Mavic Crossmax XL – Long Term Review

When is a product review over? Well, it depends. In the case of the Kona Process 134, which I was originally testing these Mavic CrossMax XL wheels on, it took a visit from law enforcement, on behalf of Kona, to persuade me to return the bike.

Mavic CrossMax XL on Kona Process 134 Supreme. One hell of a getaway vehicle.

In most cases, being a consummate bike nerd, once I’ve gleaned what I can from a product I tend to gravitate back to my own bikes/components. What can I say? I like my own stuff.

Post Process, the CrossMax XL transitioned over to one of my personal bikes. Photo – Andrew Major

The CrossMax XL wheelset was the rare third case. First of all, it is lightning quick to swap between the SRAM XD compatible freehub body and a Shimano compatible freehub body so it was very easy to overcome the inertia (read laziness) of transferring it over to my own bike. Secondly, once installed I never really had a reason to go back to my own setup. The CrossMax XL’s 7.6 degrees of engagement isn’t as quick as I’m used to and the Quest XL rubber went from being good to at best ‘meh’ with the change of application, but the awesome ride quality of these wheels kept me on them for the long haul.

Ride Great; Look Great.

The Good (a review):

I have a few details to add from the initial review. Thanks to Mavic’s bladed alloy spokes, the torsional rigidity of the rear wheel is very impressive, especially given the low spoke count. Stand and push hard on the pedals and the quick engaging hub and stiff wheel translate your effort into forward momentum.

The hub fills up with detritus faster than better-sealed units I’ve used through a North Shore winter, but it is a sub-five-minute job to do a basic clean-and-lube. If you’re remotely handy and on top of your bike’s needs this is a non-issue.

I will add a caveat to my initial positive review of the Quest XL tires, included in the price of the wheelset, to say that they were very good, for their profile, when combined with the Process’ impressive traction. However, once mounted on the hardtail they did occasionally, and with great viciousness, break loose without warning. I am happy to be back on my, comparatively very predictable, Specialized Slaughter if that says anything. The tires also wore out surprisingly quickly for the amount of traction they provide.

The Quest XL tire performs much better with the added traction of rear suspension and wears surprisingly fast for the amount of traction it provides. Photo – Andrew Major

The Better (what’s new):
From the first few minutes of the first ride on my hardtail the true charm of Mavic’s wheelset became immediately apparent. While it offers great torsional rigidity, and gets up to speed quickly, the combination of the very low spoke count and lacing pattern provides a notable amount of radial comfort (vertical compliance).

If you’ve ridden a carbon wheel compared to your standard 32h alloy-rimmed example on the back of a hardtail you can attest to the night-and-day difference in compliance. Compared to my usual setup (Stan’s Flow 32h) the CrossMax XL is the same factor again. I even swapped tires back and forth to fully qualify the difference I was experiencing.

Low spoke count, bladed alloy spokes, and lacing contribute to a wheel with great torsional stiffness and notable vertical compliance.

Just like the comparison between a steel and an aluminum hardtail frame, I’m not talking about a massive gap here (the wheel does not provide ‘suspension’) but it certainly makes a difference.

If I had the option of this mix of stiffness and compliance, with the hub of my choice, I would run the Mavic set-up on everything, which brings us to…

The Fugly (the end):

Full circle; back to the beginning. When does a product review end? In this case, sadly, the beginning of the end was a horrendous creaking noise that suddenly arrived with each pedal stroke as I stood and cranked the bike up one of my favourite climbing trails.

The hub did not fail outright but you could definitely tell something was wrong. and it was not a sound I would have previously associated with a wheel vs. say a blown pressfit BB in a carbon frame with a cracked chainstay being mixed with fuzzy death metal and then pumped through headphones at full volume.

The culprit ended up being one of the pawl seats on the freehub body having cracked. Since it shows very light wear otherwise, and the stock bearings still spin smoothly, I am positive Mavic would look after this ASAP under warranty, and it is not a common point of failure. It is worth noting if you tend to push big gears up steep hills and hammer out of the saddle a lot.

But we were having such a nice time… Photo – Andrew Major

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Mavic CrossMax XL wheelset for its ride quality with the previous caveat about rim width standing, and a more mixed assessment of value since the Quest tires are definitely quite application specific. After many rough rides in all kinds of nasty weather these wheels are dead true and dent free – after bottoming out hard repeatedly.

In many climates the rear hub is definitely going to be more maintenance intensive than other products, but it is top of the class in terms of ease of maintenance. Just be aware that if you are pushing hard gears on steep local trails that there are definitely more robust drive systems available.

Have you had experience with CrossMax XLs?