugo.santalucia

yaya wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Scirocco also have only 21 spokes on the rear wheel, so you can't expect big mileage and you will face the same tedious issues if something goes wrong.

Does 12,000km count as big mileage? That is what I've done on a 21-spoke rear (Fulcrum 3) over 4 years and 3 winters. One spoke came loose twice during a ride and the nipple was floating free inside the rim, both times it was still rideable and was fixed by the LBS at a small charge. For the majority of the last 5 years I was 93-96kg...
My other 21-spoke rear wheel (also F3) is 2 years old, ridden through 2 long summers and has never needed any adjustment.
Is there a reason why these factory low spoke count wheels are stronger than what some think they are? Or am I just being lucky?

It's average... it's what I do in one year... I would expect spokes to last double that to be totally happy.

Strength of a wheel is down to a few factors, including rim stiffness, flange spacing, spoke number and spoke tension. Leaving the first two aside, if you lower the spoke number, you have to increase the tension to get equal load capacity (which to make things easier we will call strength). Some factory wheels can be loaded with enough tension to compensate for the low count and you will find that 140-150 KgF is rather common among those, while 110-120 is plenty for a 28-36 typically.
The problem is that once you load that kind of tension, the rim starts to suffer, as well as the flange does, so you won't have spoke failures, but you will have rims cracking and flanges exploding (plenty documented).

Finding the happy medium that gives you all the desirable qualities is not an easy task and might not always work even within the same model. Ksyrium Elite was a good compromise, but you can see that as they drop the weight of the rim to appeal to more demanding customers, the cracks become more frequent.
On balance I don't see why one should live on the edge of failure for a weight saving which is frankly negligible. If it was 2 Kg, I would accept the risk, but it's often more like 200 grams, which is really silly.
Bear in mind when a spoke in a high tension low spoked wheel pops, the deflection is often beyond the elastic region and causes the rim to bend permanently. Repairs become more like a botch up