Mavic Cosmic Carbone Ultimate review | BikeRadar
A friend is selling these for a great price, now im tempted to have them and use them for crits or whatever. Ive got no experience with tubs though, but are they a cool addition if nothing else?
What are the main pros and cons? Has anyone got a pair?
1805g is quite heavy by modern standards. I don’t think a great price exists for 16 year old heavy rim brake tubulars. Unless that price is “free”
I don’t see much long-term benefit of having relatively heavy, quick-release, rim-brake, tubular wheels.
For some, those are great wheels though. 
Mavic seems to have a good following when it comes to older wheels…
That was with tires!
These Mavics would be great on a vintage show bike like an old Colnago.
I honestly think a more modern, wider inexpensive Chinese wheel would perform way better. I bought a set of Farsports 25mm wide tubeless wheels six years ago and they have been amazing. I get a perfect aero profile with 25mm tires on my older bike that will not take wider tires.
They are a big PITA to glue and a double PITA when you get a flat. Fast tubeless tires have much lower rolling resistance and that is why they now ride them in the Tour de France.
Just to highlight that the weight given in the article are with tubs fitted. Take that off and they are reasonably light. That being said unless you have a hankering to try tubulars it’s probably not worth it.
The aero is outdated, the braking surface won’t be on par with the most recent carbon rim brakes and tubulars are slower than the latest clinchers. I wouldn’t bother 
Good catch. Looks like the tires they used (in 21mm, at least - not sure about the article) were around 255g. So still the wheels alone are on par with a modern 40/45mm deep wheel. But that modern wheel is probably more aero and can run much much wider tires.
Road tubular is more dead than rim brakes! They’re super cool wheels, no doubt, but unless they’re nearly free, there’s so many better more modern options. “Aero” back then meant a narrow, straight wall that was absolutely brutal in any crosswind.
Most people I knew with tubs only race on them. You can’t exactly swap it out on the side of the road when you get a flat. They’re only really used in cyclocross these days, and even there, tubeless options are close to making them a hard sell. I’m down to one set and have no plans for more wheels if/when I kill these
Thanks. That’s that then!
I do want some nice rim brake wheels though…ideas on a postcard 
If you want an allow wheel
If you are looking for carbon, I’ve had a pair of Zipp Firecrest that I paired with some Swiss Stop brake pads. The breaking is dry was surprisingly good. In rain it was super sketchy. I have not tried them but I heard the last generation of Enve rim brake wheels had really good braking (though apparently they would go through pads pretty quickly)
Rim brakes arent dead… but tubulars are.
Look for some carbon clinchers, or some carbon-with-alloy-brake surfaces. HED, Shimano, Zipp, plenty of good stuff out there. I ran carbon rim brake wheels for ages tubeless and thought htey were great.
In terms of carbon braking. Campagnolo Red Brake pads are by far the best rim brake pads around. Trust me on that one!
Have a look at Scribe® Cycling: High Performance Bike Wheels – Scribe Cycling When I wanted a good set of rim braked, light and aero wheels at a good price, I went there on a recommendation of a friend who has had them since pre lockdown.
