I'll be honest here - essentially these wheels were a second choice for me. I wasn't really planning on getting a pre-built wheelset at all, but I couldn't find a decent set of rims the width I wanted, or get hold of the Hadley hubs I was hoping to use. I was also pretty distrustful of the idea of proprietary straight-pull alloy spokes; I figured that with a bit of abuse they'd almost certainly snap, and they'd be a nightmare to get hold of if this happened.

However since I had a biking holiday looming so I ordered them anyway, along with two packs of spokes so I'd have spares whatever one I snapped...
...all that said, though, I have been very pleasantly surprised.

I've been using them since early June, riding primarily at trail centres, but also for two weeks' daily use in the Alps, doing everything from rocky DH tracks to day-long XC trail rides. They have needed no truing whatsoever, and the two packs of spokes I bought are still lying un-opened in my toolbox so no breakages! I've been running the wheels with tubes and regular tyres so I can't comment on their UST compatibility, but I have just ordered a set of tubeless tyres, so once I've tried them for a bit, I'll post an update here.

After about 6 weeks, once they'd bedded in a bit, I did need to tighten the rear hub bearing up a touch. This was dead easy though - no disassembly required, and no need to even take the wheel out of the bike - just tweak the bearing cap with the supplied pin spanner, just enough to leave the slightest bit of play (which is taken up when you sit on the bike, according to the tech guys at Mavic).

All in all I've been really impressed by these heavy duty (though not heavy weight) wheels. Obviously they're not designed to be super light, weighing in at 854g and 1017g for front and rear (including skewer) although they are a bit heavier than the claimed 1755g for the pair. However it seems they've kept most of that weight at the hubs, as they feel as sprightly on the trails as my old Hope/XM719 wheels and they're so much stiffer! I didn't think I'd notice much difference, but power transfer at the back feels snappier than I was used to and front wheel tracking is incredible over roots and rocks. The rear QR skewer's top notch too with a very easy throw but loads of clamping force.

At £660 they're not cheap, but I actually feel they're seriously good value. As a near bomb-proof, superbly versatile all-mountain wheelset, they can't really be faulted.

Rich

Link to front / Link to rear