On Saturday, May 9, 2020 at 2:45:48 AM UTC-7, sms wrote:
On 5/8/2020 5:05 PM, Mark J. wrote:
Didn't see that one coming.

Mark J.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mav...tery-takeover/


https://www.pinkbike.com/news/mavic-...in-france.html

Nearly two years ago the previous owner stated "Mavic's legacy aluminum
wheel business weighing down Amer's cycling results."

You can't survive selling mainly high-cost, limited volume, products
when you have all the manufacturing capacity.

Do you have any idea that Mavic supplied over half of the high end aluminum wheel business? People STILL prefer aluminum wheels for any number of reasons and you can make an aluminum wheel lighter than a carbon fiber wheel unless you want to take unwarranted chances with those CF wheels. CF spoke tension has to be at least that of an AL wheel and that can pull a spoke nipple through. There are means to avoid that but I haven't seen it on any of even the high end CF wheels.

So whoever has Mavic has a very popular Kyserium line of wheels. They have to upgrade to aluminum aero wheels - China is already doing that but the designs aren't quite correct and Fulcrum does know how they should be built.

The Chinese have essentially taken over the CF deep section wheel business. Anyone that is paying $1,500 to save 100 grams is pretty stupid. That leaves the market wide open for the many advantages of AL aero wheels. Better spoke tension, better braking, less chance of burning off the brake track under hard braking. Disk brakes will not end up taking over. Direct mount rim brakes will.

Does the bicycle industry intend to hand the wheel making business over to the Chinese after having built them the automatic spoke tensioners so that there is no labor left in building wheels?