Mavic Kysrium Elite Wear Indicator

cgfw201
cgfw201 Posts: 680
edited January 2016 in Workshop
Slight duplication of a Warranty thread also open but thought would be worthwhile having something separate for this as there doesn’t seem to be an answer anywhere.

I have a set of 2 year old Mavic Ksyrium wheels. I’ve been told the front one’s rim is starting to show signs of wear.

It is slightly concave, moreso than the back one, presumable as I probably do 90% of my braking with the front brake.

Anyway, I understand these wheels have wear indicators on them. Could someone advise me where they are and how they work please?

Online there’s something about some yellow arrows which don’t seem to be on my wheels, and something about a ridge, also currently not visible on my wheels.

What is the Ksyrium wear indicator and how does it indicate that I do/don’t need new wheels?

Comments

  • borisface
    borisface Posts: 273
    I think if you can't see them they've probably gone. They are a slight round indentation, like an inverted pimple on the braking track. Can't remember if there's one or two per side.
  • cgfw201
    cgfw201 Posts: 680
    I think if you can't see them they've probably gone. They are a slight round indentation, like an inverted pimple on the braking track. Can't remember if there's one or two per side.

    Cheers. Can't see that on this one, or the rear which has basically no wear at all as hardly ever use the rear brake.

    Have bought a new front wheel from Chain Reaction for £115 anyway, as that's the price I was quoted to fix the current one.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    I can only speak from my experience with two sets of Shimano rims. There's a tiny dimple milled into each braking track on the side furthest from the valve hole. Rims have to be really clean to spot them; a couple of times I've thought they'd disappeared till I gave the rims a good scrubbing. On the oldest set the front ones are certainly less obvious than the rear, so I'm keeping a close eye on them.

    Keep meaning to buy some of the Ebay dental calipers so I can measure the actual thickness of my various rims; be interesting to see what thickness they start out at.
  • cgfw201
    cgfw201 Posts: 680
    Interestingly just received a brand new replacement and it has no wear indicators on it at all that i can find.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Quick, measure the thickness of the brake track before you put the tyre on. Then you'll have an idea of % wear if you check it periodically in use.

    Iwanson dental calipers, £4 delivered from Ebay, just bought some myself for this very purpose. Saves faffing about with bits of old spoke and normal calipers as per CRC instructions.
  • Bobbinogs
    Bobbinogs Posts: 4,841
    I am not sure percentage wear helps as that doesn't really factor in what it is safe to be left with. The general guidance is anything less that 1mm needs to be kept an eye on (time to post another "What wheels" thread methinks) and anything around 0.7mm is about as close as you want to be riding.

    I use some jewellers' sprung calipers (£8 off fleabay) which are fairly good but the design means it is not quite possible to get an accurate reading across the whole rim. However, I can usually get a good reading in one place and then use my judgement.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    You're right, % wear is no use. I just want to know how fat a new rim is. Do they start life at 2mm thick so you can safely grind 1mm away before you need to panic? Or is a new one just 1.2 mm and I've taken 8 years to get through 0.2mm? I'll be curious to see what's left of my front RS10; one of the wear indicators is becoming tricky to spot even when it's surgically clean.

    I've never had a rim fail on me, and I'd rather keep it that way.