Mavic Crossmax Enduro: Yellow, Yellower, Mavic

Test: The question of the right wheels is a difficult one. Wheels usually only show their true capabilities in extreme situations and impress with their high level of resilience.
All acting forces must first be absorbed by the wheels and these forces are diverse. It is not without reason that there are vertical and lateral impacts or even cracked spokes and dents around the rim flange.

Mavic has been developing wheels since 1889 and has a huge repertoire and know-how. Whether for the road or MTB: Mavic has the right wheelset for every terrain, every application and for every price range.

With the Mavic Crossmax Enduro is aimed, as you can guess, at the up-and-coming enduro discipline. Forces beyond good and evil are at work here, and yet the wheels have to combine low weight and good rolling characteristics. In a detailed test, we took the Crossmax Enduro to the chest.

The Crossmax Enduro are the first wheel-tire system for mountain bikes, so Mavic not only developed an enduro-specific wheel set, but also designed tires that were suitable for the intended use.

The Mavic-typical yellow immediately catches the eye when you first look at the wheels. Rims and hubs are therefore absolute eye-catchers and cut a fine figure in every bike. The number of spokes is somewhat atypical for MTB wheels. 24 spokes are used on the front wheel and only 20 on the rear wheel. As with aero wheels, these are pressed flat and are over the already known Fore-System held in the rim.

While the spokes of the front wheel are crossed twice, the spokes on the rear wheel are radial on the right side and crossed twice on the left side. Thus, a more direct power transmission and a higher rigidity should be realized.
The rims seem a bit narrow. The front wheel rim measures 21 millimeters and the rear wheel rim only 19 millimeters and they look quite slender in direct comparison with other manufacturers. The total weight of the wheels is only 1660 grams.

equipment and practice

Mavic supplies a long list of accessories for the wheels. This includes a nipple wrench, axle adapter for rear and front wheel, brake disc screws, tubeless valves and a quick release.

Thanks to the adapters supplied, the wheels can be quickly fitted to any bike. And as was to be expected, they are the absolute highlight visually.
The small number of spokes initially raised doubts about the stiffness of the wheels, but these were quickly resolved. On the first descents we slowly approached the limit and did not notice any negative difference compared to other wheels. Almost the opposite is the case: they run very smoothly and give good feedback from the ground. The power transmission works very well thanks to the Isopulse spoking and the wheels are extremely strong when it comes to sprinting.

The Crossmax Enduro had to put up with a lot during our test. The durability of the wheels was put to the test, especially in the Ochsenkopf Bike Park. The upper part of the route consists almost exclusively of stone fields, which can quickly degenerate into a material battle. The Crossmax Enduro did well, as did the tyres.

Even after such a hard day they show no signs of fatigue and the rims are straight with no loss of spoke tension.
When it came to the tires, Mavic decided to develop separate tires for the rear wheel and the front wheel. The Charge, which is used at the front, compared to the Roam XL a much more aggressive and coarser profile. It offers a lot of grip on the front wheel in every situation and a high degree of comfort. The cushioning of the tire is thanks to the dual ply-Construction excellent and also offers good protection against punctures.

The Roam XL is something for experts in comparison. The flat profile rolls extremely well, which is particularly noticeable on the climbs. The All RoundCompound ensures good traction and leaves the tire looking fresh even after several months. In terms of grip and braking performance, however, it has its deficits. It tends to build up little traction when braking and often just slides over the ground. The level of grip also takes some getting used to. Together with Anne-Caroline Chausson and Jerome Clementz, a pure racing tire was developed here that is primarily designed for speed. Controlling it in corners is quite difficult.

In our long test phase we only had one flat tire. This resulted from a sharp stone on the tread and was quickly remedied.

The rear wheel rim suffered a little more damage. We had to make a note of seven dents after just under three months. What is remarkable, however, is that we did not have a penetration plate.

Conclusion

At 3640 grams, the total weight of the Mavic Crossmax Enduro system is average. However, the driving impression and durability is outstanding. It is not without reason that the wheels are popular components in the Enduro World Series and so they were able to convince with good running smoothness and high stability. The whole package including the tires is very race oriented, but that doesn't mean that the general enduro rider wouldn't do well with the system. At 800 euros, however, they also add up quite heavily.