- Braking: you can read about elsewhere, but your mileage may vary. My view is that it's very good in the dry but passable-to-crappy in the wet. Similar views can be found for any carbon wheel: some find theirs ok, some say it's just terrifying, for every brand. Mind you, modulating on a descent to scrub off a bit of speed is no problem, but if you need to execute a rapid stop at the limit of tyre adhesion, caliper brakes on carbon wheels just don't get there. I had a couple of scary moments myself on shitty UK roads in a sportive, where a wet descent suddenly ends in a T-junction - you can just run out of room, if you don't know how far ahead you need to stop. Frankly, am not a fan of braking in the wet on aluminums either - it's also crap, for the same reason, even if braking distances are shorter. This is pretty much the only reason I am looking forward to the next bike being disc - safety, shorter braking distances, etc. In the meantime, I'll try swisstop black-prince to see if there is improvemenet.
- I like that the tyre is designed with the wheel. 25mm tyres fit these wheels nicely, with a very tight wheel-tyre interface, without much of a bulge (the wheel is 24mm wide, so there is a bit - and I imagine if Mavic widened the whell by 2mm, aero performance would be better).
- You can obviously run any tyre with the wheel, but I do like Mavic USTs. They have thicker thread, than Hutchinson 11storm equivalents, so also heavier -260g. I think that's a worthy compromise vs slighly longer longevity and puncture protection. Rolling resistance is very low. Do they cut up? Yes, you will have cuts in your thread on shit roads with lots of flints. Do they puncture? I found no more so than GP 4000SIIs. Anectodally, on an early spring sportive, riding with a buddy on GP 4000SIIs, I had one puncture, he had 5 (I had never seen so many roadside stops as on that sportive, it was insane). My puncture was from a lodged flint around 7mm across, which would have done in any tyre. It sealed, after pumping it up with a hand pump a couple of times, but I eventually replaced it because the seal resulted in a bump in the tyre. Overall time to wait for the seal to set was a bit longer than replacing a tube. On the plus side though - there may have been a number of smaller punctures that self-sealed, and which I simply did not notice. I use Orange Seal, and it is good. Have not tried Stan's.
- The wear on tyres is ok. One issue I found is that if you lock up your rear wheel a few times on really hard braking, the tread can partly separate from the carcass, creating what they call blistering in auto racing. Not a good thing! Bottom line is that I am now on a third rear, but still my first front, and the front has no visible wear.
The one issue I found, is frankly to do with replacement. UST was meant to make this all easy, but I am not so sure - tubetype tyres are still way easier. Putting tyres on is fine, although I have not been able to do this without use of any levers as in GCN video. But who cares - there is no tube to damage with a lever! They also inflate ok - on my first replacement I was able to "seat" the tyres with just a floor pump. Second replacement, when I also replaced a valve, there were too many leaks and I had to use a compressor. Sealant take a bit of time to stop all leaks, but once it does, all is well. However, taking the tyre OFF the wheel is a whole 'nother story! Once seated and sealed, it's almost as though the tyre is glued to the rim. I've had to use pliers a couple of times to "peel" it off, and forget doing it just by hand - your best scenario is that stepping on a tyre with a foot and pulling on the rim will do the trick. Levers will not "jam" between the tyre and rim until that initial segment is peeled. So.... the idea that you can do a roadside emergency repair of a tybeless tyre and, if need be, pop in a spare tube is a bit delusional, IMO. It's just too much faff. You need to (1) take off the tyre (see above), (2) remove and replace the tubeless valve - which will also be "glued in", and then reassemble with the tube. Basically, if the sealant has not worked - it's a taxi ride home, and it's better to carry extra sealant with you (along with a valve core remover tool) than a spare tube, but perhaps just unnecessary to carry anything other than a handpump.