Mavic

For many of us, Mavic's trademark yellow brings to mind winning races. A lot of them. For the uninitiated, Mavic has been at the forefront of plenty of technical innovations for bicycles, including some that might surprise you. The first aluminum bicycle rim may not be a surprise, seeing as wheels are Mavic's best known product group. What surprises plenty of people is that Mavic introduced the first electronic bicycle drivetrain in 1992, roughly a decade and a half before the technology caught on with consumers in a big way. It's probably less surprising than the French brand's brief foray into airplanes in the '80s, but it's surprising nonetheless. And Mavic upped the bar again with the 1999 Mektronic groupset, which was both electric and wirelessly controlled. That was the same year that UST was introduced, which ushered in the era of tubeless mountain bike tires. We could go on, but you get the idea—this is a brand that's been far ahead of the curve for a very, very long time.

Today, Mavic builds wheels and tires, pedals, and a range of helmets, clothing, and accessories that runs the gamut from sleek road racing pieces to full-coverage clothing informed by enduro racing. UST Tubeless technology has been refined to near perfection, making for easy installation and fantastic reliability on the trail. Iconic mountain bike products like the Crossmax and Deemax lines get better every year, with new options to suit the evolving tastes of racers and recreational riders alike. Ditto for the road line, with the Carbone series being a perennial favorite among professional and amateur racers, and the Ksyriums remaining a highly durable training wheel that gets pressed into race duty with uprising regularity. But that's what you get when you pair a drive for perfection, a history of excellence, and the input of riders at all levels of the sport—products that define their respective categories, and offer tangible benefits to real world users.