Mavic Crossmax XL S Wheels

Mavic is a brand with a long and storied history. Like, since 1889 long. Like, the first ever aluminum rim history. Like those big yellow and black emblazoned cars and motorcycles offering up neutral service at the Tour De France for decades upon decades storied.

That said, it has been a minute since the big yellow and black M has been part of the mountain bike conversation.

Once upon a time, when we all rode 26” wheels, Mavic was THE name for mountain bike hoops. The first pair of wheels I ever laced up as a shop mechanic was a set of Mavic “Paris Gao Dakar” labeled 530/536 hubs and M6 rims, somewhere around 1988 or ’89. The first ever “ooooh, this is silly light” rim that Keith Bontrager rolled out was a Mavic MA-2 road rim with a 4-spoke section cut out then repinned at a smaller diameter. Soon after that the Mavic 231CD rim became THE go-to rim for any serious XC nerd, with the beefier 261CD taking the hits from the more abusive riders. Then came the Crossmax wheelset in 1996, which was right up there with that first pewter grey XTR group in terms of cachet. Then, around the turn of the century, Mavic dropped the Crossmax UST on the world – the first ever dedicated mountain bike tubeless wheel. It utilized bladed straight pull spokes that threaded into the rim from the outside, allowing a solid aluminum rim bed with no spoke holes and therefore no need for rim tape. It was a quiet technological revolution that in retrospect might have been somewhat underappreciated.

I rode the hell out of those UST Crossmax wheels, reveling at how my Hutchinson Python tires could float along at under 30psi for the first time in my life without fear of pinch flats. After about four months, someone mentioned that there was sealant available, and my mind was blown completely. By then the rims were pretty banged up, but the wheelset still held air with remarkable consistency. The mountain bike tire game had definitively changed, and that change had been catalyzed by Mavic.

But then things got kinda shitty for Mavic. A growing number of competitors in the carbon rim market and the dance of corporate consolidation conspired to knock the venerable brand out of true. Those first Crossmax wheels came about a few years after Mavic had been bought by Salomon, ending over a century of French ownership, and a decade before the Salomon group was hoovered up by Amer Sports. Amer sold Mavic to a private equity company called Regent LP in 2019, which led to the French worker’s union getting involved and demanding deeper accountability into the terms of the sale, ultimately leading to Mavic being sold yet again a few months later to the Bourrelier Group. However, that sale resulted in Mavic once again being wholly French owned, as well as retaining the Mavic rim factory in Saint-Trivier-sur-Moignans. Nevertheless, this ushered in a period of downsizing and restructuring.

Jeez, that’s some preamble. But if anyone was wondering why it has been a while since anyone has seen any new MTB hoops from Mavic, well, there you go. NOW, we can talk about the new stuff. Because there IS new stuff, and it IS worth talking about. Case in point: Mavic’s Crossmax XL S 29 wheelset.

What Goes Around...

All that preamble aside, Mavic is back. This is one offering in a range that includes XC and DH wheels, carbon and aluminum rims, narrow to wide, austerity-budget to make-the-wallet-cry in scope. The Crossmax XL S 29 features 30mm inner width aluminum rims, 24 bladed straight pull spokes per wheel, a star ratchet freehub mechanism, 6-bolt rotor mounts, a per set weight of 1790 grams, and a price tag of 889 USD. These numbers place the Crossmax XL S squarely in the middle of the wheel aftermarket, in a width and weight that should appeal to a broad swath of trail riders, and at a price that sets some quality expectations without making anyone’s eyeballs bleed.

The rims are asymmetrical, allowing for less disparity between bracing angles and spoke tensions between drive and non-drive sides, with excess material machined off between the spokes in a process that Mavic refers to as “Inter Spoke Milling”. This theoretically shaves weight while maintaining material where it is needed and thus retaining strength. The bladed spokes thread into the hub facing side of the rim, same as they did back with the original Crossmaxes, and to my eyeballs the spoke nipple is a dead ringer for the OG unit. At the other end, the head of the spoke fits into a slot in the hub, and should a spoke need to be replaced, the fitment is such that this can be done without having to first remove a cassette or brake rotor.

Since there are no internal spoke nipples, there are no spoke holes drilled through the rim, and the rim bed is a seamless, cleanly extruded, airtight work of art. There’s a shallow trough running down the center, a discreet patch of tape where the welded seam of the rim sits opposite the only hole drilled through the rim - where the valve is located. The valve itself has three lateral ports at the base in addition to the hole bored through its length, in the fashion of most insert-friendly valves.

Mavic use a somewhat DT-esque star ratchet freehub drive, with a single spring engaging a 24-tooth serrated freehub ratchet against its counterpart in the hub shell. The math on that works out to 15 degrees of engagement, so ultra-low engagement fans may want to take note. Two sealed bearings in the hub shell, two in the freehub, 17mm aluminum axle all the way across the hub that steps down to 15mm at the final bearing on the drive side. Provided there is a light smear of grease on the ratchet, freehub noise is a relatively muted “b-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r”. SRAM XD, Shimano HG and MicroSpline freehubs are all available, and freehub bodies can be readily swapped out without tools.

Each individual wheel ships with a valve, a pair of spare spokes, and a spoke wrench/spoke blade holding tool. Spare spokes look to be available for about $4.50 apiece.

Tire fitment is tight – so far this has been tested with Maxxis Aggressor/Dissector EXO+ tires, Bontrager Montrose and Gunnison RSL XT casings, and Specialized Purgatory T7s – but not so tight that I couldn’t wrestle the tires on and off barehanded with a little sweat and cursing. All tires beaded up easily and delivered a satisfying series of pops being inflated with a floor pump. Just for old time’s sake I aired up the Bontrager Montrose test tires to 24psi without any sealant at all and rode them for a week. I lost 3psi in 7 days.

In spite of the rim width, this feels like a forgiving wheelset in terms of compliance and stiffness. Noticeably quieter and more muted in rocky terrain than the DT EXC1501s on one of my test bikes, and about on par with the notably mellow FusionFiber/XTR wheels on my Starling. The comfort and ride damping characteristic is welcome, but there is a teeny degree of lateral twang as well that makes itself known when landing out of shape or getting a little too forceful in the wrong places. That said, the wheels didn’t lose tension or need any truing over the course of 60 rocky trail riding hours. Big riders who really murder their wheels in the rough may have different results, but those riders might also want to opt for something beefier like the Deemax Enduro or Deemax DH.

I got along well enough with the pair that were on the Mondraker test bike that I’m mounting another set up on the Starling for the remainder of the year. I like the ride quality, the price/weight formula feels about right for me, the potential ease of spoke replacement should it be necessary is very appealing, and I REALLY like how easily they bead up and how well they hold air. So far, so good. Welcome back, Mavic.

Mavic Crossmax XL S Wheels 889 USD