Has anyone out there ridden the new Mavic R-Sys wheel yet? The few articles I’ve read online have already got my bike upgrade juices flowing.

I spent some time on them this past week.....

and...............

The Colorado Cyclist has a demo set and the sales guy I talked to said that they are super-stiff, unlike anything he had ridden before. CC claims to have em' in stock.

Definitely solid wheels, but they didn't blow me away. I don't know, maybe it's the fact that the front wheel was pretty far out of true after a pretty casual ride. I guess I'll say I just wasn't crazy about them.

I see no reason for these wheels other than the perpetuation of the trend whose driving force is the "idea" that stiffer is better. These wheels are not aero and not particularly light weight. According to one big Mavic dealer, a fairly common complaint from Pro Tour riders as well as people within Mavic itself was that these wheels ride too harshly. Yeah, that's second, third, or fourth hand information, so take it for what it's worth. However from an analytical point of view, the idea that a significant amount of energy is bled off in the flex of wheels is untenable.