Mavic

Comete Pro Carbon SL UST Disc Wheel

It's pretty widely accepted that aero trumps weight in most road riding scenarios and the addition of some deeper section wheels on your sleek road machine have the ability to add some serious speed to your ride. Leave it to the French wheel wizards at Mavic to add its wonderful tubeless technology and disc brakes to the mix with its Comete Pro Carbon SL UST Disc Wheel, providing you with some solid rocket boosters and a great ride with the promise of being able to slow you down with authority. Sitting at a healthy 64mm depth, these wheels simply slice through the wind during high-speed races and on fast training rides. In fact, the pros on World Tour Team AG2R-La Mondiale call on the Comete Pros for the flatter races, albeit in the tubular and rim brake guise, however, in the real world we aren't lucky enough to have a team car following us on every ride and could care less of the additional grams that comes with more powerful braking. So, the tubeless, disc brake version is our pick since, more often than not, we aren't toeing the start line of a race. The depth not only helps the air stay attached for less turbulence and thus, less drag, but it also adds a heap load of stiffness, all while coming in at a respectable 1755-grams for the set.

As part of the latest generation of wheelsets in Mavic's lineup, it incorporates the newest rim technologies giving you an absolute aerodynamic advantage on your ride in almost every conceivable situation. The rim is constructed of 3k carbon fiber to a new NACA profile rim that’s 64mm deep and 26mm wide, a perfect pairing with today's modern, wider tires. Mavic spent an extensive amount of time testing the profile in the wind-tunnel, honing its shape to provide ultra-low drag numbers while offering incredible stability in blustery conditions. The resulting shape is wide and rounded which helps with races against the clock, powering the breakaway, or sprinting for the finish of the biggest crit of the season, all without feeling sketchy in crosswinds, letting you save energy from fighting the bike and increasing your confidence as you're not getting blown around.

When it comes time to slow down, you'll appreciate its disc brake compatibility with Centerlock rotor mounting. By utilizing a dedicated braking surface and powerful disc calipers, you'll get more power and modulation that's simply not matched with rim brakes. You can brake later and with more control on a mountain descent and it doesn't matter if its dry out or you're caught in a surprise shower.

Perhaps the most impressive piece of technology on the Comete comes from Mavic's all-new UST Road Tubeless setup. Mavic claims an improvement in rolling efficiency of up to 15% when compared to non-tubeless tires at an equal air pressure. Of course, we're familiar enough with road tubeless that we've come to expect the reduction of flats and the improved ride quality that comes with running lower air pressure for more confident cornering and improved traction. What we aren't so familiar with is the simplicity of this particular tubeless setup. Mavic engineered super tight tolerances between the rim and tire so it's easy to install by hand, the beads pop into place with your typical floor pump, and it reliably holds air. The wheels come with Mavic's Yksion Pro UST tires that are partly responsible for the easy setup and fast rolling while remaining grippy and puncture free.

Finally, the hubs are worth a mention with the Instant Drive 360 freehub providing a quick 9-degree engagement letting you quickly respond to attacks with nary a lag in forward momentum. The QRM bearings are double sealed to keep contaminants out so the hubs remain smooth spinning season after season. Spoke duties are handled by bladed steel spokes attached to alloy nipples with 2x lacing up front and Isopulse lacing on the rear, meaning radially laced spokes on the drive side with a 2x on the non-drive helping to balance spoke tension and improve stiffness on fast sprints and big gear climbs.