What high end late '80's mavic rims ?

[shawnb]

I know next to nothing about period correct mavics for my new '89 retro build ! What wheels should I be looking for that were the top few models in the late '80's early '90's ? To match the bike they would ideally be the dark grey colour they did and clincher style.

Thanks in advance

 

[orbeas]

Mavic

The rims you need are MA 40 which are the dark grey ones for clinchers.
The mk 1 have red Mavic labels
the Mk2 have yellow ones

 

[shawnb]

Thanks, just found a few pairs on ebay

 

[kula]

How about Open 4CDs, I had them in the early nineties and they are still going strong. Had the rear rebuilt from a mavic screw on hub to a cassette recently.

 

[burrotaxi]

Mavic rims hierarchy / timeline

Just bought some Open 4 CD's, Velobase suggests they may be earlier than MA40's. Anyone know the timeline between these two and the hierarchy. Would be good to know for future builds.

Cheers

 

[bushpig]

Open 4CDs are both contemporaneous and later. The sick rims to get are MA50s

 

[shawnb]

Thanks for the info.
MA40's abundant, open 4cd's rare, MA50's only one (nos) set on ebay, £300 shipped from Floriduh but with shimano hubs.

Hate using ebay but it's really the only option these days.

 

[kula]

Am sure someone will be along to correct us all, but mine were from the early nineties built onto Mavic sealed bearing hubs, damn nice wheels which I had a Dura Ace freewheel. I would certainly say that these were in the OPs opening request for 80's or early 90's rims. I think they look better than MA40s. As for being too contempory, I had some quite deep V rim wheels in the late 80's so V rim profiles were about.
To be honest in my experience of the late 80's a real racing bike, i.e one to compete on within Road Races or Time Trial would have had tubs, at that time MA40s were viewed as touring type rim, and from memory there weren't an abundance of light weight wire ons.

 

[roadking]

Am sure someone will be along to correct us all, but mine were from the early nineties built onto Mavic sealed bearing hubs, damn nice wheels which I had a Dura Ace freewheel. I would certainly say that these were in the OPs opening request for 80's or early 90's rims. I think they look better than MA40s. As for being too contempory, I had some quite deep V rim wheels in the late 80's so V rim profiles were about.
To be honest in my experience of the late 80's a real racing bike, i.e one to compete on within Road Races or Time Trial would have had tubs, at that time MA40s were viewed as touring type rim, and from memory there weren't an abundance of light weight wire ons.

I gave up using tubs when Michelin introduced the Hi-Lite - looks like a tub, performs like a tub.

I first bought them around 1985 for my then new build SBDU. MA40s were viewed then as a strong wheel for heavy roads - not just a touring rim.

Still have several new sets of Hi-Lites; bought a job lot from a shop that was closing down.

Roadking.

 

[kula]

I used an early offering from Hutchinson, which joined with the Open4CDs provided a good training wheel, at this point in the early nineties I didin't think the wire ons were good enough to race on, so keep tubs on my race wheels.
Appreciate your experience was probably different to mine, but when racing the Mavic GP4 or SSC was good for heavy roads. I had a pair of GP4s for training where I used a heavy tub, until the open4CD and better wire ons became available.