In the world of cycling, it’s hard to find a brand quite as emblematic as Mavic. With its trademark yellow and black logo, Mavic is synonymous with the sport and has been at its heart, both as innovator and benefactor, for well over a century.

Formed in 1889 by two Frenchmen, Charles Idoux and Lucien Chanel, the brand lays claim to a host of firsts for the cycling industry: the first aluminium rim, the first disc wheel, the first electronic groupset, the Dura alloy rims that weighed only 750g, and the tri-spoked 3G wheel that helped take Chris Boardman to Olympic individual pursuit gold in 1992.

Then there’s the neutral service, which arguably cemented the brand in cycle sport legend. It was 1972 when Bruno Gormand, then chairman of Mavic, proposed providing technical assistance to riders regardless of their teams, and it was 1973 when Paris-Nice became the first race to have neutral support.

Mavic went on to support the Tour de France for over 40 years, its yellow and black motorbikes and cars a constant sight, whizzing alongside the peloton, laden with extra bikes and wheels.

But three years ago, everything changed. Mavic no longer provides neutral support for the Tour or for any other ASO race for that matter.

‘The contract with ASO came up for renewal at the time of our difficulties and so we weren’t able to pay,’ explains Michel Lethenet, a former mountain bike journalist who is now Mavic’s global PR manager. ‘But it is also true that ASO raised the price dramatically. Perhaps it is for the best and we can see it as an opportunity that we are no longer tied to that contract.’

Survival of the fittest

The ‘difficulties’ Lethenet alludes to are three turbulent years that jeopardised the brand’s very existence and saw Mavic’s stature in the cycling world diminished.

In May 2020 Mavic was placed into receivership by a Grenoble court because it was in serious financial trouble. The company had six months to find a buyer or faced having its business shut down and its assets liquidated.

To add insult to injury, there were questions over who actually owned the brand. Amer Sports Group sold Mavic in 2019 to an American private equity company, Regent LP, but the way the private equity company was set up meant it wasn’t clear who the actual owner was.

Among much furore, the worker’s union demanded to see the full accounts and condition of sale. A few months later, and after much publicity, Mavic was bought by French investment firm the Bourrelier Group, granting the brand a second life and returning it full circle to French ownership.

‘There were 14 buyers to choose from but being bought by a French company felt like the right move for us and we retain our French heritage,’ says Lethenet.

The sale also guaranteed the retention of the Mavic rim factory in Saint-Trivier-sur-Moignans, 130km west of Annecy in southeast France, which Cyclist visited in 2015. But taking over a financially stricken business has ramifications.

‘For the new owners the only solution was to divide the manpower by two,’ says Lethenet. ‘Before the takeover we had a 250-strong workforce but they only kept about 110 people so this had a big impact on our resources and our ability to maintain our ranges.

‘We had to completely reorganise the clothing side of the business as we lost the material sourcing and production means, which we were sharing with Salomon [also owned by Amer]. Clothing used to account for 20% of the turnover but since then it has dropped.

‘Our wheel range was also downsized. Back in 2018, we had 35 different wheels and sometimes the difference was just the spoke, with maybe a 10g difference. The other solution would have been to buy a product and put our label on it, but that’s not the way Mavic works.’

Having been rescued from liquidation, the rebuilding of Mavic included moving to a shiny new headquarters in Annecy, complete with testing facilities, service centre and factory. The brand moved into the new HQ in January 2022 but there wasn’t enough power for all the staff and machines to work in the building. Those who could worked from home until February, when another generator was added. The temperature outside was -10°C.

Despite this glitch, Lethenet says the building is testament to Mavic’s ambitions.

‘There are no offices on the top floor – it is just a big empty room – but we hope to fill it up once we start to grow again. The plan is to go back to the level we were at five years ago and the building is designed to adapt to our recovery.

‘The Mavic from before only cared about margins, but now we are going right back to basics and focussing on quality and high performance,’ Lethenet adds.

As I wander around the new building, the brand’s heritage is on full display, with wheels and bikes decorating the walls, marking important moments in history and, of course, there’s even an original service car. It’s also striking to see the century-old Mavic logo from 1923 frequently in use.

Wheel of fortune

The Mavic of today is focussed on wheels, and the new facility at Annecy is where its latest creation – the Cosmic Ultimate 45 Disc – is made. Three years in development, the Ultimate is the wheel that the manufacturer hopes will return it to the top table and underpins its newfound focus on making everything in Europe.

Sebastian Lejeune, research and development product manager at Mavic, is the brains behind the new wheel. ‘We use five different types of carbon fibre and 71 pieces of carbon to create the wheel, and we have a team of ten people who build and assemble the Ultimate. It is a very particular job as we have designed the whole process and machines ourselves, so each person has gone through three to four months of training,’ he says.

‘Every wheel takes eight hours to assemble, and when you add in the baking process it adds up to between one-and-a-half to two days to make one wheel.’

Which could explain the £3,575 pricetag. And Mavic will be banking on selling enough of the new Ultimates to pay back the investment that came with the recent change of ownership.

‘We had to explain to the new owners all about the new Ultimate and convince them they needed to invest in the people and the machines,’ says Lejeune. ‘But we were also kind of lucky because it happened during Covid-19 so everybody had slowed down anyway.’

Having come back from the brink of bankruptcy, it is no surprise that Mavic is conscious of its future sustainability, and not just the financial sort.

‘We know that recycling carbon fibre is a big issue, and at the moment the whole process in the industry is not ready yet, but we are looking for ways to compensate for this,’ says Lejeune. ‘Like with the new Ultimate, if you break something we can cut all the spokes, remove them and reuse the rim. It’s not perfect, but it is a lot better than previous models.’

‘If we have to scrap something, usually it will be about 400g to 500g of carbon fibre, which is nothing compared to the tonnes that are being scrapped by bigger consumers, such as in the aviation industry,’ adds Maxime Brunard, Mavic’s head of product management.

‘The fibre could be recyclable if it was separated from the resin, which at the moment can only be done at very, very high temperatures, which uses a lot of energy and so in the end is not worth it. For us the best solution is to make sure that the wheel is durable and strong enough so, unless you crash, there is no reason for the wheel to lose its performance.

‘Unlike aluminium, carbon has a very good resistance to time, it doesn’t fatigue so you’ll keep it forever, which is why we offer a lifetime warranty. Nothing can really go wrong unless we messed up, and in that case it’s covered under warranty.’

But for a company that has struggled financially, and so nearly went out of business, how commercially viable is a lifetime warranty?

‘It’s a little bit like a fridge in the 1950s,’ says Brunard. ‘There was a time when everybody wanted to have a fridge so there was a huge market and you just replaced it when it wore out.

‘Then there are trends, things become outdated and, at some point, people will want a newer version. Maybe next time we’ll find a way to make it another 100g lighter with a wider rim or a different shape.’

High spirits

Those that I talked to at the new Mavic facility in Annecy are plainly delighted that the brand is back in French hands and focussed on the job of wheel production once again, and they have confidence in the company’s future, but it isn’t out of the woods just yet.

‘We are still not profitable, but we are working on it,’ admits Lethenet. ‘We are rebuilding from the ground up and that takes time because we have fewer people and less means than we had before. For sure we have lost momentum and we have made mistakes, but we will regain the confidence of consumers. It’s the Mavic spirit and it is still very much alive.’

Wheels of time

A quick dash through the history of the Manufacture d’Articles Vélocipediques Idoux et Chanel – or Mavic to you and me

1889: Charles Idoux and Lucien Chanel form Mavic and focus on spare parts.

1934: Mavic creates the Dura tube rim, the first bicycle rim constructed from aluminium alloy, which weighs 750g.

1973: The brand starts focussing on wheels and launches its neutral support service.

1975: Mavic designs the double-hook-bridge rim to seat a high-pressure tyre, developed alongside Michelin.

1985: The Comete carbon fibre disc wheel is launched, marking a new era of aerodynamics and lightweight construction.

1994: Mavic becomes part of the Salomon Group and is no longer French-owned.

1997: Introduction of the 3G wheel with three profiled carbon spokes.

1999: Mavic launches the first wireless electronic groupset, Mektronic.

2005: Amer Sports Group buys the Salomon Group, including Mavic.

2008: Mavic launches its range of cycling clothing, shoes and accessories.

2017: Mavic celebrates 40 years of Tour de France partnership.

2020: Mavic is acquired by the Bourrelier Group and returned to French ownership.

Ultimate fighter

Will the Cosmic Ultimate 45 Disc be the wheel that puts Mavic back on top?

Mavic’s latest wheelset is among the lightest in its class at 1,255g, but the company insists the Cosmic Ultimate 45 Disc is more than just a number on a set of scales.

‘The new Ultimate doesn’t favour extreme light weight above all else,’ says Maxime Brunard, head of product management. ‘Instead we chose to balance inertia against lateral stiffness to ensure the wheel provides excellent all-round performance.’

By modern trends, the wheel could be said to be conservative, with its hooked rim walls and 19mm internal width. Many brands are now opting for hookless rims and ever-wider internal dimensions to better suit wide tubeless tyres, but again Brunard suggests the Ultimate is aimed at what consumers actually want. ‘We don’t believe that all customers are ready to be limited by 75psi or only use 28mm tyres, so we haven’t gone hookless or super-wide with the wheel’s internal width.’

Cosmic Ultimate 45 Disc specs

Géraldine Chenard / Mavic

Weight 1,255g per pair (575g front, 680g rear) • Material Carbon fibre • Rim height 45mm • Internal rim width 19mm • External rim width 28mm • Disc brake-specific • No tape tubeless profile • Spokes 10 R2R unidirectional carbon fibre on each wheel • Price £3,575

• This article originally appeared in issue 138 of Cyclist magazine. Click here to subscribe