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FEATURES: MAVIC'S NEW K10 TIRE AND WHEELSET
Zap
December 16, 2009
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In a move that really begs the question – gee, what took so long? - famed French wheel maker Mavic, who have been in the bicycle wheel business for over a century, have just announced that they are soon to jump into the tire business as well. Not just a tire we're told, but a new wheel/tire system which will continue to evolve into the 2010 season with the help of two ProTour teams.
A system approach for wheels is nothing new for Mavic as they created the first complete wheel system, the Helium, a rim, spoke and hub combo that was specifically engineered to work together back in 1994. As Mavic's Sean Sullivan put it, “This is the last link in the system. We believe that to make the next big jump forward in performance with what we do, we need to include the design of the tire.”
Key to the new product line are tires designed specifically to be used with certain rims (but not exclusive to them) for specific uses to maximize the performance of both. The first offering is the limited edition K10 assembly which includes an all new (and very cool looking) Ksyrium rims with blacked out cosmetics, a carbon front hub that features milled down sidewalls. The slick, dual compound clincher tire used for the K10 (so named to mark the tenth anniversary of the Ksyrium) wheel is not exceptional looking in any way, but the made in Thailand rubber is intended to act as a phase one introduction of the overall concept in Mavic future tire design technology.
Mavic engineers isolated six categories of tire performance to consider in their designs; grip, protection, rolling resistance, weight, durability and comfort. In addition, they created a triad of “links” to further tell their story. These are the Proteck Link (a protective, anti-puncture layer of Polycotton and Kevlar), Grip Link (the dual tread compound) and Power Link (the casing density). The tire on the K10 is designed for long road “Grand Fondo” type rides (Grand Fondo of course on its way to being the most over-used word in two-wheeled marketing for 2010!).
With the help of their proprietary ISM sidewall milling Sean said that the 2100-gram complete K10 system will be the lightest Ksyrium that Mavic has ever produced at a claimed weight of 1,470-grams. The 23mm tires aren't front/rear specific and are supposed to weigh in at 225-grams each although ours hit the scales at a still light 245-grams. Incredibly, the system inner tube weighed 105-grams!
The K10 wheels run with the “limited edition” tag because only 1000 pairs of the $1400 hoops will be brought to the States.
While RC was pouring over the tires getting all techie by asking about such things as thread count (290 tpi) and if there would be a tubeless version (no), I was of course more concerned with the all important issue of color – would they maximize Mavic's most popular branding initiative and make a tire in the Mavic yellow as used for their Service Course cars and high end racing shoes? Sean laughed and said although there had actually been quite a bit of serious discussion on that topic, that for now the tires will remain black. Since the new tire/rim idea had the trappings of similar moves already made by Zipp, I asked if they had any notion of a custom color program that our friends in Indiana had also made strides with. Sean said (he actually kinda whispered) that in fact they have such a program up and running already (www.maviclab.com) but that it's only available in France.
For more info on Mavic's new K10 wheel system visit www.mavic.com
If you'd like to check out some Mavic's extreme dirt riding side of the business along with the requisite rock and roll music, click here. |
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